Talk to your doctor about when your child can return to normal activities. Most kids can go back to school when they've taken antibiotics for at least 12 hours and no longer have a fever.
Your child can spread strep throat to others until 24 hours after he or she starts taking antibiotics. Keep your child out of school or daycare until 1 full day after he or she starts taking antibiotics. Follow-up care is a key part of your child's treatment and safety.
If you suspect your child may have Strep A they should not attend school and you should contact your doctor (or 999 in an emergency). If there are confirmed or suspected cases in an education setting there is no reason for children to be kept at home if they are well.
Return to School:
Your child can return to school after the fever is gone. Your child should feel well enough to join in normal activities. Children with Strep throat need to be taking an antibiotic for at least 12 hours.
Tell your child's school nurse and teacher if they have strep throat. The school needs to know so they can tell other parents to watch for symptoms in their children. Your child should stay home from school or childcare until they have taken antibiotic medicine for 12 hours and have no fever.
If you have strep throat, be aware that you're contagious as long as you have symptoms, and you should stay home from work or school. Once you start taking antibiotics, you should stay home until you've been on them for at least 24 hours.
However, children can occasionally develop a bacterial infection on top of a virus and that can make them more unwell. One of these bacteria is called Group A Strep (GAS). You may have heard this in the news as it has been found in some children who have become very sick, very quickly. Fortunately, this is still rare.
How Long is Strep Contagious? People taking antibiotics for strep throat become less contagious over 24 to 48 hours. A person with untreated strep can infect others for two or three weeks.
Close contact with another person with strep throat is the most common risk factor for illness. For example, if someone has strep throat, the bacteria often spread to other people in their household. Infectious illnesses tend to spread wherever large groups of people gather.
That's why it's so important to seek medical attention as soon as symptoms of strep throat appear. Once a person is diagnosed and begins antibiotic treatment, he or she will no longer be contagious after 24 hours.
Kids with strep throat need a dose or two of antibiotics first, which can mean staying home the day after diagnosis (or possibly longer). Other contagious infections — like rubella, whooping cough, mumps, measles, and hepatitis A — have specific guidelines for returning to school.
Caused by the group A streptococcus bacteria, strep throat is an infection that requires prompt treatment, particularly in children over the age of 3. Left untreated, strep throat can lead to kidney inflammation or rheumatic fever, a serious illness that can cause stroke and permanent damage to the heart.
While, in many cases, strep throat will heal on its own, these bacteria can cause other, more serious illnesses in rare cases. Rheumatic fever is a potential complication, and it can damage the valves of the heart.
The bacteria is also often spread to others in the household if a family member has strep throat. Kids with untreated strep throat are more likely to spread the infection when their symptoms are most severe, but can still infect others for up to 3 weeks.
“Therefore, best practice is to prescribe antibiotics to prevent future problems and stop the spread of the infection. “While there are times when strep could go away without antibiotics, the problem is that some of those cases could have negative outcomes, especially for very young or elderly patients,” says Moore.
A. Strep throat typically resolves in three to five days if untreated. Despite the short duration, antibiotic treatment is recommended to reduce the risk of complications.
"Childhood strep throat might have symptoms that consist of severe sore throat, usually with pretty rapid onset. They might have a fever. They might have enlargement of the lymph nodes, the little nodes in the front of the neck.
Yes. Strep throat is very contagious. Some people with the infection don't have symptoms or look sick. But even if you don't have symptoms, you can still easily spread the infection to others.
In fact, it's estimated that between the ages of 5 and 15, at least 15–40% of sore throat cases among children are actually caused by Streptococcus bacteria (strep throat). If your child experiences strep throat symptoms, it's important to make sure he or she gets tested!
Children who develop strep throat repeatedly may have contact with a carrier of strep, likely at home or in a child care setting — or they may be strep carriers themselves. A strep carrier is someone who has the strep-causing bacteria, but who is not having symptoms.
“If you have strep it does not automatically mean you will have invasive disease,” says Geevarghese. “The peak ages where we see complications are the young kids, and adults that are 65 years and older and immunocompromised.”
It is most common among children 5 through 15 years of age. It is rare in children younger than 3 years of age. The most common risk factor is close contact with another person with group A strep pharyngitis.
If your child has a throat or skin infection caused by group A strep bacteria, they can go back to school or child care once they've had two doses of a course of an appropriate antibiotic 12 hours apart without fever.
If you have strep throat, you can infect someone else whether you have a fever symptom or not. Streptococcus pyogenes, the bacteria that causes strep throat is highly contagious and can be transmitted regardless of symptoms.