More than 30 cases of scarlet fever have been discovered in Nottinghamshire over the last week as at least 16 children were confirmed to have died of invasive Strep A across the UK. The latest figures by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show that 1,131 people in England and Wales have been infected with scarlet fever in the week ending December 4, which is up 991 infections from the previous week.
Official figures show that there has been a post-Covid surge in cases of scarlet fever this year, which is a manifestation of a Strep A infection. Between July and December 2022, there were 11,089 cases of scarlet fever, which is almost a 10-fold increase from 1,338 cases over the same period of 2021.
Additionally this is nearly 20 times higher than the 577 cases in 2020. Covid-19 restrictions have had a knock-on effect of reducing the prevalence of many other contagious illnesses and infections, but the number of cases in 2022 is also more than double than those reported in the three years prior to the pandemic.
