Antibiotics, sore throats and acute nephritis

Abstract

A study was carried out of 274 children in Scotland aged 0 to 13 years recorded as having had acute nephritis over a four-year period (1976-79). The medical records for 223 of the patients were examined and 79 cases of poststreptococcal nephritis were identified, giving an estimated incidence of 2.1 episodes per 100,000 children per year. Using a number of assumptions, the authors sought the answers to two important questions: What is the risk that glomerulonephritis will develop after sore throat/inflamed throat illness? Is this risk influenced by the prescribing of an antibiotic for the original illness?

The risks of developing nephritis after an antibiotic-treated sore throat and after a non-antibiotic treated sore throat were assessed as being equivalent (1:13,000 and 1:17,000 respectively). Furthermore, it appears that, during his lifetime, a general practitioner has a chance of only one in six of seeing a child with post-streptococcal nephritis after a sore throat.