Grieving mother of boy who died with Strep A describes symptoms – as another child dies with infection
A Year 8 pupil at a school in southeast London has died after contracting Strep A – as another bereaved family revealed the symptoms their son experienced in his final days.
Colfe’s School wrote to parents on Thursday to inform them a student had died after developing the infection.
Sky News understands that the pupil was in Year 8 and over the age of 10. Current UKHSA figures on Strep A deaths only account for cases in the under-10 age group, with six deaths reported as of Friday.
It comes as families who have lost children to the disease warn others about the symptoms to look out for.
Speaking to Sky News’ Sadiya Chowdhury, Muhammad Ibrahim Ali’s mother, Shabana Kousar, said the first sign of her little boy being unwell was a red rash across his lower back.
A full course of antibiotics appeared to help the four-year-old, but when his symptoms persisted two weeks later, she was given Calpol for him.
Ibrahim’s condition worsened and he developed stomach pains.
He died in an ambulance en route to hospital in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
A week later, his post-mortem test results showed he had Strep A in his blood.
Ms Kousar told Sky News that people should be more aware of the initial symptoms.
She said: “I believe parents should be made aware of the symptoms and act on it if their child is experiencing something similar”.
Ibrahim and his aunt Azra Ali. Pic: Azra Ali
Azra Ali, Ibrahim’s aunt, told Sky’s Sadiya Chowdhury that the government “needs to provide the correct guidance to local authorities”.
She said: “I’m worried that the public are still unaware of how serious this is as we’ve been told on the news that it’s very rare that children die from this strep A, but unfortunately they’re forgetting that we’ve had six deaths within the space of two weeks and I believe more are to come if the government don’t act quickly.”
Sky News has asked Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board to comment on the case.
The highly contagious bacterial infection is often relatively mild and causes scarlet fever, but can be deadly if it enters the bloodstream and other parts of the body.
Parents are being urged to be vigilant and look out for symptoms which include: pain when swallowing, fever, swollen tonsils with white patches, swollen neck glands, a high temperature or a skin rash.
Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist from The University of Reading, said: “The only way of being sure that somebody has got Strep A infection is to take a swab from the back of their throat and culture it in a laboratory.”
He added that while the “initial signals” are good indicators, “they are not proof and people should see their doctors”.
Hanna Roap, a seven-year-old girl from Wales, also died after contracting Strep A.
Her father, Abul Roap, told The Telegraph that his daughter was prescribed steroids for her cough and “never woke up”.
He said Hanna “did not get the right medication” and said if she had been given antibiotics “it could have been potentially a different story.”
Read more:
What is Strep A and what are the symptoms?
Strep A is common so why the spate of deaths now?
Girl, 4, in critical care with Group A Strep
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Strep A outbreak in charts
‘Living in an absolute nightmare’
Dean Burns’s daughter, Camila Rose Burns, has been fighting for her life on a ventilator at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool since Monday after she contracted the infection.
He told Sky News he’s been “living in an absolute nightmare” since his daughter was taken to hospital.
“She’s still nowhere near out of the woods, she’s really, really poorly,” he said.
Mr Burns, who lives in Bolton with his family, said there was a sickness bug going around Camila’s school, so they kept an eye on her over the weekend.
He explained that she had been complaining about her chest hurting.
After one visit to the hospital on Saturday, where doctors prescribed an inhaler and said she could go home, her health deteriorated on Sunday, and they rushed her into A&E.
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‘I thought it was a bad sickness bug’
While Strep A can be a serious illness, if treated promptly with antibiotics it is less of a threat.
According to the UK Health Security Agency there were 851 cases in the week to 20 November, compared to 186 on average in the same week in previous years.
It advises those who come down with the illness to exclude themselves from nursery, school or work for at least 24 hours after they start antibiotic treatment.
The UKHSA has said the increase in cases is likely the result of the withdrawal of measures implemented during the COVID pandemic.
Dr Clarke added: “It strikes me that as we are seeing with flu at the moment, lack of mixing in kids may have caused a drop in population-wide immunity that could increase transmission, particularly in school age children.”
