How to know if other family members have strep?

[cynditk]

Hi all,

 

To rule out other family members having strep or being carriers, should they get a rapid strep and titers, or is the rapid strep enough to rule it out?

[peglem]

Well I think a positive swab trumps titers. Titers can indicate if there has been a recent infection, but a negative titer test doesn't mean there was no infection because many, many people do not get a rise of titers with strep infections.

[thereishope]

I would vote to go in the sequence of do a rapid. If positive, stop there and get abx. If negative, get a culture. If culture is positive, get abx. If negative, it's up to you to decide to go further and check titers. Some have done so and realized others in the family are high.

 

We have experienced positive rapids in addition to false negative rapids, but positive cultures.

 

If at any point a family member does test positive for strep, recheck them 3 weeks after finishing abx to see if the infection has cleared.

[MaxParkersMom]

You'll think I'm crazy but I knew my older son, my husband and I had strep because my son was off his antibiotic at the time and had no motor tics until he came around us and they started like crazy. I knew then we all had to get tested and we all had strep. He wasn't a carrier but my husband and son come to my school a lot to help me. If you think even with blood tests that they have strep I'd investigate how your children act around family members. My son did it to my older father and he came down with a staph or strep infection a few days later. They are like little meters. We all had to go back in and get tested a few weeks later and now starting olive leaf extract to protect us. My older son just takes it when he feels a cold coming on.

[Worried_Dad]

I agree that it's prudent to start with the rapid, then the extended culture. Just wanted to point out that we're one of those "weird" families where none of us has ever had a positive throat culture, yet we've all shown elevated ASO which went down after abx. Our PANDAS ds never had a positive throat culture, yet his ASO always rose with exacerbation and fell after extended abx treatment. Others have posted on here about the harsh reality that strep can harbor in lots of places other than the throat (although may docs don't seem to appreciate this).

 

Gory details for our family here: http://www.latitudes.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7430

[matis_mom]

I would just run everything on everyone right off the bat: rapid, culture, titers. My oldest was a carrier (negative rapid, positive culture, normal titers), and my husband and I and I had negative swab, negative culture, high titers, but after that we've had positive rapids off and on. So, I would do it all to begin with and then restest as needed.