NOS/Jeroen van Eijndhoven
NOS News•
Danny van Zeggelaar
editor online
Danny van Zeggelaar
editor online
In the past year, more children than usual have had a serious infection with so-called group A streptococcus bacteria. This is reported by the Juliana Children’s Hospital in The Hague, which has examined the figures with six other hospitals. Yesterday it appeared that there are also concerns about the bacteria in the United Kingdom.
In the second quarter of this year, 28 children with a serious infection reported to the hospital. There were nine in 2019 and two in 2018. The infections mainly occurred in children under 5 years of age.
A total of 61 children with a serious group A streptococcal infection ended up in hospital after the lifting of the corona measures. Five of them did not survive the disease, a remarkably high number according to the hospital.
Coronaperiode
According to pediatrician Mirjam van Veen of Juliana Children’s Hospital, the high number of infections may be due to the corona measures. “We see the increase mainly in children under five years old,” she says. “During the corona period, those children were precisely in the period when you have to build up resistance. And that has happened much 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 become ill 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 clearly different now.”
The infection is usually treatable with antibiotics. “But sometimes it is the case that children can become very ill very quickly,” says Van Veen.
Chicken-pox
According to the pediatrician, it seems that the more serious cases of group A streptococcal infections are related to other diseases. This concerns, for example, the chickenpox. “These are blisters on the skin. But the skin is actually open afterwards and then the group A streptococcus can enter it. That can then cause a nasty infection.”
Influenza (flu) also seems to be linked to the streptococci. “Then a serious infection develops. First there is influenza, with fever and cough. But very occasionally you see in a few days that children get sick again, get a fever and then pus enters the pleura. That can be treated with antibiotics, but sometimes surgery is also necessary.”
The advice to parents is to be alert. “If a child becomes very ill again after chickenpox or develops an inflammation of the skin, then that is something to be alert to,” says Van Veen. “Fortunately, most children with a fever have an innocent infection. We advise parents to look at Thuisarts.nl in the event of a fever, for an explanation of what parents should pay attention to.”