Birmingham band UB40 say the city’s striking bin workers and their union should “keep fighting” in their dispute over pay.
It comes as the government and the council urged them to accept a “fair and reasonable offer”.
“We’re fully on their side,” drummer Jimmy Brown told Sky News. “I think they shouldn’t give up, they should still be fighting.
“Working people shouldn’t have to take a reduction in their incomes, which is what we’re talking about here.
“We’re talking about people being paid less and it seems to me with prices going up, heating, buying food, inflation and rents going up then people need a decent wage to have a half decent life… keep going boys!”
Members of the Unite union in Birmingham earlier this month. Pic: PA
Workers joined picket lines again on Thursday, with some fearing they could be up to £600 a month worse off if they accept the terms.
“We have total utter support for the bin men and all trade unions,” said guitarist Robin Campbell.
“The other side is always going to say they’ve made a reasonable offer – the point is they’re the ones who’ve messed up, they’re the ones who’ve gone bankrupt, they’re the ones now trying to reduce the bin men’s wages.”
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Lead singer Matt Doyle told Sky News: “It’s a shame that what we’re seeing is all the images of rats and rubbish building up, that is going to happen inevitably, but we’ve just got to keep fighting through that.”
About 22,000 tonnes of rubbish accumulated on the city’s streets after a major incident was declared last month by Birmingham City Council.
Rubbish has blighted the city’s streets for weeks . Pic: PA
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Bin situation ‘pains me’ – council boss
On a visit to the city, local government minister Jim McMahon said the union and local authority should continue to meet in “good faith” and the government felt there was a deal that could be “marshalled around”.
He paid tribute to the “hundreds of workers” who have worked “around the clock” to clear the rubbish.
Read more:
Bin workers urged to accept ‘fair’ offer
Military planners help with bin crisis
“As we stand here today, 85% of that accumulated waste has been cleared and the council have a plan in place now to make sure it doesn’t accumulate going forward,” said Mr McMahon.
Sky News understands talks are not set to resume until next week.
Trans women in British Transport Police custody will now be strip searched by male officers – not female – following Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling.
The force said it is introducing an “interim position” while it digests the Supreme Court’s decision that the definition of a “woman” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to “a biological woman and biological sex”.
A British Transport Police (BTP) Authority spokesman told Sky News: “Under previous policy, we had advised that someone with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) may be searched in accordance with their acquired sex.
“However, as an interim position while we digest today’s judgment, we have advised our officers that any same sex searches in custody are to be undertaken in accordance with the biological birth sex of the detainee.”
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In September last year, BTP, which is responsible for policing the UK’s railways and similar transport systems, published its “position” on transgender and non-binary officers carrying out strip searches.
It said officers would “only be able to search persons of the same sex on their birth or gender recognition certificate (GRC).
Officers who identified as another gender but who did not have a GRC were not allowed to, but if a trans woman had a certificate, they could strip search a female detainee.
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Gender ruling – How it happened
Strip searches involve the removal of more than a jacket, outer coat, gloves, headwear and footwear.
They “expose buttocks, genitalia and (female) breasts”, the BTP guidance says.
The Sex Matters campaign applied for a judicial review of that guidance with the High Court in December.
It said the policy “puts detainees at risk of sexual harassment and sexual assault”, and said it was a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment.
Sex Matters said the policy “also puts female officers in a humiliating and dangerous position, as they may be pressured to search trans-identified men”.
Read more: NHS must stop trans people being allowed on single-sex wars
Campaigners celebrated outside the Supreme Court after Wednesday’s ruling. Pic: PA
One of the High Court judges who made Wednesday’s decision, Lord Hodge, said the ruling should not be read as “a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another”.
Government minister Karin Smyth told Sky News public bodies have been told to look at how equality laws are implemented following the ruling.
She said: “Obviously, public bodies have been asked to look at their own guidance.
“And we will do that very, very carefully.”
But she warned against public bodies making statements “that may alarm people”, telling them to take their time to look at their guidance.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said the ruling means there is “no confusion” now.
She said the NHS will “have to change” its 2019 policy, which says transgender patients are entitled to be accommodated on single-sex wards matching how they identify.
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