Abstract

HERPANGINA WITH MARKED LEUCOCYTOSIS AND ELEVATED INFLAMMATORY MARKERS AN ATYPICAL PAEDIATRIC CASE REPORT

Sneha Lissue Antony* and Akhila Ann Cherian

ABSTRACT

Herpangina is an acute viral infection that is caused primarily by agroup of viruses called Coxsackievirus A, mainly characterized byfever, odynophagia, and vesicular lesions on th e oropharynx . Usually,it manifests with mild or no leucocytosis and normal inflammatorymarkers. However, cases with significant leucocytosis , elevated ESR,and CRP may arouse suspicion for bacterial infection, causing adiagnostic challenge leading to em pirical antibiotic therapy inspite of aviral etiology. Here we present such a case of a 4 year old boy withherpangina along with leucocytosis and elevated inflammatory markershighlight ing the importance of clinical judgement along withlaboratory parame ters in differentiating viral from bacterial infectionsinorder to mitigate antibiotic resistance.

Keywords: Herpangina, Coxsackievirus A, Leucocytosis , Odynophagia