“Healthy carriers should not take antibiotics”

In classe i children parents are absent and in pharmacies lined up to ask for a tampon. No, it’s no longer Covid-19 or, at least, this is not the virus that is depopulating the little ones. It is the “streptococcus”, a bacterium commonly present in the throat which, however, can trigger serious infections.

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The “pyogenes” variant is very contagious and being found in the mucous membrane of the nose and throat, it can be transmitted by coughing and/or sneezing or even by salivary contact. Reason why it spreads in crowded environments such as kindergartens or schools. And seeing what is happening in many nursery schools in Rome, for example, there are so many positive children. As proof of this, the trend in sales of self-tests in pharmacies and the index of swabs that are performed in them similarly to what is done in analysis laboratories.

THE TREND
Doctors agree that, compared to 2022, the infection has increased by at least 20%. According to pharmacists, however, the figure would be higher in the face of what are the requests for tests. Certainly in many schools there are cases of positivity with an infection that manifests itself with a sore throat, fever, muscle aches and which can easily be confused for flu or tonsillitis. «For a month now – explains Gianluca De Filippis, owner of the Portuense pharmacy – we have been selling the self-tests after they are back on the market in the sense that their request in recent months was very low then the demand increased but the companies they took a while to send us the material». In this pharmacy, as well as being sold, the tests are also performed and are certainly more precise. «It is not simple as an exam even if the result is very quick – continues De Filippis – because with a swab you have to reach the tonsils and in small children it is often difficult. Among other things, unlike what was done with Covid where we recorded the test results, with the positives, in a platform created by the Region, now we only issue the report to the family or parent ».

THE CASES
On average, in almost all pharmacies in the capital, which number more than 3,000, a dozen tests are sold or performed every day, where possible, while in the same period of 2022 the requests were almost equal to zero. Pediatricians, for their part, do not hide the cases but are keen to clarify an important aspect: «Streptococcus infection has always existed but with the run-up to the test in the presence of even just one positive in a class – explains Teresa Rongai, a head of the Italian federation of pediatricians of Lazio – other positives may emerge but be careful because many children are healthy carriers and therefore without symptoms they must not take antibiotics in any way as is expected instead for the symptomatic ». Of course, but this can also be seen from the number of absences from school, if the manifestation of the infection has always been the “priority” prerogative of small children, those between two and six years of age, in recent weeks streptococcus has taken even the most adults: elementary or middle school students and also high school students with a course for symptoms that lasts no more than ten days, the average time established for antibiotic therapy.

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