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Show jDOXlIri Sore throat RoTuTFok can e ser'ous Copley News Service Q. My 4 V2 -year-old son has bad five viral infections infec-tions and strep throat which resulted in scarlet fever over the last five months. Our doctor took blood tests, and told as he was fine and that children get over 100 infections before be-fore they reach the age of 5. When my son was born, one of his heart valves didn't close for about an hour, and he has had asthma. asth-ma. Could these infections damage his heart? Should I seek a second opinion? What do white patches on the inside of his throat indicate? D.G., Fir-chburg, Fir-chburg, Mass. A. Infections of the upper respiratory tract, which include the common cold, a sore throat and tonsillitis, ton-sillitis, are by far the most common acute illnesses of man. Children in the United Unit-ed States have an average of six of these infections each year, with some children chil-dren having many more. These infections are the major cause of absenteeism absentee-ism from school and work. Most of these infections are caused by viruses and so do not respond to antibiotic antibi-otic treatment. They generally gen-erally last less than a week and require only rest and treatment such as fluids and aspirin. The major non-viral cause of upper respiratory tract infections is the streptococcus bacteria, which causes strep throat and scarlet fever. Patients with strep throat generally have a red, sore throat, often with pus on the tonsils, fever, swollen glands in the neck, vomiting and headache. In scarlet fever, the streptococcus produces a toxin causing the child to have a sunburnlike rash in addition to the strep throat. Treatment of a streptococcal strepto-coccal infection with an antibiotic such as penicillin will markedly shorten the illness and reduce the likelihood like-lihood that complications will develop. However, all the features of a strep throat can be seen in a viral infection. Therefore, it is usually not possible to tell which infections are caused by the streptococcus strepto-coccus and, therefore require re-quire antibiotic therapy without the aid of a throat culture. Complications of strep throat include rheumatic fever and nephritis, or kidney kid-ney disease. Rheumatic fever occurs rarely following follow-ing a strep throat but can cause permanent damage to the heart, including injury inju-ry to the heart valves. Prompt antibiotic treatment treat-ment of a strep throat will prevent most cases of rheumatic fever. Once a child has had rheumatic fever, he or she is at greater risk of having it again and should receive long-term antibiotic treatment treat-ment to prevent further strep infections. If your child has never had rheumatic fever and your physician determines that he is healthy and has no heart disease, you need not be concerned. He is having the frequent respiratory respi-ratory infection we all have as children. If he develops a sore throat or other signs of a strep throat, be should have a throat culture. If strep is found, he should receive a course of antibiotics. antibi-otics. White patches in the mouth can be present in a number of conditions, including in-cluding infections with strep, viruses and yeast. Your physician will be able to tell you which is present when he examines your son. Dr. Russell Van Dyke, fellow in the department depart-ment of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Medi-cine. Q. I have meralgia paraesthetica, which causes caus-es the top of my right leg to itch and born. Is there any treatment to ease the burning sensation? D.W., Toledo, Ohio. A. Meralgia paraesthetica paraestheti-ca is a condition due to damage to a nerve in the thigh called the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. The nerve is prone to injury inju-ry along its course over the hip bone. A tight girdle or belt is frequently the cause of damage. The symptoms can be severe se-vere enough to warrant surgery, but this is rare. Dr. Charles Jablecki, assistant as-sistant clinical professor of neurology, at the University Universi-ty of California, San Diego School of Medicine. Send questions of general gener-al interest to Doctor's Forum, UCSD School of Medicine, M-002, La Jolla CA 92093. Personal replies cannot be provided. |
