Strep throat is surging among children in some pockets of the country, raising concerns that a shortage of antibiotics to treat it could worsen as the nation heads into winter. An unprecedented number of otherwise healthy adults and children are coming into the emergency room at Henry Ford Medical Center — Fairlane in Dearborn, Michigan, sick with strep, said Dr. Jennifer Stevenson, the head of the emergency department.
Doctors aren't usually required to report strep throat diagnoses to their local or state health departments, as they would be for other illnesses, such as Covid or measles, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 5 million outpatient visits each year are due to noninvasive group A strep. After an unusually high spike in strep last year, current strep throat levels appear to be restoring to pre-pandemic proportions, according to the Epic data.