A Study of Illness in a Group of Cleveland Families

Group A Streptococci Among School-Aged Children: Clinical Characteristics and the Carrier State

“…In previous longitudinal studies like our own, carriage rates were reported to be extremely high (up to 25%). [7][8][9][10] In contrast, carriage rates evaluated in clinical practice or as part of a therapeutic trial were reported to be 2.5% to 11.5%. [24][25][26][27] Our study showed the prevalence of carriage to be 27% to 32% over the course of a school year, with an average point prevalence of 15.9% for any given month of the study (range: 4.2-26%).…”

“…[7][8][9][10] However, the lack of available antisera and molecular typing systems when those studies were performed prevented precise tracking of infections. In 1 study, as many as 90% of the GAS isolates were nontypeable.…”

“…Previous studies of large cohorts of children were performed before the availability of emm typing, when the majority of isolates could not be serotyped for the M-proteins. [7][8][9][10] The purpose of this longitudinal study was to describe the epidemiologic features of GAS infections in a group of school-aged children, with the use of modern molecular methods.…”

An Evaluation of a Streptococcal Control Program

“…It seems quite justifiable, on the basis of these findings, for the physician to consider administering prophylactic penicillin to the entire family when one member of a family has a streptococcal infection. 5 Although it seems reasonable that any prophylactic program which will prevent streptococcal illness should save official agencies money in the long run from decreased clinic and hospital usage, this fact could not be demonstrated in this study. However, in areas where streptococcal illness is a serious problem in the population group cared for by a city hospital, the additional expenditure for such a control program seems justifiable on the basis of the findings of this study.…”

“…The program was started because of the extreme difficulty in getting household contacts to come to the hospital for examination and throat culture. Because of the known high secondary attack rate of streptococcal infections,l the seriousness of the sequelae of such disease, and the efficacy of pencillin in preventing streptococcal complications, [2][3][4][5] it was decided this prophylactic program would be the best method for dealing practically with the problem of streptococcal control.…”