Quote:
Originally Posted by Slava
What thread on science and medicine would be complete without anecdotal evidence to base conclusions? So here's mine. Took my son to the clinic for pretty obvious strep throat, only the doctor doesn't give a prescription straight off because everyone is worried about prescribing antibiotics unnecessarily. They take a swab and will call. Fair enough. We wait a few days and my son can't turn his head because his throat is so swollen. My wide calls the doctor and the doctor said, (aside from no more monkeys jumping on the bed), that yes it is strep throat. Unfortunately now to get a prescription though he would have to come in again, wait at the walk-in and see a doctor for a prescription!
First you have people like me who just don't want to waste everyone's time by sitting there with the sniffles. Then you have a convoluted and might I say ridiculous procedural system that makes it even more dreaded.
Obviously this poor little boy had some major issues. I like to think and hope that I would've taken him to the clinic in a similar position, but the terrifying part is that I really don't know. I'm not some kook who self medicates everything or won't accept medical attention, I just wouldn't want to go unless its really necessary and maybe I would miss that line.
|
To add to what Machiavelli said, the standard protocol, that SHOULD be followed, is to swab first and prescribe upon results. All guidelines stress this. Even if presenting with all the clinical symptoms, only 70% are bacterial in nature, so swabs are necessary. Strep is a self limiting infection, it goes away by itself. The reason for treating with antibiotics is to prevent rare complications like rheumatic fever and resulting kidney damage. In and of itself, strep goes away on it's own
If the Doctor on the phone says "yep, is strep" there should be a prescription phoned in at that point. Really, it should have been phoned in the day he got the results. The problem wasn't the swab first, the problem is insisting on a visit to get the treatment