ANTIBIOTIC PROPHYLAXIS

To the Editor: In regard to your comments following Dr. Davis and Wedgewood's article concerning Antibiotic Prophylaxis in Acute Viral Respiratory Diseases (Amer J Dis Child 109:544 [June] 1965), I wish your statement could be sent to every hospital and Director of Medical Education in the country. In so many voluntary hospitals, the price of a throat culture is 10 to 15 dollars. Consequently, private physicians do not suggest or order this for tonsillitis seen in the Emergency Rooms. Medical students, interns, and residents at these hospitals, therefore, are not adequately exposed to the procedure and in my opinion this is a shame. There is no excuse for giving every patient with tonsillitis Penicillin because a throat culture is too expensive to do. Granted, many laboratory tests are expensive and may be overpriced, but something as common as pharyngitis that requires a laboratory study for proper evaluation should receive some