Rhinorrhea, cough, oral ulcers or vesicles, conjunctivitis, stomatitis, and hoarseness all qualify as overt viral features
wo opposing camps—those who believe that we overidentify and therefore overtreat GAS carriers, and those who believe that we run the risk of undertreating true GAS pharyngitis—can both find support for their arguments in these study findings. The issue I can't shake is that 23% of the children with symptoms of pharyngitis who exhibited two or more viral symptoms were indeed positive for GAS. In some populations, that percentage is identical to the carrier rate, raising the question of whether we are merely detecting carriers among those with multiple viral features. However, there's no way to connect those dots in this study. So, although the study raises intriguing questions and provides interesting data to show that the chance of identifying GAS in children exhibiting several features of viral illness is low, the number with GAS is still significant and bears consideration.
wo opposing camps—those who believe that we overidentify and therefore overtreat GAS carriers, and those who believe that we run the risk of undertreating true GAS pharyngitis—can both find support for their arguments in these study findings. The issue I can't shake is that 23% of the children with symptoms of pharyngitis who exhibited two or more viral symptoms were indeed positive for GAS. In some populations, that percentage is identical to the carrier rate, raising the question of whether we are merely detecting carriers among those with multiple viral features. However, there's no way to connect those dots in this study. So, although the study raises intriguing questions and provides interesting data to show that the chance of identifying GAS in children exhibiting several features of viral illness is low, the number with GAS is still significant and bears consideration.
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