When should you go in for a sore throat?
NiteOwl (and the rest of the community/country) is currently seeing an overwhelming amount of cases of streptococcal pharyngitis (AKA strep throat).
Strep throat can present with the following symptoms: sore throat, headache, tummy ache, vomiting, fever, swollen lymph nodes, white patches on tonsils, and rash.
Some younger children may complain of neck or mouth pain if they don’t know how to describe their pains yet.
The current strain of Group A strep circulating has proven to be resistant to the usual treatment of penicillins, has been presenting differently than normal (as it may not be associated with red/swollen tonsils or fever; some kids have just regular cold symptoms like cough and runny nose which is unusual with strep), and strep can progress rapidly into more serious complications.
Not all complaints of sore throat will be strep. A lot of the known viruses also cause pharyngitis. The CDC reports 3 in 10 kids with a sore throat are streptococcal positive. But this does not mean you should dismiss your child’s complaint of a headache, tummy ache, or sore throat, just because they don’t have a fever.
We have seen dozens of kids positive for strep in the past 4-6 weeks without a history of fever.
Untreated or partially treated strep (i.e. not finishing the antibiotic course as prescribed) can lead to Group A Streptococcal moving to other parts of the body. The bacteria that causes strep throat can affect the heart, kidneys, or joints. Once the bacteria spreads to other areas of the body, the child may need to be hospitalized. The CDC reports a mortality rate for these rare complications of strep to be 30-70%.
It is very important to get your child checked out immediately if they are showing any of these symptoms. Strep can be diagnosed with a quick throat swab, and results are given in less than 10 minutes.
NiteOwl is open evenings and weekends for urgent care when your pediatrician is unavailable. We promptly send our notes and your child’s test results back to your pediatrician within 24 hours. We think it’s very important for there to be NO gap between Urgent Care and Primary Care, and to keep your pediatrician up to date for continuity of care.
#strep #strepisserious #urgentcare #niteowlpediatricurgentcare #northaugusta #JUSTFORKIDS #locallyowned
Citations: https://www.cdc.gov/groupastrep/diseases-hcp/Streptococcal-Toxic-Shock-Syndrome.html#:~:text=Despite%20aggressive%20treatment%2C%20the%20mortality,from%2030%25%20to%2070%25.&text=Mortality%20from%20STSS%20is%20substantially%20lower%20in%20children%20than%20adults.; https://www.cdc.gov/groupastrep/diseases-public/strep-throat.html