Treatment of Streptococcal Carrier State in a Rural School

The successful use of oral penicillin to interrupt hemolytic streptococcal epidemics in large groups of armed forces is well established.¹ This study is an attempt to apply the principles of group antibiotic therapy to prevent recurrent hemolytic Streptococcus infections in rural areas.

PROBLEM  For a two-year period, members of eight families had repeated upper-respiratory infections from which pharyngeal or tonsillar cultures were positive for a hemolytic Streptococcus (grouping and typing were not done). Penicillin therapy in the form of 200,000 units of an oral buffered penicillin three times a day for a period of 7 to 10 days or later 1,200,000 units of benzathine penicillin G (Bicillin) intramuscularly would give clinical cure of these infections, but the repeated recurrences made it evident that either a bacteriological cure was not obtained or reinfection was taking place. Cultures of other members of the family were usually negative, but even when