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Diagnosis
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Frequently Asked Questions
Next in Strep Throat Guide
Healthcare providers use several tests to diagnose strep throat. It is treated with antibiotics, while medications and home remedies can help people to cope with symptoms until the infection clears. It’s uncommon, but strep throat can cause serious complications.
This article will talk about what strep throat is and how you catch it. You will also learn about how your healthcare provider can tell if you have strep throat and what treatments you might need. There are also some steps that you can take to prevent strep throat.
Verywell / Emily Roberts
Strep Throat Symptoms
If you catch strep throat, you will usually start feeling sick two to five days after you are exposed to the bacteria that causes the infection. There are severalsymptoms of strep throat, but the most common is a verysore throat.
Other symptoms of strep throat are:
How Long Is the Contagious Period of Strep Throat?Strep throat is highly contagious through airborne particles, touching a contaminated surface, or sharing personal items like food utensils. You’ll feel sick about two to five days after exposure. After 24 to 48 hours of taking antibiotics, the infection should no longer be contagious.Good hygiene practices, such as hand washing, will help with strep throat prevention.
How Long Is the Contagious Period of Strep Throat?
Strep throat is highly contagious through airborne particles, touching a contaminated surface, or sharing personal items like food utensils. You’ll feel sick about two to five days after exposure. After 24 to 48 hours of taking antibiotics, the infection should no longer be contagious.Good hygiene practices, such as hand washing, will help with strep throat prevention.
4 Reasons You Can Get Strep Without Tonsils
What Can Be Mistaken for Strep Throat?
Strep throat is not the only infection that can cause asore throat. In fact, viral illnesses that cause a sore throat are more common than strep throat.
There are a few ways that strep throat is different from a sore throat from a viral infection, and these symptoms can help you to know if you have strep throat.
Strep throat may start suddenly with a fever. Sore throats from viral infections tend to happen gradually.If you have strep throat, you usually do not have a cough. A sore throat from a virus is more likely to have a cough with it, along with other cold symptoms like:
The main symptom of strep throat is a sore throat that starts suddenly with a fever and chills. Your tonsils might be red and swollen. They might also have white streaks or pus on them. You might also have fatigue and a headache, but cough is usually not a strep throat symptom.
Symptoms of Strep Throat in Babies and Toddlers
Strep throat spreads in saliva or other body fluids that have group AStreptococcusbacteria in them. If someone who has strep throat coughs or sneezes around you, it can expose you to the bacteria as it spreads through the air. You can also pick it up if you touch people or objects with bacteria on them.
Strep throat is very contagious. It’s easilyspread from one person to another. Some people are more likely to catch strep throat than other people, including people with weak immune systems, people having chemotherapy, babies, and people who are pregnant.
If someone in your home catches strep throat, there are steps you can take to lower your chances of catching it:
Can You Be Around Someone With Strep Throat?
What Causes Strep Throat?
Your healthcare provider can usually tell if you have strep throat. An expert in throat health, called anotolaryngologist, can alsodiagnose the infection.
They will ask you about your symptoms and look at your throat and neck.They will look for signs of strep throat, including:
Your healthcare provider mightdo some teststo figure out if you have strep throat.These strep throat tests may include:
Can You Buy At-Home Strep Tests?
Before your healthcare provider decides on treatment, they will want to make sure that you do not have a sore throat for another reason. For example, a viral illnesscannot be treated with antibiotics.
However, if you have strep throat, it means you have a bacterial infection. In this case, you would need an antibiotic. There are differentantibiotics that treat strep throat, including:
Your healthcare provider will look at your medical record and talk to you about your health before they decide which antibiotic to give you. For example, if you areallergic to penicillin, they can prescribe you a different kind of antibiotic.
Sometimes, antibiotics are not strong enough to clear up a strep throat infection. This is called antibiotic resistance. If you are being treated for strep throat but your symptoms do not get better, your healthcare provider will change your treatment.
You should stay home with strep throat until you’ve taken antibiotics for 24 to 48 hours. After that, you aren’t contagious and can’t spread strep throat to other people.
