Case no1

A 12 year old male with 4 days of sore throat comes into the office. He has been afebrile, has rhinorrhea, cough and one day of diarrhea associated with his sore throat. The throat is mildly erythematous with otherwise normal appearing tonsils. The best course of action is (this may be a controversial question
depending on your practice setting):

1.  Swab his throat and give a 10 day course of antibiotics, you will call him if the culture is negative for group A strep so that he can stop antibiotic treatment.
2.  Swab his throat, withhold antibiotics unless his culture is positive.
3. Advise him on symptomatic treatment.
4. Give him antibiotics without testing for group A strep.

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