By Lucy Ashton
A team from the Royal Hospital for Children (RHC) have been given funding for an in-depth study into the Strep A outbreak among children at the end of 2022 and the beginning of this year.
At a time when health services across the country were facing significant challenges following the COVID pandemic, presentations of suspected and confirmed Strep A contributed towards unprecedented pressures on emergency services, and the number of families attending the RHC’s A&E to seek help for their children at the RHC’s A&E department reached record levels.
The study, which has been made possible by £20,000 in funding from Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, is being led by Dr Ross Langley, Paediatric Respiratory and Sleep Consultant at the RHC, and Dr Thomas Williams, Paediatric Respiratory Registrar at the hospital. The team hope to gain scientific insights into the disease, and inform hospital policies, both within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and across the country, should there be another peak of cases in the future.
The study will examine the increase in Strep A cases, and try to understand the higher rates and whether disease presentations for the infection have changed. It will examine the role that these cases played in attendances to the RHC A&E at the end of last year, and gain insights into why this record-breaking winter was worse than previous years. The team will also examine links to wider viral infection rates at the time, and conduct whole genome sequencing of the Strep A strains that caused severe disease.
Dr Langley said: “The Glasgow Hospital Children’s Charity funding will provide the resources to support our multi-disciplinary team from across NHSGGC, as they investigate the recent Strep A outbreak in more detail. We are hopeful that the results will inform clinicians, both locally and nationally, on how best to manage future outbreaks.”
Dr Williams said: “This winter saw an unprecedented number of children with severe group A streptococcus respiratory infections attend the RHC. We published these findings in the journal Lancet Infectious Disease [National case series of group A streptococcus pleural empyema in children: clinical and microbiological features – PubMed (nih.gov)].
“This funding from Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity will allow us to investigate why Strep A infections presented in this unusual manner this winter, and inform not just local hospital policies, but potentially also Strep A vaccine implementation in the future.”
Kirsten Watson, CEO of Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity is proud to be funding this vital study into the Strep A outbreak amongst children. We are committed to supporting research studies, having invested over £2million into paediatric research since 2014.
“We rely on the generosity of our donors, fundraisers and volunteers to enable us to support this incredibly important area of work.”