A child has died in a small town in southern England after a particularly severe bacterial infection. According to multiple media reports, a six-year-old schoolchild died from an invasive infection caused by group A streptococcus. The child may have contracted scarlet fever, a disease caused by such pathogens.
A fatal course of this disease is considered rare. Symptoms can include high fever, diarrhea, vomiting, mucosal bleeding or septic shock. You can get infected directly or indirectly – for example through droplets and mucus when coughing and sneezing.
The reports do not reveal the exact symptoms suffered by the deceased child. Another child had to be taken to a hospital but is said to be recovering.
The location of the infection was a primary school in the community of Ashford, which is on the outskirts of London near Heathrow Airport, it said. Employees and students at the facility are now to be given antibiotics as a preventive measure.
Infections with streptococci are not uncommon and often not dangerous. However, as in this case, it can be very severe and fatal. According to the BBC, the number of streptococcal infections in England has increased since the corona protection requirements were relaxed.
Ruth Hutchinson from the local health authority was deeply saddened by the death of the school child who is said to have been in first grade. “Our sincere condolences go to the family, friends and everyone at the school,” she was quoted as saying in several reports. The situation is being monitored and the school advised so that similar cases cannot be repeated in the future.
Sources: BBC, The Independent, The Mirror, Deximed GP knowledge online
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