Streptococcal pharyngitis in children with painful throat: missed opportunities for rheumatic heart disease prevention in endemic area of Africa

Group A β-haemolytic Streptococcus (GAS), also known as streptococcus pyogenes, causes pharyngitis (1). The burden of GAS infections is unknown in Mozambique due of lack of surveillance system, but repeated GAS infections are surely occurring in early ages since rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is endemic in the country (2). Despite the high prevalence of rheumatic heart valve disease (RHVD) detected in schoolchildren from a peri-urban area of Maputo using echocardiographic screening in school children (3), data on the incidence and prevalence of GAS pharyngitis and rheumatic fever (RF) in the area are scarce (4). We designed a study to determine the proportion of GAS infection in children with pharyngitis attending outpatient’s clinic of the referral hospital from this area