[Identification of Group A streptococci from throats of school children in Northern Taiwan].

A total of 2,750 strains of beta-hemolytic streptococci was isolated from 10, 510 throat swabs collected from school children in the Taipei area. Most of them were classified as group A (61%) and group G (34%), and about 5% belonged to other groups or unclassified strains. 1, 772 strains of beta-hemolytic streptococci isolated from healthy school children, and 69 strains from sick school children were grouped by the Lancefield precipitin test, fluorescent antibody technique and/or bacitracin paper disk method. A satisfactory correlation (over 90%) was obtained by the latter 2 methods, when compared with the results of the Lancefield technique. The occurrance of false negative or false positive was only 1 or 5%, respectively.