The incubation period for GAS pharyngitis is 2-5 days. Children are usually not infectious within 24 hours after appropriate antibiotic therapy has been started, an observation that has important implications for return to daycare or school environment.
S pyogenes is primarily spread through person-to-person transmission, although foodborne and waterborne outbreaks have been documented. Neither spread of organisms by fomites nor transmission from animals (eg, family pets) appears to play a significant role in contagion. Respiratory droplet spread is the major route for transmission of strains associated with upper respiratory tract infection (eg, S pneumoniae), and skin-to-skin spread is known to occur with strains associated with streptococcal pyoderma.
Individuals who are streptococcal carriers (chronic asymptomatic pharyngeal and nasopharyngeal colonization) are not usually at risk of spreading disease to others because of the generally small reservoir of often-avirulent organisms.
Read more about GAS transmission.
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Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Michael Stuart Bronze. Fast Five Quiz: Streptococcal Infection Clinical Keys - Medscape - Feb 18, 2021.
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