Can guinea pigs carry the strep virus?

[mjlesy]

So here's a bit of the back story to this: I had strep throat the second last week of June and was put on meds for ten days. By that tenth day (June 28th) I felt much better. But yesterday (July 1st) I started to have all the same symptoms again. So after spending 4 hours at the hospital, I found out I have strep throat again. So my question is - can guinea pigs carry the strep virus and pass it onto humans? I haven't been handling them much while I've been sick and have been washing my hands a lot - before and after handling my piggies. I've done a little bit of research on this and I have found mixed reviews. So I was wondering your thoughts on this?

[HannibalLecter]

You most likely didn't get rid of the infection in the first place, and it bloomed up again.

[Mastershroom]

As far as I know, it's impossible to catch the exact same infection twice, because by the time you get rid of it, your immune system has all the antibodies for that particular infection. If the exact same infection returns, your body is already prepared. You can't catch the same cold twice, for example, but colds are still common because the virus mutates very rapidly, and thus the antibodies that you develop for one cold will not work on a different mutation.

Sounds like you either got really unlucky and got two separate strep infections back to back, or you never truly got rid of your infection and it just flared up.

[bpatters]

First, strep isn't a virus. It's a bacteria, and can infect almost any living organism. And it can go from you to the pigs, or from the pigs to you. But if the pigs aren't sick, they almost certainly aren't infecting you with strep.

Second, you don't make enough antibodies to strep to prevent reinfection, so having one infection doesn't protect you from having another one at all. It's certainly possible to catch the same infection twice, particularly if you aren't keeping your whole environment extra clean.

As Hannibal Lecter said, however, the most likely scenario is that you just didn't get rid of it the first time. If your doctor didn't do a culture and sensitivity test when you were diagnosed (and he probably didn't because they're time consuming and expensive), the medicine he gave you may not have been particularly effective against the strep, and therefore required a longer series of doses for you to get completely over it.