A SCHOOLCHILD has died from a rare bacterial infection just days after a six-year-old girl was killed.
The youngster, who was a pupil at Victoria Primary School in Penarth, Wales, died earlier this week after contracting the highly infectious Strep A.
In a joint statement, the school and Vale of Glamorgan Council confirmed the child’s death, reports WalesOnline.
It said: “Both the school and council would like to pass on their heartfelt condolences to the family at this incredibly difficult time.
“Support is being provided to staff and pupils by the council’s team of educational psychologists and information from Public Health Wales has been circulated to parents where appropriate.
“It is unlikely that other pupils will be affected by the illness and severe symptoms are extremely rare.”
It comes after two more cases of Group A streptococcal infection, also known as Strep A, were confirmed at a school close to the one attended by a six-year-old girl who died from the infection.
The Year 1 pupil at the Ashford Church of England Primary School in Ashford, Surrey, died on November 22.
All the pupils and staff at the school were given strong antibiotics by specialists from the UK Health Security Agency.
The UK Health Security Agency has now been notified of cases of Strep A in Year 1 and Year 6 at nearby Echelford School – while a third pupil has closely-related condition scarlet fever.
A letter is understood to have been sent to all parents of kids at Echelford, informing them they had switched off drinking water fountains and were monitoring pupils carefully.
Senior staff at Echelford reportedly said they had been advised that children should continue to attend school as normal and parents should not be overly alarmed.
They assured they would continue to review and increase their focus on hygiene throughout the school and were increasing hand hygiene and cleaning of key areas.
A spokesman for the UK Health Security Agency said in response to the latest confirmed cases: “As part of our public health response to last week’s tragic news, we issued some general information about the signs and symptoms of scarlet fever, which is not uncommon, to schools in the vicinity of Ashford Primary.
“A number of other illnesses typically circulate at this time of year and parents, school and nursery staff are advised to be aware of the symptoms, to keep up with vaccinations and to seek advice from NHS 111 if they have concerns.”
The bacteria – sometimes known as strep throat – usually causes a sore throat or skin rash and is passed by physical contact or through droplets from sneezing or coughing.
In very rare cases, the infection can become invasive and enter parts of the body where bacteria aren’t normally found, which can be serious.
