Lauren Johnson has been sneezing a lot lately. Up to 12 times a minute, every day, almost all day, for a month. Lauren, 12, has been diagnosed with PANDAS, a disorder linked with strep.

PANDAS, Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus, is a rare new syndrome causing controversy in the medical world.

“In this condition, what typically happens is, following a strep infection like strep pharyngitis, the child will develop a sudden onset of either tics or OCD-type behavior,” pediatric neurologist Dr. Rosario Trifiletti said in an interview with MSNBC. “In many patients, they have a tendency towards tics, and the strep infection can make it a lot worse.”

PANDAS usually develops sometime between age three and puberty. Symptoms include OCD or tic disorders, episodic severity, hyperactivity/adventitious movements, and association with streptococcal infections. Episodes are associated with separation anxiety, mood changes, bed-wetting and disturbed sleep.

If a child has a strep infection with episodes on three different occasions, this may be a sign he or she has the disorder. There are currently no lab tests that can confirm the disorder, and there is currently no know cure for PANDAS.

Still, Lauren’s mother, Lynn, has found some relief in knowing why her daughter can’t seem to stop sneezing:

“It’s bittersweet,” she says. “We have a direction to go towards, but there’s not a lot of answers. There needs to be more research done, more funding for research, more answers so we can treat her effectively.”

Lauren is being treated with antibiotics and steroids for the disorder. Luckily, Lauren says she’s getting used to the sneezing.

New software using cell phones may allow doctors to analyze coughs and diagnose respiratory illness, including pneumonia.

“A cough is one of the most common symptoms of illness and a common mode of disease spread,” says researcher Suzanne Smith, PhD, of STAR Analytical Services. “Yet we don’t use technology in any way to measure or understand what coughs mean.”

The program is designed to distinguish different coughs using acoustic vocalization analysis, a way to distinguish different audio tones. Researchers hypothesize that the sound of coughing varies by illness, and that these subtle differences may be enough to determine which illness a patient has.

If this is true, it could mean greater accessibility to medical services for individuals who live far from a doctor. An early diagnosis would also help determine what treatments are necessary and ensure that patients receive the proper medications they need to recover.

Efforts are currently focused on pneumonia,  a disease that kills 1.8 million children every year. Most of them live in developing countries. Software capabilities, if initially successful, are likely to grow. Cell phones could potentially be used to diagnose everything from the common cold to influenza.

The project is in its beginning stages, but the possibility of such a program could save millions of lives, not to mention billions of dollars in health care costs.

Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Global Health Program says that this is the exact sort of thinking it will take to tackle the world’s health challenges.

"I'm excited about their ideas and look forward to seeing some of these exploratory projects turn into life-saving breakthroughs," he says.

Strep throat is a bacterial infection of the throat caused by streptococcus bacteria. It can affect anyone, but is most common in children ages 5 to 15. If your child is complaining about a sore throat, it is important to determine if it is from a cold, which is caused by a virus, or if it is strep throat, caused by a bacterial infection. Without knowing the cause of a sore throat, it is hard to determine how to treat it. Strep throat may not get better unless it is treated with antibiotics, but antibiotics have no effect on viral infections.

In general, signs and symptoms of strep throat include:

• throat pain
• difficulty swallowing
• red and swollen tonsils, sometimes with white patches or streaks of pus
• swollen, tender lymph nodes in the neck
• fever
• headache
• rash
• Stomachache, often accompanied by vomiting in younger children

Unfortunately, many of these symptoms are similar to those of a sore throat caused by the common cold. However, one big difference is that strep throat is not associated with a cough. These symptoms can also be indicators of other viral illness or tonsillitis.

With a simple throat swab or rapid antigen test, your doctor can determine whether or not it is strep throat. If so, the doctor can prescribe antibiotic treatment to begin right away.

Want to learn more? Ask an Expert at Healia Health Communities. You can also connect with others in Healia’s Health Community for Streptococcal Infections. 


_{Photo:Ateo Fiel, Flickr, Creative Commons}

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July is International Group B Strep Awareness Month. Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is the leading cause of life-threatening infections -- such as meningitis -- in newborn babies.

Fortunately, GBS is preventable. Prevention begins with awareness, and GBS International has been doing a great job on this front. If you're available and interested, they could use your help.

GBS group B strep international awareness newborn health