Capillaries are tiny thin-walled blood vessels that connect the smallest arteries and veins and allow the exchange of nutrients and waste between the blood and tissues.
However, one must take into account the reality of patient behavior and the price of unsuccessful or incomplete therapy. Three to six days of oral antibiotics for children with streptococcal throat infection is a safe treatment with a comparable effect to the standard duration of 10 days of penicillin. However, our results must be interpreted with caution in low-income countries where acute rheumatic fever is still a problem.
An advantage of this option is that if the infection is indeed strep, 24 hours on an antibiotic renders the patient noncontagious, allowing a return to school or work after just a dayâs absence. With or without treatment, Dr. Bisno said, strep infections are limited, and most people are better within three or four days. Furthermore, he said, it is safe to wait several days â and perhaps as many as nine days â before starting antibiotic therapy without compromising the chances of preventing rheumatic fever.