Giving children the nasal flu vaccine can help protect them once morest strep A, UK analysis finds Health Security agency.
UKHSA data shows at least 19 children have now died following Strep A across the UK, as there are 7,750 cases of scarlet fever so far this season. That’s more than triple the 2,538 cases reported during the same period in the last relatively high season – the winter of 2017-18.
Last week the UKHSA has urged parents to get their children vaccinated once morest the flu following a 70% rise in hospitalizations flu patients under the age of five in one week, and an 11% drop in vaccination among two- and three-year-olds compared to the past two years.
Misinformation is circulating on social media, especially on TikTok, wrongly linking the childhood flu vaccine to streptococcus A.
Dr Elizabeth Whittaker, of Imperial College London, told reporters this week that because strep A can be a complication of the flu, the flu vaccine protects once morest both influenza and streptococcus A.
Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, consultant epidemiologist for vaccination and countermeasures at UKHSA, said: “Children who get the flu are at greater risk of later infections, including group A strep. [GAS], so these results provide even more reason for parents of eligible children to nominate them for the flu vaccine. This is especially important at this time when we are seeing unusually high rates of group A strep infection in the population.
The study revealed the incidence of Streptococcus A was lower in pilot areas where the nasal flu vaccine was offered to all primary school children, compared to areas where it was gradually rolled out.
Among children two to four years old, SGA rates were 73.5 per 100,000 children in the pilot areas, compared with 93 per 100,000 in the non-pilot areas. Among children aged 5 to 10, the rates were 50.3 per 100,000 in the pilot areas, compared to 57.8 per 100,000 in the non-pilot areas. There was no difference in reports of scarlet fever or invasive group A streptococcus (iSGA).
The spike in Strep A infections came as the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) issued severe shortage protocols (SSPs) for three penicillin drugs amid increased demand for antibiotics.
Pharmacists and GPs in the UK have faced serious supply difficulties penicillin and amoxicillin, antibiotics used to treat infections, including strep A. As a result, parents said they had to visit several pharmacies to have their sick children prescribed drugs, while the price of certain antibiotics has risen sharply – a according to pharmacists, the situation has left them facing losses.
