Giving penicillin to children with a sore throat may not be beneficial. Zwart and collaborators (p 1324) compared treatment with penicillin V for seven or three days with placebo in 156 children (96 positive for group A streptococci) aged 4-15 with an acute sore throat. They found no differences between the groups in terms of duration and recurrence of symptoms, use of analgesic, and days missed at school. After treatment with penicillin, streptococcal sequelae (such as quinsy, impetigo, and scarlet fever) tended to be less common. These can be safely dealt with as they happen, the authors say, and the possibility of sequelae does not justify treating all children with a sore throat.
Figure 1.
Credit: GIULIO BOGNOLO