Girl with Strep A remains in critical but stable condition

The four-year-old girl who was transferred to Israel with Strep A infection remains in critical but stable condition, health ministry spokesperson Constantinos Athanasiou told Alpha News on Tuesday.

The girl is currently being treated in an intensive care unit of the Tel HaShomer university hospital, after being airlifted from Cyprus.

“The health ministry is in constant communication with her doctors in Israel regarding her progress,” Athanasiou added.

The parents of the four-year-old tested positive for Covis-19 so the girl had to be accompanied by her aunt. They will fly to Israel as soon as they test negative.

The transfer operation was one of the health minsitry’s biggest ever operations and was facilitated with specialised equipment brought by the Israeli team.

The patient was accompanied by a large staff of doctors, a paediatric surgeon, and a nurse, both of whom are specialised in the use of the extracorporeal circulation machine, as well as a technician.

Before being given the green light to be airlifted, the health ministry said the girl was too ill to be transferred. This was after a paediatrician specialised in infectious diseases arrived from Israel on December 19 to treat the patient. The doctor left late the same night.

The girl is the first hospitalised case for invasive group A streptococcal disease following the recent outbreak and over a dozen child deaths in the UK.

The UK Health Security Agency has said there is an increase in infections, but that there was no evidence to suggest a new strain of the bacteria.