Instances of the contagious disease scarlet fever are now standing at eight times higher than the last infectious season, official figures are showing. While the number of scarlet fever notifications has started to fall, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warns that the 'Strep A' bacteria that causes the infection is "still circulating at high levels".
According to a recent report in the Mirror, there were 37,068 notifications of scarlet fever between September and January 8 — compared with 4,490 at the same point in the year during the last time instances were comparably high — five years ago, in 2017-2018. Statistics are also showing that infections of the Invasive Group A Strep remain rare but are higher than in a typical year.
This season there have been 1,539 cases across all age groups, compared with 2,967 across the whole of the last comparably high season in 2017 to 2018, resulting this time in 190 deaths in England — including 30 children under 18. Five years ago, there were 355 deaths, including 27 children.
