According to The Lancet, An estimated 288.6 million episodes of strep A strep throat occur in children worldwide each year.
In the past five years, between 1,500 and 2,300 people have died annually from invasive group A strep disease.
The mother of an eight-year-old boy has denounced, in England, that her son has died of pneumonia after contracting group A streptococcus. According to local media, the boy’s mother claims her son was sent home from hospital twice despite “suffocating” on the hospital waiting room floor before later dying of strep A.
The boy’s mother, Sajida Jabeen, 39, said doctors gave her son Mohammad Izaan doses of ibuprofen and a nebulizer before realizing the severity of his condition two days later.
The mother-of-three said she had waited six hours on two separate occasions at the Bradford Royal Infirmary Hospital as she pleaded with doctors to take her symptoms seriously.
Ms Jabeen said the extent of her son Mohammad’s illness had only been noted at a GP appointment, prompting her to rush him to hospital for treatment.
Shortly after three weeks, after contracting strep A and pneumonia, he passed away. Ms Jabeen declared herself “angry” that doctors had not treated him before her, after the hospital confirmed that she would open a “thorough investigation” into her death.
Treatment for strep A
According to the New York State Department of Health, Group A strep bacteria can be treated with common, inexpensive antibiotics. Penicillin is the medication used for mild and severe cases. In the case of patients allergic to penicillin who present mild cases, erythromycin can be used, although some cases of occasional resistance have been reported.
Clindamycin can also be used to treat penicillin-allergic patients with a more severe attack of the disease; this drug can also be added to treatment in cases of necrotizing fasciitis or STSS. There are other antibiotics that are also effective.
In addition to antibiotics, care in an intensive care unit, and in some cases surgery, are necessary for these diseases. Early treatment can lower the risk of death even though, unfortunately, even appropriate therapy may not prevent death in all cases.
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