Case study

A 35-year-old woman sought care for a fever and sore throat that she’d had for 4 days. She

denied symptoms of cough, rhinorrhea, or sputum production.

The patient’s medical history included severe recurrent streptococcal pharyngitis as a

child and teenager. At the age of 17, she developed a fever of 105° F with associated delirium,

dysphagia, nausea, and vomiting, and missed several days of school. She also lost 82 pounds,

developed oral thrush, and continued to feel fatigued for approximately a year. After her

primary care physician noted a heart murmur on physical exam, she was sent for echocardiography

and diagnosed with rheumatic fever secondary to streptococcal pharyngitis.

Eighteen years (and numerous streptococcal infections) later, the patient was at our facility

and we were ordering a rapid antigen detection test (RADT) for her current illness.

The throat specimen was positive for group A ß-hemolytic streptococcus (GAS). The patient’s

8-year-old daughter also had a sore throat, fever, and positive RADT; her symptoms resolved

with oral amoxicillin for 10 days. The patient’s husband was also treated successfully with oral

amoxicillin/clavulanate for 10 days for similar symptoms. The patient herself, however, was

unsuccessfully treated with oral amoxicillin 500 mg twice daily for 7 days.

She was then given oral amoxicillin/clavulanate 875 mg twice daily for 14 days, but received

no relief. Even after receiving clindamycin 600 mg twice daily for 10 days, she had

minimal relief and remained positive for GAS on repeat RADT. It was at this point that tonsillectomy

was considered as a possible treatment modality for her refractory GAS pharyngitis.

 The patient consented to the procedure and underwent a tonsillectomy. She has remained

asymptomatic for 2 years and there have been no reported outbreaks of GAS infection in her household.