Liz Whittaker, consultant in Infectious diseases at St Mary’s Hospital in London, talks to us about Group A Strep in children.
Over the past month or so the UK has had a huge surge in invasive Group A Streptococcal infection in children. Trainees up and down the country have rapidly been able to sign off their chest drain competencies, due to the huge amount of normally fit and well children presenting with empyema.
Is this year’s outbreak unusual? Why has it happened: is this a post COVID phenomenon, or something else? Which viruses are involved in making this infection more likely? Who should have flu vaccine, and why is there controversy about the nasal vaccine?
Why do patients react as they do, and how should we treat it? Which antibiotics? Should we give IVIG (here we go again….)? Should we give steroids, and in which situation?
Are there long term complications? Are we going to go back to the bad old days with rheumatic fever being a common condition, rather than something only suitable for textbooks and clinical exams?
What is the future for mask wearing: how much of this is rational, how much is cultural, and how much is simply polite?
And what is the frankly terrifying Zombie Bacteria Hypothesis?
Happy Christmas from the PicPod.
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