HEALTHWATCH : Strep Throat Cases Rise Across County

Strep throat--a little infection with a nasty reputation. As children, we hear stories about it, how it starts out simply enough, with symptoms common to a cold, but can end up being something much worse. Because we are so young, we don’t fully understand.

As adults, many of us still don’t have a full handle on strep.

“I don’t want to cause panic,” said Dr. Chris Landon, head of the Pediatric Diagnostic Clinic at Ventura County Medical Center. “But we need to worry more about strep throat.”

The vast majority of strep can be treated with an antibiotic. However, depending on the particular strain of streptococcus, when strep goes untreated it can lead to rheumatic fever, an abscess of the throat, or other more serious conditions.

Over the past several weeks, doctors throughout the county have seen an increase in the number of cases of strep throat.

“It can appear like a little epidemic,” said Stewart Brooks, a Simi Valley pediatrician, who saw an increase in cases in May.

Dr. Michael Stone, co-director of the Santa Paula Clinic, said that over the past three weeks he has seen about twice the usual number of cases of what he thinks is strep throat.

“It’s mostly in young, grade-school kids,” he said. “Strep is very contagious.”

So far, all of the cases Stone has seen have been routine. “We haven’t had to have anybody admitted for severe airwave stricture,” he said.

Because it is so contagious, strep throat is more common in children, who are in close contact with one another, than in adults. Strep is also commonly spread among family members.

“We had one family that kept getting it over and over. We had everybody on penicillin at once,” Landon said. “It turned out to be the dog that was slobbering on everyone.”

Signs of strep can include sore throat, associated with a fever of about 101 degrees, a rash, puss on the tonsils, increased lymph nodes under the jaw, and a stomach ache. Landon said strep can often be mistaken for the common cold.

Though few cases of strep throat will actually develop into more serious problems, doctors stress the importance of treating it promptly because of the potential complications.

“Once a year we have a case of pneumonia associated with strep,” Landon said. “We will occasionally see people with acute rheumatic fever.”

Landon said the subtypes of bacteria that can lead to rheumatic fever are less common than they once were. “But they are certainly still around,” he said, “and people can go on to have heart and kidney problems.”

Landon said he sees about two cases of rheumatic fever related to strep throat each year. These are cases, he said, that were not treated until about 10 days into the illness.

One more note: If a child comes down with strep throat six times in a 12-month period and still has his or her tonsils, Landon said, the child might be better off having the tonsils removed.