Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-2h6rp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-12T08:59:42.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The distribution of carriers of Streptococcus pyogenes among 2,413 healthy children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

Margaret C. Holmes  and
R. E. O. Williams
Margaret C. Holmes
Affiliation:
Streptococcal Reference Laboratory, Public Health Laboratory Service, Colindale, N.W.9
R. E. O. Williams
Affiliation:
Streptococcal Reference Laboratory, Public Health Laboratory Service, Colindale, N.W.9
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Nose and throat swabs were collected from 2413 healthy children aged 2 weeks to 14 years and examined for Streptococcus pyogenes. The children came from different social levels in three boroughs in Middlesex.

Standardized carrier rates were used to compare the individual effects of age, borough, family age, family size, sex, social class and tonsils on the nose and throat carrier rates.

Community life appeared to facilitate the spread of streptococcal infection: young children aged less than 5 who attended nurseries had higher carrier rates than those of the same age who did not attend day-nurseries. The highest nasal carrier rates were found in the 3- and 4-year-old children attending the day-nurseries. The degree of crowding within the community units did not appear to affect the rates.

The three boroughs had significantly different carrier rates.

Boys were more often carriers than girls.

The unstandardized carrier rates were highest in the lowest social class but this could be explained by the differences in the age, sex and borough distribution of the children sampled in the three social classes, and by the fact that tonsillectomy was, on the average, undertaken later in the lower social classes than in the higher. When these factors were allowed for by standardization, there was no residual difference which could be attributed to social class or housing.

Children with tonsils were more often nose and throat carriers than children who had had their tonsils removed; this was true for all ages, for each of the three boroughs and in each social class.

We are indebted to the Area Medical Officers in Enfield, Southgate and Willesden for their co-operation in the planning of the survey and to the staff in the schools, day-nurseries and clinics where the swabbing was carried out. We are most grateful to Dr P. Armitage for help with the statistical methods and to Miss Eileen Cole for much help with the computing.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , June 1954 , pp. 165 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1954

References

REFERENCES

Coburn, A. F. & Pauli, Ruth H. (1932). Studies on the relationship of Streptococcus hemolyticus to the rheumatic process. 1. Observations on the ecology of hemolytic streptococcus in relation to the epidemiology of rheumatic fever. J. exp. Med. 56, 609.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friou, G. J. (1949). Further observations of an inhibitor in human serums of the hyaluronidase produced by a strain of hemolytic streptococcus. J. infect. Dis. 84, 240.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Glover, J. A. (1938). The incidence of tonsillectomy in school children. Proc. R. Soc. Med. 31, 1219.Google ScholarPubMed
Gordon, J. E. & Janney, J. H. (1941). Antistreptolysin content of sera of normal infants and children. J. Pediat. 18, 587.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammon, W. M., Sather, Gladys E. & Hollinger, Nell (1950). Preliminary report of epidemiological studies on poliomyelitis and streptococcal infection. Amer. J. publ. Hlth, 40, 293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, Margaret C. & Rubbo, S. D. (1953). A study of rheumatic fever and streptococcal infection in different social groups in Melbourne. J. Hyg., Camb., 51, 450.Google ScholarPubMed
Keogh, E. V., Macdonald, I., Battle, Joan, Simmons, R. T. & Williams, S. (1939). Some factors influencing the spread of scarlet fever in an institution. J. Hyg., Camb., 39, 664.Google ScholarPubMed
Kuttner, Ann G. & Krumwiede, Elma (1944). Observations on the epidemiology of streptococcal pharyngitis and the relation of streptococcal carriers to the occurrence of outbreaks. J. clin. Invest. 23, 139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
London County Council Report by Members of the Staff of the Public Health Department (1947). Diphtheria and streptococcal carriers in London school-children. Lancet, 1, 668.Google Scholar
Macdonald, I., Simmons, R. T. & Keogh, E. V. (1940). Further observations of the incidence of haemolytic streptococci in tonsils. Med. J. Aust. 1, 849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxted, W. R. (1948). Preparation of streptococcal extracts for Lancefield grouping. Lancet, 2, 255.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mote, J. R. & Jones, T. D. (1941). Studies of hemolytic streptococcal antibodies in control groups, rheumatic fever, and rheumatoid arthritis. 1. The incidence of antistreptolysin O, antifibrinolysin, and hemolytic streptococcal precipitating antibodies in the sera of urban control groups. J. Immunol. 41, 35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pike, R. M. & Fashena, Gladys J. (1946). Frequency of hemolytic streptococci in the throats of well children in Dallas. Amer. J. publ. Hlth 36, 611.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rantz, L. A., Spink, W. W., & Boisvert, P. J. (1947). Hemolytic streptococcal sore throat. The course of the acute disease. Arch. intern. Med. 76, 278.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rantz, L. A., Randall, Elizabeth & Rantz, Helen H. (1948). Antistreptolysin ‘O’. A study of this antibody in health and in hemolytic streptococcus respiratory disease in man. Amer. J. Med. 5, 3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwentker, F. F., Janney, J. H. & Gordon, J. E. (1943). The epidemiology of scarlet fever. Amer. J. Hyg. 38, 27.Google Scholar