Concern grows in UK over child deaths from strep infection
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Five deaths of children under 10 years of age within seven days of being diagnosed with invasive streptococcus occurred in England and another in Wales. A number of British Daily Mail experts suggested that this could be a consequence of quarantines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
University of Reading microbiologist Dr Simon Clarke said “quarantine affects the immune system for illnesses like the flu.” It is possible that there was a decrease in immunity in the entire population, which could increase the transmission of infection in this age group.
“I don’t think it’s some terrible new strain,” Clarke said. If this infection is diagnosed quickly, he said, it “can be treated with antibiotics, and only in extreme cases hospitalization is required.” The expert expects more cases in the coming weeks and months.
Ian Jones, a professor at the same university, also believes that the drop in immunity during quarantine due to coronavirus may be partly to blame for the number of deaths from streptococcus. He speculates that “There may have been a decrease in natural immunity associated with quarantine” and school attendance has now increased.
Oxford University microbiologist and co-founder of the medical firm Pictura Bio, Professor Nicole Robb noted that such diseases are seasonal, so there is usually an increase in the number of infections in winter. But with “during the Covid-19 lockdown we all ‘lost’ immunity as our day-to-day interactions were virtually non-existent,” the prevalence of invasive streptococcus may now be exacerbated.
Welsh Public Health Communicable Disease Control Consultant Ardiana Gini said contracting group A streptococcal infection through contact is “very rare”. Typically, people who come into contact with the disease “remain healthy and asymptomatic” and only in some cases “develop mild infections of the throat or skin.”
All six children who died in a week were diagnosed with invasive group A streptococcus (iGas). The publication noted that 851 cases of this disease in children were registered in the last week, while in previous years there were 186.
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