Re: Scarlet Fever?+Amoxicillin=Hives?

On 5 Apr 2005 15:36:23 -0700, "Sbharris[atsign]ix.netcom.com"
<sbharris@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>I suppose the lesson is that, if the major reason by most antibiotics
>are to be given to children with sore throats is to prevent rheumatic
>heart disease, then everybody should be strep-tested from the word go.

Well, not necessarily, because the strep test cannot distinguish
between a patient actually suffering from strep pharyngitis, which
carries the small risk of causing rheumatic fever, and a strep
carrier, which generally does not. The vast majority will be false
positives if everyone is tested, which is why the pre-test probability
must be high before the test is run. There are various clinical
scoring systems in the pediatric and family practice literature for
determining if the probability is high, but it basically boils down
to: Fever, headache, sore throat, and absence of cough. (Except young
children often have vomiting and do not complain of sore throat --
they simply stop eating, which symptoms, altogether, are quite
nonspecific nonspecific.)

No guesses on the most common cause of acquired heart disease in
children in the present era?

PF
.

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