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Doctors urge proper hygiene, hand washing during strep throat season
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BATON ROUGE - It's that time of year—medical offices across the capital area are treating patients with strep throat.
"I have a strep test that's positive for a patient I have not gotten to see yet," Dr. Brett Hutchinson told WBRZ. "I had at least two positives this morning, so now I'm working on three."
Dr. Hutchinson with the Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group Pediatric Medical Center says it's common to see more people, especially children ages 2 through 18, with strep throat between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
"There has been an increase lately," he added. "Probably three or four [patients] a day, average over a broad sweep of six weeks."
Strep throat is also extremely contagious, and can spread through simple contact.
"Sharing food, drinks, kissing, coughing," Dr. Hutchinson said. "We are inside more, we spend more time close together. We share meals in the holiday time."
To avoid getting sick, Hutchinson advises to exercise good hygiene.
"Frequent hand washing. Not sharing, not touching the face, and not sharing food and drinks, because that's how it'll spread."
Typically, it takes two to five days for someone exposed to the illness to become sick.
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