Edmonton pharmacist sees surge in strep throat infections

Cold and flu season is upon us, but strep infections are also on the rise.

“We’re at its peak right now,” said Dapheni Morton, an Edmonton Pharmacist.

Morton says the current positivity rate for strep throat is 48 per cent at Shoppers Drug Mart locations across the province, among the highest seen in history, and well above the typical positivity rate of 20-25 per cent.

“Typically it’s likely because of the masks that we were wearing for the COVID pandemic as well as keeping the rates down for COVID it also minimized a lot of the other infectious diseases including strep. Now that we aren’t wearing masks as much and people are a little more vulnerable and seeing people more often without masks, we are seeing that peak and that is probably what we are attributing that to,” explained Morton.

Strep throat infection can lead to symptoms such as a sore throat, fever, aches, and pains — but a severe infection can be fatal if not treated.

The good news is in Alberta you can avoid a trip to the doctor’s clinic to get tested and treated for strep throat. Pharmacists across the province can do just that.

“Typically if you have a prolonged sore throat, usually longer than 48 hours, especially if it is accompanied by fever, or red, painful throat. There might be some white pustules as well, I would say within 48 hours you want to be checked in.”

Alberta Health says there have been 571 confirmed cases of Strep A infection reported this year, to the end of September, which already puts it as the highest year on record.