Prevalence of throat infections in school children of Islamabad with special reference to streptococcal infections: I

ABSTRACT

A total number of 310 school children of both sexes under the age of 15 year, were investigated randomly for throat flora. It was revealed that 41.9% had bacterial pathogens isolated, comprising of Streptococcus group A [13%], Streptococcus non group A [14%] and Staphylococcus coagulase positive [13.9%], while Klebsiella pneumonae and Pseudomonas sp. were less than 1%. The rest of the pupils had normal throat flora. There was slight female preponderance to straptococcal infection. The pupils who had streptococcal infection, majority of them had raised anti-streptolysin [ASO] titre, enlarged tonsils and palpable tonsillar lymphnodes. Additional complaints of cold, cough and recurrent sore throat were also present in most of streptococcal group A positive group. There was declining tendency of streptococcal group A infection with increasing age