Objective:To explore the clinical application value of group A Streptococcus (GAS) antigen rapid detection method in children suffering from GAS infection.Methods:A total of 44 733 children with suspected GAS infection who were admitted to the Outpatient and Inpatient Departments of Shenzhen Children′s Hospital from January 2015 to December 2019.Throat swab specimens from all children were collected, and BinaxNOW Strep A Test reagent was used for GAS antigen rapid detection.Among them, the throat swabs of 346 children were inoculated with blood culture medium for traditional bacterial culture, and then the GAS antigen rapid detection was tested.The sensitivity and specificity of the two methods were compared, and according to the result of the GAS antigen rapid detection, its age, gender and seasonal trends were analyzed.SPSS 19.0 software was applied for statistical analysis of the data.Results:Among the 346 children tested by both methods, the results of bacterial culture were adopted as the reference method, the sensitivity of the rapid detection method for GAS antigen was 89.41%(152/170 cases), and the specificity was 94.32%(166/176 cases) compared with culture methods.A total of 44 733 cases GAS antigen were tested in children in Shenzhen, of which 10 024 cases were positive, with the positive detection rate of 22.41%.The trend of GAS antigen rapid detection was consistent with the five-year trend, with the high positive rate of 3-8 years, of which 4-6 years of positive rate was the highest.The two seasonal peaks were evident each year, with peaks occurring in April-June, and November and January of next year.The detection rate ratio of male and female was 1.74∶1, and the gender difference was significant ( χ2=27.93, P<0.000 1). GAS antigen rapid detection rate in different clinical departments from high to low in order are as follows: dermatology outpatient (52.34%), emergency clinic (47.74%), internal medicine outpatient (37.36%), infectious disease area (19.71%), five-level disease area (10.27%), internal medicine area (8.63%), surgical areas (7.34%) and neonatal areas (0). Conclusions:GAS antigen rapid detection method and bacterial culture method have high coincidence rate, and high sensitivity and specificity, and can be popularized and applied in the diagnosis of GAS infectious diseases in children.GAS detection rate is higher in outpatient emergency department and dermatology clinics.There are obvious differences from seasonal and population (age and gender) in the positive detection of GAS antigen.No neonates were found.