OBJECTIVES: assess the prevalence of Streptococcus pyogenes in throat secretions of students from two public elementary schools in Recife. METHODS: an epidemiological and clinical-microbiological study was performed. From two schools, 753 individuals were examined. Throat secretion cultures were performed in blood sheep ágar 5% and SBGA strains identified by bacitracin, Pyr and latex agglutination tests. RESULTS: the school children were aged from five to 19 years old, 54,3% of the sample were male and 45,7% female. Six asymptomatic SBGA carriers were identified. Following treatment with penicillin, ASLO sera titration was performed. All carriers had antibody titers below 200UT. CONCLUSIONS: SBGA prevalence rate of 0,8% was estimated in asymptomatic carriers, this percentage was low when compared with other results from similar studies. The authors suggest that epidemiological studies be accomplished to estimate SBGA prevalence in children with pharyngitis and correlation with acute rheumatic fever.
Streptococcus pyogenes; School health; Epidemiology; Prevalence
