Gunnarsson, Ronny K., Orda, Ulrich, Elliott, Bradley, and Heal, Clare (2024) Carrier rates of group A streptococci in Australian wet tropics and its impact on the clinical usefulness of throat swabs. Australian Journal of General Practice, 53 (10). pp. 727-730.

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Abstract

Background and objectives: Rapid point-of-care tests (POCT) are likely to assist with the detection of group A streptococci (GAS), but their usefulness is determined by the presence of carriers of GAS. This is insufficiently explored in the wet tropics.

Method: This study included 77 patients attending primary care in the wet tropics complaining of a sore throat, and 49 healthy controls. Carrier rates of GAS and the positive and negative etiological predictive values (P-EPV and N-EPV, respectively) of a POCT were calculated.

Results: The carrier rates were 8.3% among healthy children and 2.7% for adults. The P-EPV for children was 71% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.0-100%) and for adults it was 85% (95% CI: 0.0-100%). The corresponding N-EPV was 99% (95% CI: 95-100%) for children and 99% (95% CI: 98-100%) for adults.

Discussion: N-EPV, ruling out GAS, was sufficiently high with narrow CIs to allow for defining a stopping rule to avoid unnecessary antibiotic prescribing.

Item ID:	86193
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2208-7958
Copyright Information:	© The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners 2024.
Date Deposited:	24 Jul 2025 01:56
FoR Codes:	32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3202 Clinical sciences > 320211 Infectious diseases @ 100%
SEO Codes:	20 HEALTH > 2001 Clinical health > 200101 Diagnosis of human diseases and conditions @ 100%
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