'Seek help': Urgent strep A warning amid medicine shortage

An expert has called for people to make themselves aware of strep A symptoms amid a spike in deaths related to the disease.

Nine people died from the infection in 2022 in Queensland, while infections rose 30 per cent.

Infectious disease expert Dr Paul Griffin told Today that while the germ was "not particularly uncommon", it could cause severe disease in vulnerable people, such as children or the elderly.

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"What we really need at the moment is awareness because we have antibiotics that can make a huge difference," he said.

"That's why we need people to understand what the symptoms are so they seek help quickly."

Common symptoms include a rapid onset of a sore throat, pain when swallowing, fever, red and swollen tonsils sometimes with white patches or streaks of pus, and tiny red spots on the roof of the mouth.

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Anybody with these symptoms should contact their GP immediately.

The call for awareness comes as Australia also grapples with a reported antibiotics shortage.

"It's not like we don't still have antibiotics to treat infections like this, but we now have to go to second line antibiotics which can be more complicated, have an unnecessarily broad spectrum or be more expensive," Griffin said.

"This is a big issue for us and highlights that we do need to address it and hopefully look at maybe having some local manufacturing of really important medicines like this."