Early treatment increases risk for reinfection?

[matis_mom]

Can't sleep again, and I run into this while surfing...

 

Has early, prompt antibiotic treatment suppressed natural immunity?

With the availability of rapid strep detection tests and the publication of several convincing studies that describe faster clinical improvement from prompt treatment, many physicians have been prescribing antibiotics sooner after diagnosing strep throat infections.

 

Immediate penicillin treatment has been shown to be a cause of recurrent strep infections. Early antibiotic treatment suppresses the natural immune response to strep. Delaying antibiotic therapy for two days after the onset of a sore throat allows an immune response to develop, which may reduce the chance of a relapse or recurrence of strep throat infections.

 

Two similar studies compared immediate penicillin treatment with treatment delayed for 48 to 56 hours in 343 children with documented strep throats. Early antibiotic therapy produced a three-time increase in the frequency of recurrent infections as compared to those for whom treatment was delayed

 

It just kills me if this is true because with my little "canary", I've been getting everyone on antibiotics before they have symptoms!!!

Does anyone know is this holds true? Buster?

 

Overall I thought it was a good article, and it explains the different antibiotics, etc.

Here is the link...

http://www.pediatricweb.com/madisonpeds/ar...p;articleid=851

[thereishope]

I've seen that before. Very scary from the point of view of a PANDAS parent.

[kimballot]

This article is a summary and advice from this particular doctor. He seems to be referring to research studies, but he does not cite the studies, so it is difficult to take the information at much more than face value and it is difficult to apply it to kids with PANDAS. for example when he talks about

 

Two similar studies compared immediate penicillin treatment with treatment delayed for 48 to 56 hours in 343 children with documented strep throats. Early antibiotic therapy produced a three-time increase in the frequency of recurrent infections as compared to those for whom treatment was delayed

 

It is really hard to know what each study said, how they picked the kids, how did they know when the kids developed strep.

 

I think the general idea of NOT treating with abx unless necessary is great - but without seeing the original studies, it is hard to know how this fits our kids.

Edited May 2, 2010 by kimballot

[Fixit]

so the problem becomes....the first 1 or 2 times ds had strep i didn't treat immediatley, since i'd never had it and just though he had a sore throat, or feaver, or vomiting........then once i realized i shouldn't mess with sore throat on him...as soon as he said ..."mom my thro"".......we were in the car peeling out of the driveway.......so i did both

 

This article is a summary and advice from this particular doctor. He seems to be referring to research studies, but he does not cite the studies, so it is difficult to take the information at much more than face value and it is difficult to apply it to kids with PANDAS. for example when he talks about

 

Two similar studies compared immediate penicillin treatment with treatment delayed for 48 to 56 hours in 343 children with documented strep throats. Early antibiotic therapy produced a three-time increase in the frequency of recurrent infections as compared to those for whom treatment was delayed

 

It is really hard to know what each study said, how they picked the kids, how did they know when the kids developed strep.

 

I think the general idea of NOT treating with abx unless necessary is great - but without seeing the original studies, it is hard to know how this fits our kids.

[peglem]

It would be impossible to know how long the patient has had strep when they test positive. Its not like the infection starts when you get a positive test result! So how could you do a study on delayed or immediate treatment?