Five more children have died from Strep A over the past week, according to the latest figures. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) says 21 children have now died in England from the bacterial infection, as well as two kids in Wales and another in Northern Ireland, taking the total to 24.
So far this season (from September 12 to December 18) there have been 27,486 notifications of scarlet fever. This compares to a total of 3,287 at the same point in the year during the last comparably high season in 2017 to 2018 – although cases in that season started to rise at a different point.
In 2017 to 2018 there were 30,768 scarlet fever notifications overall across the year. Invasive group A streptococcus (iGAS) infections remain rare. So far this season, there have been 126 iGAS cases in children aged 1 to 4 compared to 194 cases in that age group across the whole year of the last comparably high season in 2017 to 2018.
