Several children in the UK have tragically lost their lives after contracting strep A in the UK in the past few days. One of these children has been named as Hanna Roap, a seven-year-old pupil at Victoria Primary School in Penarth.
Strep A goes by several names. It's usually known as group A streptococcus bacteria, but this can be abbreviated to GAS and is also known as streptococcus pyogenes.
You'll often hear about scarlet fever in connection with strep A. Scarlet fever is one of the diseases that can be caused by strep A bacteria, but the bacteria can be responsible for other diseases.
