possible strep throat - should i see the gp?

[Pavlovthecat]

DD has a fever, sore and slightly distended belly, headache and a slight sore throat.

Normally I would not be overly concerned and just medicate with calpol/ibruprofen but my friend's little boy has been poorly in hospital with strep infection which resulted in kidney infection (His situation is a bit more unusual as he already has slight damage to kidneys and they struggled to cope with the infection, however the strep infection itself was not due to his previous kidney damage just made it harder for him to recover)

We visited them 10 days ago and DD started to feel unwell about 1-2 days ago, so I am guessing it is plausable that she has got this infection from him?

So, given that normally the gp would just disregard this as a 'virus' and not test for strep throat, but that I know for sure DD has been in contact with this, should i ask for her to be tested for strep/have a course of antibiotics or just let her ride it out as I normally would?

she is fine in herself though i should add. not really poorly with it. she was worse yesterday evening/night but not helped by a 500mile round trip in a hot car, after an early start, and I thought she had broken the fever but it returned this morning.

Fever is still present but reduced with ibruprofen. Oh, actually, I was also going to ask, if she has a sore belly should I avoid ibruprofen? I am not so much concerned about her health right now, but more worried about longer term complication risk if I don't get her seen (my friend's little boy was relatively ok when we saw him before he was hospitalised, i mean he threw up once, and his face started to swell up but he was not layed up in bed, and had no high fever)

I've no idea whether step throat is contageous or whether two people can get the same bug and one go to strap and the other doesn't. Like one person having a cough, and it going to pneumonia in another.
I think in your case I'd probably give the surgery a ring and ask for a doctor to phone you when they can. If they think there's a chance that she has it then they'll ask for her to come in for a swab.

DeWe i shall give them a call, as you say, they can advise.

i think strep is the cause of the infection, rather than becoming it if it gets worse. I think what is different is how one person's body reacts to that strep bacteria. So, one person might get a sore throat (most i think) and occasionally it becomes something more serious. My poor friend's little boy was unlucky that it went to his kidneys, and then doubly unlucky that he has a pre-existing kidney condition. I think he could just as easily have had a throat infection only. and might even have in the past.