The worried father of ‘the poorliest girl in England’ has described his four-year-old daughter’s Strep A infection as ‘the worst thing that can happen to anyone’.

Little Camila Rose Burns was dancing on Friday evening with friends but by Monday  fighting for her life on a ventilator at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.

Her father, Dean Burns, said her condition rapidly deteriorated last weekend, from feeling ‘a little under the weather’ on Saturday, worse still on Sunday and requiring emergency care by Monday.

Six children have now died of Strep A this winter, health bosses revealed yesterday, as the killer bug sweeps Britain.

Cases of the infection — which is usually harmless — are nearly five times higher among infants than before Covid struck.Leading experts fear the toll will only get worse in the coming weeks. 

Mr Burns said: ‘When we got here Monday, they said she’s the poorliest girl in the whole of England… she’s basically not the same girl any more.It’s heartbreaking.’

During a visit to see Camila, Mr Burns said she initially ‘didn’t look too bad’, which gave him some hope. 

But within a short period of time, Camila ‘completely changed’. 

‘She was restless.We shouted some nurses down, and we had to leave the room, they put her to sleep, and she’s been on a ventilator ever since, keeping her alive,’ he added.

‘It’s the worst thing that can ever happen to anybody.’

Now, the ‘special little’ four-year-old is in the fight for her life.Mr Burns said he’s told her how much everyone loves her, and said everyone is hoping for a miracle.

Mr Burns, 44, told the Mail: ‘The pain that she feels and that we all feel, you can’t even imagine it. It’s the worst pain in the world.’

‘I wake up every day now and it’s that dread, just knowing that she’s in there and that she’s suffering.We go into the hospital and we just say ‘come on, come on, we need you to live, you have to get better.’

Mr Burns and in1play his wife Kaye, 39, took their daughter into hospital last Saturday when she started complaining about her chest hurting.

A sickness bug had been going around her school, but Camila was sent home from the hospital as her condition did not appear serious.

But when Mr and Mrs Burns checked on their daughter at 3AM on Monday morning, they found her lying in black vomit and rushed her straight into hospital.

Camila’s Strep A quickly turned into sepsis, the body’s life-threatening reaction to infection, and although her condition is not as dangerous as it was on Monday – she is still on a ventilator to keep her alive.

He said: ‘I keep thinking why did they send her home, was that my fault?Would she be better now if I had kept her there?

‘These last couple of days we have just been so completely broken. My wife was holding it in but these last couple of days with all the news coming in about other children with Strep A has just made it all so difficult and so real.

‘I owe those nurses and doctors everything, they saved her life but she is still clinging on for it.’

Pleading to other parents, Mr Burns said: ‘If your child has any symptoms at all don’t hesitate, get your little boy or girl and just go into hospital right away.’

He added: ‘Just keep praying for us please, and keep praying for all the other children and parents who have been affected by this horrible illness.’

‘Everyone’s saying prayers for her, hoping for a miracle she lives.She needs to live, she’s such a special little girl. I can still hear her singing… it’s too much,’ he said.

Infectious disease specialists yesterday warned that lockdowns may be to blame for the surge in cases, with young children shuttered away during the pandemic having less immunity towards the routine bug.

Only two of the victims have so far been named.Muhammad Ibrahim Ali, four, is one of five to have succumbed to the virus in England. 

Hanna Roap is the only child to have died from Strep A in Wales during this year’s outbreak so far.

The common bug — spread in the same way as Covid, through close contact such as sneezing, kissing and touching — can cause scarlet fever, tonsillitis and impetigo.

But it can also trigger a flesh-eating disease or sepsis in the most severe cases.

Data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) show cases of the most serious kind of infection, called invasive group A strep (iGAS), are exceptionally high for this time of year.

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS health" data-version="2" id="mol-a13bb680-7262-11ed-8f53-05bbad959b40" website reveals daughter, 4, is on ventilator in hospital with Strep A