Cases of scarlet fever are at three times their usual levels with over 7,500 infections seen across the UK, a senior health official has confirmed.
Scarlet fever is one of several infections that can be caused by Group A Strep bacteria. While the bacteria usually causes mild infections that can be treated with antibiotics, in rare cases it can become invasive and cause life-threatening illnesses.
The most common initial symptoms of scarlet fever are a temperature, sore throat and swollen glands which tend to be followed by a sandpapery rash that spreads from the chest and tummy, while a red and swollen "strawberry tongue" is also a distinctive sign of the infection. Despite the soaring number of cases, health officials are understood to believe that the number of scarlet fever cases have not yet peaked, meaning infection levels are likely to continue rising.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today show, the UKHSA's chief medical adviser Professor Susan Hopkins said: "The latest with scarlet fever and Strep A infections are that we’ve seen about just over 7,500 notifications of scarlet fever, and that’s probably an underestimate. We have a lot of reports coming in from the last few days so we expect it to be even higher.
"That’s about three times higher than the same time in a normal season," she explained. "The last bad season we had in 2017 and 18.
"And in invasive Group A Strep cases, we are more than halfway through what we’d normally see in an average season. We’ve seen 111 cases in children aged one to four and 74 cases in children aged five to nine."
Data from the UKHSA released earlier this week confirmed that at least 19 children have now died in the UK from an invasive form of Strep A infection since September, with 16 deaths recorded in England and three more across Wales and Northern Ireland. Professor Hopkins confirmed that the UKHSA is continuing to investigate the reason behind the rise in cases.
"We would not say we’re convinced of anything yet," she said. "I think we’re seeing this season much, much earlier.
"We’ve got a lot of children who have not had this infection over the last three years, so there’s more susceptible children who have not started to develop their immunity to this infection, which we get repeated times over the course of our lives. Of course, we’re always looking for other reasons.
"Has the bacteria changed? Are there any other changes in that might have occurred that are causing this? So while we think at the moment the most likely explanations from everything we’ve looked at is the fact that this relates to lack of exposure for a period of time, we will keep an open mind and look elsewhere."
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