Th
e comments below are taken from an article published last month is the Medscape Medical News.
I think all parents with school aged kids should read it.
Current national and state public health recommendations stipulate that children should not return to school for at least 24 hours after testing positive for group A streptococci and beginning antibiotics. Yet a recent study in the Pediatric Infect Dis J. Published online August 20, 2015, came to a different conclusion.
The researchers from Vienna, Virginia, enrolled 111 children who had throat cultures positive for group A streptococci between August 2013 and March 2015. After throat cultures were obtained the children received an initial oral dose of amoxicillin. Between 12 and 23 hours after the first dose, all children returned for another throat culture. Of the 111 treated kids, 101 (91%) had negative throat cultures on the follow up culture, seven had only a few colonies of strep, and only two continued to have positive cultures for strep. (They did not mention what happened to the tenth child.)
The investigators concluded: All children treated with amoxicillin for “strep throat” by 5 PM of day 1 may, if afebrile and improved, attend school on day 2.
I think this is reasonable, but the key phrase is “if afebrile (without fever), and improved.” There is no better way for assessing a child’s readiness for school than looking at them. And any mother or dad who has know the child in sickness and in health is as able as any doctor to know when that is. There is no substitute for experience.
Here’s wishing all a healthy winter, and remember to get all your family members flu shots.