UKHSA Update On Scarlet Fever And Invasive Group A Strep

17th March 2023

Latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) on scarlet fever and invasive group A streptococcus cases.

The latest data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows that scarlet fever infections and invasive group A streptococcus (iGAS) infections remain high, although they have significantly reduced since the peak in December 2022.

High levels of activity at such an early point in the season remains a concern, with further increases possible in the coming weeks as we move towards the usual peak time of the year for infections. While iGAS is still very rare, notifications remain relatively high in children compared to what we typically see - these rates are more in keeping with the previous high season of 2017 to 2018.

There continue to be increased notifications in older adult age groups, and as in previous seasons, the majority of iGAS cases have continued to be among those aged over 45 years, particularly in those aged over 75 years.

So far this season (from 12 September 2022 to 10 March 2023), there have been 49,372 notifications of scarlet fever. In the last comparable high season (from September 2017 to September 2018) there were 30,768 scarlet fever notifications overall across the year.

iGAS infections remain rare but are currently higher than expected in a typical year. So far this season, there have been:

2,415 iGAS cases across all age groups, compared to 2,898 across the whole of the last comparably high season in 2017 to 2018
575 iGAS cases in children aged 18 years and under compared to 205 cases in the 2017 to 2018 season

Sadly, so far this season, there have been 319 deaths across all age groups in England. This figure includes 40 children aged under 18 years in England. In the September 2017 to September 2018 season, there were 354 deaths in total across the season, including 27 deaths among children aged under 18 years.

Scotland
The Group A strep (GAS) surveillance data show that while there is an out of season increase in cases of GAS being reported in Scotland; most infections are mild.

Although increases in GAS have been reported in recent weeks in Scotland, the more serious Invasive GAS (IGAS) infections remain stable and similar to previous years.