The most common approach of physicians when a child patient accuses a sore throat is to examine the throat, tonsils and neck lymph nodes to check for ant signs of streptococcus infection. If the present signs indicate the strep bacteria, doctors usually give up further testing and prescribe antibiotic medications for streptococcus. Children with no actual symptoms of a bacterial condition are considered to suffer from a virus and no other tests are indicated.



The most available and easy method to detect streptococcus in a sore throat is the swap test when a cotton swab is rubbed against tonsils and back of the throat, then sent back to analysis. The first swab test method is the common one, ready in 5 minutes and performed in the doctor's office. If it comes out positive there are 95% chances that your child has a streptococcus infection; if the result is negative a chance of 5% persists that the probe is wrong. In such cases you might want to appeal to a bacterial culture that will last longer to be confirmed but will give you 99% certainty. It is made by incubating a harvested probe in an incubator to verify a possible bacteria multiplication.

Test swabs and bacterial cultures are very much indicated in suspect diagnosis as they can protect the patient from an unnecessary ant biotherapy or from becoming antibiotic resistant. In severe cases, doctors prescribe antibiotics while waiting for the test results and then stop the medication if the test is negative; milder cases however should wait for the culture results. Parents that want to start an antibiotic right away to prevent their child's status from getting worse must be advised to wait for the test results as a wrong therapy may increase the patient's bad symptoms.

Waiting a few days before starting the treatment will allow the immune system to activate and fight back the infection. Delaying the therapy will only prolong the sore throat symptoms but will not make the condition worse and will not increase the risk of further complications. Doctors advise however that the strep test is performed right away and an ant biotherapy is started immediately if the result is positive. An early treatment in case of streptococcus detection is very much useful to stop the patient from being contagious for others and will also prevent worse complications as the bacteria can spread to the main organs such as heart, kidneys or may provoke a rheumatic fever.