Strep throat infections on the rise in some areas

“I’ve been practicing emergency medicine for 25 years, and I have not seen strep throat as frequently as I have in these past six or eight months,” said Dr. Jennifer Stevenson, the head of the emergency department at Henry Ford Medical Center in Dearborn, Mich., in an Oct. 28 NBC report.

This report said that the bacterial illness, marked by painful, scratchy throats and high fevers, has been rising for months in parts of the mid-Atlantic and the Southeast. And, unfortunately, no one seems to know why.

Since medical providers aren’t required to report strep throat diagnoses to our health department, we don’t know if strep infections are increasing here. But after seeing this report, I think it’s a good time to address this infection that affects several million people a year.