More children with strep infection, possible effect of the pandemic

• Danny van Zeggelaar

  online editor

In the past year, more children than usual have had a serious infection with the so-called group A streptococcus bacteria, reports the Juliana Children’s Hospital in The Hague, which has reviewed the data with six other hospitals. Yesterday it emerged that there are also in the UK they are concerns on bacteria.

In the second quarter of this year, 28 children with a severe infection were taken to the hospital. There were nine in 2019 and two in 2018. The infections occurred mainly in children under 5 years of age.

A total of 61 children with severe group A streptococcal infection ended up in hospital after the corona measures were lifted. Five of them did not survive the disease, a remarkably high number according to the hospital.

According to pediatrician Mirjam van Veen of the Juliana Children’s Hospital, the high number of infections could be due to the coronavirus measures. “We see the increase especially in children under five,” she says. “During the corona period, those children were right at the time where you have to build endurance. And that happened a lot less.”

According to Van Veen, it was initially thought that the increase in the number of infections would slow down in the summer. “But we’re actually seeing the increase continue this year.”

There doesn’t seem to be any other variant. “When children get sick with group A streptococci, this is reported and the bacteria are cultured. There they characterize the different variants. We have no explanation that it is now clearly different.”

The infection is usually treatable with antibiotics. “But sometimes it happens that children can get sick very quickly,” says Van Veen.

According to the pediatrician, it seems that the most serious cases of group A strep infections are related to other pathologies. This concerns, for example, chickenpox. “These are blisters on the skin. But the skin is actually opened afterwards and then group A strep can get into it. This can then cause a really bad infection.”

Influenza (flu) also appears to be linked to strep. “Then a serious infection develops. First there is the flu, with fever and cough. But very rarely do you see that within a few days the children get sick again, have a fever and then pus enters the pleura. This can be treated with antibiotics, but sometimes surgery is also needed.”

Advice to parents is to be careful. “If a child gets sick again after chickenpox or develops inflammation of the skin, then that’s something to watch out for,” says Van Veen. “Fortunately, most children with a fever have a harmless infection. We advise parents to get up early if they have a fever Thuisarts.nl for an explanation of what parents should pay attention to.”