apparently you can be a carrier of strep and it can effect your joints....I had no idea. Im on powerful antibiotics to see if we can kill it off. What's amazing is that this same strain of strep may be the same one that sent me to the ER 10 years ago. It was a rather bad case and I had to have my antibiotics changed. Ever since them I have gotten step on a regular basis. I'll go in antibiotics and it will go away and I thought it was dead. However, my Dr thinks its anti biotic resistant and the drugs merely weakened it back into a dormant state. The good news is within a few months of killing this thing my pain should go away.