What is Strep A and what are the symptoms?
A fourth primary school aged child has died after contracting Strep A infection, health officials have confirmed.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said today that a pupil from St John’s School in Ealing, west London, had died from the bacterial infection, while the parents of a four-year-old boy from Buckinghamshire said he had died from Strep A.
It comes after a pupil from Victoria primary school in Penarth, four miles south of Cardiff, also died. Last week, a six-year-old died after an outbreak of the same infection at a school in Surrey.
Health officials are understood to have seen a slight rise in cases of Strep A, which can cause scarlet fever, though deaths and serious complications from the infection are rare.
Dr Yimmy Chow, health protection consultant at the UKHSA, said of the Ealing case: “We are extremely saddened to hear about the death of a child at St John’s Primary School, and our thoughts are with their family, friends and the school community.
“Working with Ealing Council public health team, we have provided precautionary advice to the school community to help prevent further cases and we continue to monitor the situation closely.”
