It is known that among the children that complain they have a sore throat, about 10% have actually a strep throat. Signs of an infection caused by the streptococcus bacteria can be found inside the mouth. In these cases, the tonsils are swollen, bright red, flecked with white. Other signs that can appear are a swelling and soreness of the glands in the neck under the jaw, chills, and fever above 101 degrees F.

These symptoms can be caused also by a cold or flu, but a strep throat lasts longer, and often doctor help is needed, especially if it lasts more than a couple of days.

If the bacteria lasts long in the throat and is not treated, there can appear a pocket of white blood cells, and clearing that abscess needs surgery. In the same time, the immune system is making antibodies, and they attack strep, but can attack normal kidney and heart cells as well. There can appear rheumatic fever, which can cause permanent damage to the joints and valves of the heart.

If the doctor suspects the patient has strep, he will take a throat culture. This operation is painless and easy, and to do that, the doctor needs to swab the back of the patient's throat. After that, he will perform an analysis called rapid strep and in about 15 minutes, there can be given a result. But, there are cases when this result is negative, and still, there is bacteria that must be treated. That's why it is good to do a lab analysis, but it is known that it takes two days for the results to come back.

In most cases, the doctor will administer only a single shot of penicillin. The child may also need to take home liquid penicillin, or amoxicillin, and other drugs too. Usually, these must be taken for ten days. It is important not to miss any dose, and even after the symptoms disappear you must continue the treatment, because, otherwise it appears the possibility that the remaining strep invaders to develop resistance to the drug, and to cause a worse infection.

The strep throat is very contagious, it is important to keep the child in house until the symptoms ease, and for at least 24 hours after antibiotics treatment started. It is known that most adults do not have the risk to get the infection, because some immunity was developed cause of the past infections they had. But it is possible that adults spread the bacteria to other children that are near-by.

To relieve the pain, there can be given to the children a cool glass of juice or an ice pop, and also pain relievers like acetaminophen and ibuprofen.

It is known there doesn't really exist a way to prevent strep, because many people carry it in their throats and don't develop any symptoms, and we can't avoid exposure. But, once a child has had the infection, future strep infections are less probable, because the immune system is stronger.