crazy mom thinking

[smartyjones]

i know i should stay out of the science. . . i work in marketing. . . but. . .

 

if a person were to have 'hidden' strep or intercellular strep or other infections that were inhibiting conquering the strep, then you begin to treat such, would that infected person then shed strep bacteria as to infect another? if the initail person had such, have they always been an infective source for others and it wouldn't make a difference when you begin attacking it?

 

if someone had 'hidden' strep and cultures negative for strep can they still infect other people?

 

any thoughts?

Edited November 13, 2010 by smartyjones

[thereishope]

I think it may depend on where they are haboring the hidden strep. I think it doesn't really matter if they are asymptomatic. Carriers can still transmit the bacteria.

 

I'm not a science person, though. I'm a stay at home mom so my expertise is doing laundry, cleaning and referee kids:)

[MomWithOCDSon]

No scientist here, either . . . not by a long shot.

 

Experientially, though, I KNOW that my DS13 is/was a strep carrier, at least for a period of years in grade school. He was constantly coming home with notices from the school about some kid in his class having strep, yet he would never develop it in the classic sense (no sore throat or fever, or even tummy trouble or miscellaneous symptoms that I can peg). Yet, within 10 days or so, either his dad or I would come down with the classic, painful sore throat.

 

Now that he's been on abx for more than a year and we've seen so much improvement in him, you'd think he's constantly "shedding" some strep, no? But neither DH nor I have "caught" it again. So there must be something different in the intracellular strep mechanism (non-infectious but still capable of "calling out" to antibodies?). Or else DH and I have now been "converted" to carriers ourselves, from all the longterm exposure?

 

I'm having some more blood tests here in the next few weeks, so I'll get back to you on that in terms of titer counts, etc.