Australia experienced an “intense surge” in paediatric strep A cases last year, according to an analysis of surveillance data, with no signs of cases abating in 2023.

Researchers led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne report that cases of invasive group A streptococcal disease (iGAS) in children and teenagers jumped from 23 in 2020 to 107 in 2022, with Indigenous patients disproportionately affected.

This coincided with a similar surge seen in the Northern Hemisphere “despite differences in seasons and circulating respiratory viruses”, they wrote in The Lancet Regional Health — Western Pacific.

They tracked the epidemiology of iGAS in under-18s from July 2018 to December 2022, identifying a total of 280 cases (median age 4.5) at five major paediatric hospitals in Victoria, Queensland, WA and the NT.