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Home > Portable Practical Pediatrics > Myths and Facts about Strep Throat (Pedcast)
Podcast: Portable Practical Pediatrics
Episode:

Myths and Facts about Strep Throat (Pedcast)
Category: Kids & family
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2017-07-02 17:29:57
Description: Introduction If you are a regular listener of Portable Practical Pediatrics, you've heard me say things like, "From mommy all the way to matriculation", if it involves children, we talk about it here. That's my way of saying that I take on a variety of topics in this blog.  Today is no exception. In today's podcast,  I am going to broaden your understanding of strep infections in children by telling you a story, a story that happened in my family almost a hundred years ago so stay tuned for a very interesting and historical edition of Portable Practical Pediatrics. Musical Introduction   The Story of Blanch Imagine you are a six year child and you have a five year old sister. The year is 1929 and your younger sister just came down with a sore throat, a fever, and is developing a rash. Your parents seem worried, very worried, and take her to the doctor who diagnoses your sister with scarlet fever, a relatively common form of strep throat that still exists today.  Since this is 1929, there is no penicillin, no clindamycin, or any other medication for that matter that can treat this infection-- and your parents and sister's doctor know that fact. Your sister's doctor makes some suggestions to help you dear sister get better, but in reality, her own immune system is all the healing power that she has available.  Your parents and her doctor know she has about a 20% of dying from her infection. Your sister's doctor recommends to your parents that they "treat her" by they leaving your sister's window open to let in fresh air (thought at the time to be vital to good health), that they lower her body temperature with alcohol baths since her fever was thought to be the actual disease, that they start placing a "mustard plaster" on her neck to draw the illness from her throat, and that they make sure that your sister wears an undershirt to keep warm.  Of course your sister was put in quarantine by the health department. You are sent to stay with relatives, banned from your own home and contact with your sick sister.   Even in 1929, doctors understood that scarlet fever was very contagious and often lethal.  Very sadly, the worst happens. Despite your parent's faithfully following all the doctors orders and giving your sister all the loving care and attention that they could, your sister dies two days later.  Your sister is now gone forever at the tender age of five years old and you are now an only child. Your parents are devastated and really never recover from the experience of their child's death, especially your mother.  Well, this is a true story and that six year old child was my mother who is now 93 years old.  Those events actually happened in her family in 1929 and she still gets emotional to this day when she talks about her little sister. Strep, A Brutal Foe The strep germ has plagued children for centuries.  Just listen to some of the terminology that developed to describe strep infections: scarlitina, erysipilus, impetigo, rheumatic fever, tonsilopharyngitis, omphalitis, and cellulitis. Sounds like you are reading words right out of a Dickens novel, doesn't it?  All this terminology was developed because strep infections have been devastating children for centuries, probably for millennia.  Fortunately, a myriad of microbiologists, physicians, and other scientists in the 20th century developed potent ways to stop the serious damaging effects of strep and convert it to a mostly nuisance  illness of childhood that it is today. But parents of young children still need to be knowledgeable about this potentially serious infection. In today's pedcast, I am going to give my listeners some background about the biology and potential complications of Group A beta hemolytic strep infections, also known as strep throat in children.  So, charge up that mp3 player, dust off your ear buds,  and get ready to pay close attention to this important edition of Portable, Practical, Pediatrics.
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