Strep A kills more children than Covid did in its first year

Strep A bacterial infections have now killed more children than Covid did during the first year of the pandemic, figures have shown.

At least nine children in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have died of iGas, a severe form of Strep A infection caused when the bacterium gets into the bloodstream.

In comparison, only eight youngsters died following a coronavirus infection in those countries in the whole of 2020 - leading to fears that the immunity debt from pandemic restrictions will end up killing more youngsters than Covid itself.

As early as 2020, experts warned that limiting contact, shutting schools and insisting on masks would prevent children from encountering bugs that would prime their immune systems, leaving them more vulnerable to infections.

Professor Carl Heneghan, director of the University of Oxford's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, said: “At some point the immune deficit brought about by lockdowns has to be repaid.

“In terms of the high levels of Group A Strep infections there have been notable increases in cases in the past, however what is different this time is the high levels of viral co-circulation in the community, and the high number of deaths in children.”

This week Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), also confirmed that restrictions meant infections were circulating at greater levels.

On Monday, the UKHSA issued an urgent memo to GPs and hospitals warning that current invasive Group A streptococcus (iGAS) infections were “unusually high” and called for a “low threshold” when prescribing antibiotics.

Doctors and the UKHSA are particularly concerned that co-infections with Covid and other viral and bacterial infections circulating in the community is making the Strep A situation worse.

Professor Michael Levin, chairman in paediatrics and international child health at Imperial College London, warned that vaccine levels had slumped, leaving children at greater risk of catching multiple illnesses.

“There's growing evidence that bacterial infections are affected or made more likely by viral infections,” he told The Telegraph.

“So there's quite likely to be a change in the frequency and severity of some bacterial infections as a result of the changed immunity levels in children and also probably as a result of the circulating Sars-CoV-2, the Covid virus.

“We're currently seeing an upsurge in streptococcal infection. The precise reasons for this are not known and need research, but it is probably a reasonable speculation that it's in some way related to the changed immunity to common viruses and some sort of interaction between viruses and bacteria.”

Medics warned that emergency departments were becoming overwhelmed by the numbers of children needing help.

One anonymous NHS consultant told the BBC that doctors were running out of room to treat the growing number of paediatric patients.

“What we're seeing at the moment really is unprecedented levels of activity throughout A&E departments,” he said.

“I've been a consultant for years now and I've really never seen things as bad as this.

“I work at a paediatric A&E department. Sometimes you can barely move for all the patients in the waiting area have nowhere to sit. People standing holding their children in corridors.” There isn't a physical place to see them.”

So far, seven youngsters have died in England, one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland.

The Government is currently considering whether to give preventative antibiotics to entire classes of schoolchildren to tame the outbreak.