CINCINNATI — Between winter break, snow days and now illness, many area students have had a lot of time off from school over the past month.Pediatricians said they’re seeing more children coming down with the flu or strep throat.Brenda Taylor brought her daughter to the doctor Friday because she’s been sick for a couple of days.”High fever and chills and sore throat, congestion and cough,” Taylor said of her daughter’s symptoms.Dr. Mark Deis said the number of flu and strep throat cases has shot up over the past week or two.”I’ve been seeing maybe four or five cases, myself, a day, and I think pretty much all of us are having the same experience right now,” Deis said.While flu season technically begins in the fall and ends in early spring, Deis said it tends to have a shorter peak.”You can’t ever really predict when it’s going to hit in a given year, but you can definitely tell when it does hit because you see a spike in the cases,” Deis said.most doctors’ offices can perform quick tests to tell the difference between strep throat and flu, and a child’s symptoms can help physicians make a diagnosis.Sore throats and bellyaches are common with strep throat, while cold symptoms and body aches are more associated with the flu.”If you have cold symptoms with a sore throat, the likelihood that it’s strep is less than 50 percent,” Deis said.getting a flu shot is still good protection, Deis said, although doctors are still seeing children who’ve been vaccinated come down with the flu.Unfortunately, doctors said, those children are still getting just as sick.

At the CoxHealth Clinic at Walmart on Campbell a lot of people are coming in complaining of sore throats.  A few cases have turned out to be related to sinus drainage, but more times than not, patients have tested positive for Strep Throat.  Symptoms of strep include sudden and severe sore throat.  the on-set of symptoms are quick.   A fever over 101 degrees can be a common sign.  Swollen lymph nodes, and white spots lining the throat is often a strong sign of strep throat.  many times it hurts to eat or drink so a loss of appetite can be common.    If you do have these symptoms it is a good idea to call your doctor.  It’s likely you will have to take a strep test and he will prescribe an antibiotic for treatment.  once on an antibiotic, you are contagious for 24 hours… This lessens the time by days if you aren’t treated with one.  Also getting on an antibiotic is a good idea because it can help to prevent rare complications that could end up being life threatening. Doctors at the Clinic in Walmart say the overall patient load is up because of everyone getting together and spreading the holiday spirit… or germs.  As school starts it’s important to wash hands often to keep everyone healthy.

Good news reported from the Howell County Health Department, they have seen a drop in the number of stomach flu reports. even though they are seeing fewer cases, stomach flu cases are still higher than normal.

Learn the answers about how you get strep throat, how it is treated and what you might not know about the infection with a Q-and-A with Dr. Michal Dynda, an assistant professor of family and community medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and a staff physician at SIU Center for Family Medicine.

Q. what is strep throat?

A. Strep throat is an infection of the pharynx with a specific type of bacteria called Group a beta-hemolytic streptococcus, or GABHS. It accounts for about 15 to 30 percent of cases in children and 5 to 20 percent in adults. unfortunately, viral infections are still the most common cause of sore throats.

Q. Can you carry the strep without being sick?

A. Yes, you can be a carrier of streptococcus and have minimal, if any, symptoms. usually, the individual is at low risk to none of the developing immune mediated complications. Prolonged treatment is not indicated. However, if symptoms are present, then treatment should be started.

Q. how will a doctor know if you have strep throat?

A. your doctor will correlate your symptoms to determine if this is, in fact, strep throat or a viral infection, as both share common symptoms. Your doctor will pay particular attention to the following symptoms:

• Sudden onset of fever that is greater than 100.4 degrees.
• Absence of cough.
• Swollen and tender glands.
• Enlarged tonsils.
• recent exposure to someone who has strep throat. 

Cough, conjunctivitis, diarrhea and nasal drainage are common features of a viral infection. your doctor may also opt to swab your throat and use a rapid antigen detection test to determine if your symptoms are caused by the streptococcus bacteria.

unfortunately, these tests can vary in their sensitivity, which can range in accuracy from 70 to 95 percent. The accuracy depends on the kit itself and the technique used by the health care professional while obtaining the sample. As a gold standard, all swabs with a negative rapid strep test should be sent for culture.

Q. how is strep throat treated?

A. Luckily, strep throat is easily treated. The main treatment is penicillin V or amoxicillin for 10 days.  For individuals with penicillin allergy, the physician may opt to treat you with erythromycin or cephalexin, also for 10 days. another option is azithromycin (well known to patients as Z-pak) because of its short duration. However, its use is discouraged because of increasing resistance. 

Most strep throat cases will self-resolve in about 1 to 2 weeks time. But adding the antibiotic treatment decreases the course and potential of further complications.

Q. Can a person who has had a tonsillectomy get strep throat?

A. Tonsillectomy does not mean you will never get strep throat. However, it will reduce your risk of catching it. unfortunately, this topic is still widely debated. Children are more likely to undergo this procedure, especially if they have recurrent bouts of confirmed strep throat, in order to minimize their chance of medical complications. It is very important that if streptococcus is suspected, a culture be performed to confirm the diagnosis.

Q. where to go for more information?

A.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: cdc.gov/getsmart/antibiotic-use/URI/sore-throat.html

Reference: aafp.org/afp/2009/0301/p383.html

Dr. Michal Dynda is an assistant professor of family and community medicine at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and a staff physician at SIU Center for Family Medicine.

Tonsillitis – a type of acute inflammation of the tonsils (those which are colloquially referred to as “glands”). they are located on every side of the entrance to the throat and are clearly visible when you look into her open mouth. on scientific inflammation of the tonsils is referred to as tonsillitis and sore throat – only his form, which is an acute inflammation caused by a single microbe (beta-hemolytic group A streptococcus – his full name). this increased attention to a single form of tonsillitis is caused by the fact that angina typically occurs quite difficult and gives dangerous complications (including death!).

The initial symptoms of tonsillitis associated with inflammatory response to mucosa of the soft palate, uvula, tonsils – redness, swelling, a sore throat. this period is called catarrhal sore throats.

Symptoms of tonsillitis – pain inside the throat, specifically when swallowing, fever (39-40 degrees, can reach up to 41 degrees), severe weakness, headache, lymph nodes, which are palpated under the mandible close to the neck (their probing painful). Children (especially young) and is characterized by much more symptoms: refusal to eat, drooling (it is because it hurts to swallow), children cannot decompress the teeth (this is referred to as lockjaw masticatory muscles). If you can see the tonsils, they look like this: red, covered with a purulent coating (white and yellow) – the so-called lacunar tonsillitis – or, as it had been packed with pale yellow bubbles, like grains of rice symptoms of tonsillitis.

The most dangerous complications of sore throat:

inside the early stages – abscesses inside the throat (the formation of huge cavities, filled with pus), the spread of infection within the chest, the cranial cavity with the development of inflammation of the meninges (meningitis), an infectious-toxic shock syndrome (poisoning of the body products, and microbial decay of body tissues), sepsis (“blood poisoning”, i.e. the penetration of infection into the bloodstream and spread throughout the body);

In the later stages (2-4 weeks) – rheumatic (connective tissue illness with involvement of the joints, heart, brain), glomerulonephritis (kidney inflammation of noninfectious origin, leading to severe health problems, even kidney failure).

From this short list of complications that needed to treat a sore throat is not just necessary, but is strictly required! Angina treated with antibiotics, which should appoint a physician.

Another essential feature – the sore throat is contagious, so patients will need to be isolated, do not let him youngsters plus the elderly, he really should have his own dishes, which is the period of the illness no 1 must use it.

Try learning more knowledge to do with symptoms of tonsillitis by learning info on tonsillitis symptoms.