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Strep throat question
I believe my daughter has been given incorrect information by a friend to
the effect that her son, who had his tonsils removed, cannot now get strep throat. Since he has a sore throat today and a low grade temp, she is concerned about taking him out of the house tomorrow (Xmas). Her doctor will not see him today. Any advice would be appreciated. |
#2
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Strep throat question
"Don MacCluskie" wrote in message
t... I believe my daughter has been given incorrect information by a friend to the effect that her son, who had his tonsils removed, cannot now get strep throat. Your daughter WAS given wrong information; those who've had their tonsils removed can still get strep throat, even though a tonsillectomy might reduce, somewhat, the likelihood. Since he has a sore throat today and a low grade temp, she is concerned about taking him out of the house tomorrow (Xmas). Her doctor will not see him today. Most sore throats are caused by viruses. If your daughter is very concerned (both for your grandson and others with whom he'd be in contact), perhaps she could take him to a free-standing medical clinic (we have some in our area called "EmergiCare"), to the county health dept. lab, or to a hospital lab (her pediatrician might be willing to phone in a request for a strep test). All should do a throat culture at a reasonable cost, and she should get the results within minutes (from a "rapid" strep test). Good luck! (Here's a very good article on strep throat: http://www.medicinenet.com/Strep_Throat/page1.htm) |
#3
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Strep throat question
On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 16:49:50 GMT, "JG" wrote:
Most sore throats are caused by viruses. If your daughter is very concerned (both for your grandson and others with whom he'd be in contact), perhaps she could take him to a free-standing medical clinic (we have some in our area called "EmergiCare"), to the county health dept. lab, or to a hospital lab (her pediatrician might be willing to phone in a request for a strep test). All should do a throat culture at a reasonable cost, and she should get the results within minutes (from a "rapid" strep test). In our case, for holidays and Sundays, we have decided as a group that it is reasonable to phone in an order for a rapid strep swab to a hospital laboratory without seeing the patient if the history is compatible and there are no concerning symptoms by history of something more serious such as, say, a peritonsillar abscess. I must say, though, that doctors at Quik-E-Mart-type urgent care clinics (we had "Primacare" in Texas) are the ones who, in my experience, are more likely to look at a throat and skip the lab test, declaring, "Yup, it looks like strep," and prescribe antibiotics. Then downstream, of course, panic ensues and all the other neighborhood kids and/or classmates go to their own doctors with mild symptoms but reporting a history of "exposure to strep." I have noticed personally that when a patient comes in for sore throat claiming a history of "exposure to strep" he almost NEVER has it himself. I think a positive history of strep exposure seems to DECREASE the pre-test probability of strep (seriously -- the history of exposure is less predictive than the triad of fever, headache, and sore throat without cold symptoms), but, of course, you then feel obligated to do the test since that's what they came in for, thereby lowering its positive predictive value, increasing false positives, and perpetuating the perception that a massive strep outbreak is occurring when it's not. PF |
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