Megged O, et al. - Researchers sought to perform a comparison of clinical and laboratory characteristics of Streptococcus pyogenes vs Streptococcus pneumoniae (SP) pleural empyema and pneumonia with pleural effusion in children. They reviewed the medical records of 90 children 0–18 years of age from 2004 to 2019, with discharge diagnoses of pleuropneumonia or empyema, and a positive blood and/or pleural effusion culture for group A streptococcus (GAS) (S. pyogenes), or SP. These cases comprised 20 with GAS and 70 with SP. They observed an increase in the relative portion of GAS empyema over the study period. Cases with GAS had more morbidity and a longer hospital stay than those with SP empyema. As more frequent recovery of this organism was made from pleural fluid with less frequent positive blood culture, pleural fluid tap is necessary for precise diagnosis.