Apart from minimizing a child's exposure to strep throat and similar upper respiratory infections, there is nothing that parents can do to prevent vasculitis in children, in that the cause(s) of these disorders are still unknown.
About 50-60 percent of children with HSP were diagnosed with strep throat or another upper respiratory infection two to three weeks before the onset of the vasculitis.
If untreated, however, strep throat can develop into rheumatic fever which can permanently damage the heart and other organs.
There are millions of cases of strep throat every year, and similar numbers of cases of relatively mild skin infections.
Many of these bacterial sore throats are cases of strep throat.