Kids can get sick with the bacteria if they breathe in those droplets, touch something that is contaminated then touch their mouth or nose, or drink from the same glass as a sick person. Interestingly, some kids can be asymptomatic carriers of strep bacteria.
Strep throat is usually mild. Red, swollen tonsils with white patches might be present and there might be red dots on the roof of the mouth.
Kids may also present with headache or belly pain. Scarlet fever has a particular rash on the body that is common. So when a child comes in with a runny nose, cough and sore throat this is almost always due to a viral cause and should not be treated with antibiotics. First of all, your doctor should test for strep throat. You cannot look in a throat and determine if a child has strep.
Cough and runny nose are not symptoms of strep throat. Hence, doctors prescribe a swab for rapid testing or culture testing. Mainly, doctors provide antibiotics to fight against the infection a nd prevent it from getting complicated. The infection can develop due to viruses and bacteria.
The germs can easily spread in schools, daycare centers, playgrounds, etc. Tonsillitis Tonsillitis in children is one of the most common infections that develop in the throat. The tonsils swell leading to difficulty in swallowing or breathing. Leaving the condition of the enlarged tonsils untreated can cause obstructive sleep apnea in children.
This leads to difficulty in breathing. Chow AW, et al. Evaluation of acute pharyngitis in adults. Kellerman RD, et al. In: Conn's Current Therapy Philadelphia, Pa. Common colds: Protect yourself and others. Streptococcal pharyngitis. Rochester, Minn. Kahrilas, PJ. Clinical manifestations and diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux in adults.
Gonzalez MD, et al. New developments in rapid diagnostic testing for children. Infectious Disease Clinics of North America. AIDS and opportunistic infections. Shelov SP, et al. Objective findings are minimal except for mild erythema of the nasal mucosa or pharynx. Symptoms resolve in 5 to 7 days. Nasal congestion can disrupt sleep and lead to fatigue and irritability. The illness often persists in infants and preschool children for 10 to 14 days. The differential diagnoses of a cold include allergic rhinitis, vasomotor rhinitis, intranasal foreign body, and sinusitis.
A diagnosis of allergic rhinitis is suggested by a seasonal pattern of clear rhinorrhea, absence of associated fever, and family history of allergy. Possible associated conditions are asthma and eczema. Physical findings consistent with allergic rhinitis include allergic shiners i. Detection of numerous eosinophils on microscopic examination of the nasal mucus using Hansel stain confirms the diagnosis of allergic rhinitis.
A diagnosis of vasomotor rhinitis is suggested by a chronic course without fever or sore throat. The diagnosis of bacterial sinusitis is suggested by persistent rhinorrhea or cough, or both, for more than 10 days. The diagnosis of a cold is based on history and physical examination; typically, laboratory tests are not useful. The rapid test for detecting RSV, influenza, parainfluenza, and adenovirus antigens in nasal secretions can be used to confirm the diagnosis.
RSV, rhinovirus, influenza viruses, parainfluenza viruses, and adenoviruses also can be isolated in cell culture. Because HCoVs cannot be detected reliably in cell culture, a serologic titer elevation can be used for diagnosis if necessary.
PCR assays for detection of all the respiratory viruses are available increasingly in clinical laboratories, but there is a lack of standardization and validation for many of the tests offered.
Meaningful interpretation of PCR results remains challenging because PCR detection of virus can occur in several clinical scenarios, including coinfection with multiple viruses, viral detection during the incubation period, subclinical infection, infection with the identified virus, variable duration of viral shedding, and sequential infection with different serotypes of the same species.
No antiviral agents are available that are effective for treatment of the common cold. Although an array of medications may be used to relieve symptoms, there is little scientific evidence to support the use of symptomatic treatments in children.
Because the common cold is a self-limited illness with symptomatology that is largely subjective, a substantial placebo effect can suggest that various treatments have some efficacy. Inadequate blinding of placebo recipients in a study can make an ineffective treatment appear effective. In adults with colds, first-generation antihistamines e. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of preschool children with URIs showed that treatment with an antihistamine-decongestant combination i.
Numerous decongestants, antitussives, and expectorants are available over the counter, but there is no evidence to support their use in children. A study of phenylephrine, a topical decongestant, for the treatment children 6 to 18 months old showed no decrease in nasal obstruction with its use during a URI.
Antibiotics have no role in the treatment of uncomplicated URIs in children. Antibiotic therapy does not hasten resolution of the viral infection or reduce the likelihood of occurrence of secondary bacterial infection.
Supportive measures remain the mainstay of treatment for the common cold in children. Bulb suction with saline drops i. One study suggests that honey given at bedtime may help reduce cough in children with URIs, although honey is not recommended for children younger than 12 months because of the risk of exposure to Clostridium botulinum spores.
The common cold usually resolves in about 10 to 14 days in infants and children. Persistence of nasal symptoms for longer than 10 days was thought to signify the development of a secondary bacterial sinusitis, but a study found that 20 children hospitalized for preseptal or orbital cellulitis, indicative of bacterial sinusitis, had symptoms of acute respiratory tract infection for 7 or fewer days before hospitalization, suggesting that the complications of rhinosinusitis can occur during the first few days of a cold.
Bacterial pneumonia is an uncommon secondary infection. Children who experience more than one lower respiratory tract infection e. Symptoms of the common cold appear to result from the effects of inflammatory mediators released in response to the viral infection of the respiratory tract. As the determinants of this process are further elucidated, treatments may be developed that can interrupt or ameliorate release of inflammatory mediators and prevent or reduce the symptoms of the common cold.
Vaccines are unlikely to be useful for prevention because of the large number of serotypes of some cold viruses and the lack of lasting immunity to others. The use of alcohol-based hand gels has been suggested as a means of reducing secondary transmission of respiratory illnesses in the home, 47 but this approach was not shown to be effective in one field trial.
The author wishes to highlight the dominant contribution of J. Owen Hendley to our understanding of respiratory viruses and to this chapter. The pediatric infectious diseases community recognizes our great loss with his death. All references are available online at www. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Principles and Practice of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Published online Jul Diane E. Guest Editor s : Sarah S. Chief, Section of Infectious Diseases, St.
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