Important message for parents about scarlet fever and Group A Strep (GAS)

Posted on December 8th, 2022

We know you may be worried about GAS so we wanted to share with you a new NHS app developed by paediatricians to help you decide when something is worrying and you should seek help and when it is safe for you to manage your child’s illness yourself.

The app is useful for a whole host of other conditions as well.

Apple App store – https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/healthier-together/id1507487185

Google Play store – https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cenigma.healthiertogether

Web – https://what0-18.nhs.uk/

GAS is a bacteria that causes lots of different infections.  By adulthood we will all likely have had it at least once in some form.  Lots of us carry GAS in our throats or on our skin for periods of time and know nothing about it.  We aren’t ill and after an average 10 weeks our bodies get rid of it.

When it does make us ill, GAS is usually a mild infection that gets better either on its own or with simple treatment and the child can remain at home.

In rare cases GAS can cause an invasive infection (iGAS) which is where a normally sterile part of the body becomes infected. iGAS is serious and requires urgent treatment in hospital. This is what current news reports are concerned with.  Thankfully, the number of cases of iGAS being reported are still significantly below those for an average year.  However, the story has come to the fore because numbers of cases have been extraordinarily low in the last couple of years due to COVID-19 measures interrupting transmission.