All my life, watching America

[venta]

Yesterday, I was reading a blog post by an American mum-of-five, and it was mentioned in passing that one of her daughters was really ill with strep.

Strep, you say?

I'm aware that American kids get strep throat. I'm even vaguely aware that that's short for streptococcus. What I'm not aware of is why us British kids don't get it. Is it one of those bizarre geographically-localised conditions? Is it something they make a fuss about that we don't?

So I took myself off to Wikipedia, and read up on Streptococcal pharyngitis. And it sounded dreadfully familiar. In fact, I had it when I was a kid. Repeatedly.

It's just that we call it by its more generic name of tonsilitis.

So there you go. Maybe you knew that anyway. I didn't, and I shall add a new word to my English/US dictionary (along with the recently-added fava beans, lima beans and garbanzo beans).

Edit for accuracy: it seems the most common cause of tonsilitis is viral, not bacterial. So strep throat is tonsilitis, but tonsilitis is not necessarily strep throat.

Comments

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Do people really bother the doc with an upset tum, unless it goes on beyond a few days?

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Most wouldn't for an upset tum that's mild and only lasts a few days, but gastroenteritis (any stomach/intestinal infection) can be really pretty nasty. Most will phone rather than visit - at least initially - which is a mercy for them and the other patients. If it's very severe or drawn out you totally should bother the doc.

I was more drawing a parallel between people (mostly American) saying "I have strep throat" when there's no evidence of streptococcal infection, and people (mostly British that I've encountered, but Americans might do it too) saying "I had norovirus" when there's no evidence of that particular virus. Sure, both of those are fairly common causes of those symptoms, but the symptoms in no way prove the specific infection.

(For clarity, I'm not the sort of doctor who makes you better, I'm the sort who makes you worse. In part by having a fair amount of medical knowledge but no clinical qualifications.)

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

I see your point. I belong to the born-pre-NHS generation and we grew up regarding doctors only for things which looked as if they might become "really serious" i.e. nigh on terminal .

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, D&V can be nigh on terminal :) Admittedly, not usually for otherwise-healthy persons, unless they've actually got cholera or something...