Devi Sridhar is right when she says strep A is a treatable infection if identified and managed early on with the use of antibiotics (Strep A is circulating in the UK – and so are myths about what’s causing that, 6 December). The increased media coverage can only help raise awareness of this terrible condition among the public and the medical profession, hopefully preventing more deaths.
In March 2020, my three-year-old granddaughter’s strep A infection sadly wasn’t identified, despite her visiting her GP surgery and A&E on five occasions before the sixth and final visit by ambulance to her local hospital. The postmortem identified an invasive strep A infection that had caused sepsis.
I don’t wish to be critical of the NHS because it does an amazing job under challenging conditions, but I am sure that if she had been given antibiotics at that first GP appointment she would be with us today.
My family and friends now raise funds to support the UK Sepsis Trust and Sepsis Research (Feat) in raising awareness of this treatable condition. We feel hopeful that we can prevent another family going through the devastation we have. We love and miss her so much every day. She is always in our thoughts.
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