It is possible that some of our patients were
not actually GAS pharyngitis. Since even without
treatment, fever and symptoms of the illness may
resolve within 3 to 4 days of the onset [14]. Per-
sistence of symptoms beyond this time period sug-
gests either development of a suppurative compli-
cation. Or that the patient may be a carrier of GAS
(rather than acutely infected), with their presenting
symptoms being attributable to an alternate cause
of pharyngitis.
The major limitation of our study was that the
data provided including duration of therapy was
based on statements of the parents. The actual
number of patients who complied with treatment
may be less. A recent study shows that even though
the majority of parents stop administering antibiot-
ics to their children as soon as the symptoms sub-
side, this does not have any apparent negative con-
sequences on complications [26].