The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has published an update on scarlet fever and invasive group A streptococcus cases.

The latest data shows that scarlet fever notifications are in line with what is generally expected at this time of year, and have significantly reduced since the peak in December 2022.

This season, from 12 September 2022 to 16 April 2023, there have been 54,394 notifications of scarlet fever. In the last comparable high season, September 2017 to September 2018, there were 30,768 scarlet fever cases overall across the year.

Cases of invasive group A streptococcus (iGAS) are slightly higher than normal for the time of year and remain relatively high in children compared to what is typically seen.

The majority of iGAS cases have continued to be among those aged over 45 years, particularly in those aged over 75 years, as has been the case in previous seasons.

So far this season, there have been 2,965 iGAS cases across all age groups, compared to 2,898 across the whole of the last comparably high season in 2017 to 2018 and 701 iGAS cases in children aged 18 years and under, compared to 205 cases in the 2017 to 2018 season.

There have been 401 deaths from any cause recorded within 7 days of an iGAS infection diagnosis across all age groups in England, including 47 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.