It is important totake your antibiotic prescriptionexactly as instructed. You need to finish all of the medication—even if you start to feel better.
If you stop taking the antibiotics too early, the infection might not clear up. Instead, it might get worse. You could also haveserious complicationsfrom the infection.
Strep throat symptoms like fever, muscle aches, and a headache can usually be treated with over-the-counter (OTC) medicine like ibuprofen. Strep throat home remedies, like having cool drinks or ice pops, can also help to ease throat pain.
Getting plenty of rest, staying hydrated, and eating nutritious meals (even if it hurts to swallow) will also help your body to recover.
Does Strep Throat Go Away on Its Own?
How Strep Throat Is Treated
Strep throat usually gets better in about a week as long as you follow your healthcare provider’s instructions. Most people who get strep don’t have any serious side effects or long-term problems from the illness.
If you are sticking to your treatment plan but don’t feel better or you start to feel sicker, tell your provider right away. You might need a different treatment to make sure the infection clears up and prevent complications.
If you follow your treatment plan for strep throat,you should feel better in about a week. If you are not feeling better or feel worse, tell your provider right away. You might need a different treatment.
Summary
Most people recover from strep throat in about a week and do not have any long-term problems. However, if a person stops their prescribed treatment too soon, the infection might not get better. They could also develop serious complications.
A Word From Verywell
Antibiotic medication will clear up your strep throat infection, but be sure to take all the doses that have been given to you even if you start feeling better within a few days. It’s not common to have serious complications from a case of strep throat, but it can happen. Let your healthcare provider know if you are following your treatment plan but don’t feel better or start feeling worse.
Frequently Asked QuestionsMany cases of strep throat symptoms last for one week. Untreated strep throat can lead to severe complications, includingkidney disease,guttate psoriasis(skin condition), abscesses near the tonsils, rheumatic fever, andscarlet fever.Learn MoreHealth Complications Associated With Swollen TonsilsAntibiotics used for strep throat are different, and treatment choices are not the same for everyone. For example, you may have an allergic reaction to one medication and need to be treated with another. Your healthcare provider will choose an option from commonly prescribed antibiotics.Learn MoreEvery Antibiotics Question You Have, AnsweredStrep throat can cause the tonsils to become red, swollen, and show white patches of pus. Additionally, small red spots called petechiae can appear on the roof of the mouth, the uvula may become swollen, and lymph nodes at the front of the neck also become swollen. You may have a rash as well.Learn MoreSkin Redness: Causes, Photos, Treatment, and More
Many cases of strep throat symptoms last for one week. Untreated strep throat can lead to severe complications, includingkidney disease,guttate psoriasis(skin condition), abscesses near the tonsils, rheumatic fever, andscarlet fever.Learn MoreHealth Complications Associated With Swollen Tonsils
Many cases of strep throat symptoms last for one week. Untreated strep throat can lead to severe complications, includingkidney disease,guttate psoriasis(skin condition), abscesses near the tonsils, rheumatic fever, andscarlet fever.
Learn MoreHealth Complications Associated With Swollen Tonsils
Antibiotics used for strep throat are different, and treatment choices are not the same for everyone. For example, you may have an allergic reaction to one medication and need to be treated with another. Your healthcare provider will choose an option from commonly prescribed antibiotics.Learn MoreEvery Antibiotics Question You Have, Answered
Antibiotics used for strep throat are different, and treatment choices are not the same for everyone. For example, you may have an allergic reaction to one medication and need to be treated with another. Your healthcare provider will choose an option from commonly prescribed antibiotics.
Learn MoreEvery Antibiotics Question You Have, Answered
Strep throat can cause the tonsils to become red, swollen, and show white patches of pus. Additionally, small red spots called petechiae can appear on the roof of the mouth, the uvula may become swollen, and lymph nodes at the front of the neck also become swollen. You may have a rash as well.Learn MoreSkin Redness: Causes, Photos, Treatment, and More
Strep throat can cause the tonsils to become red, swollen, and show white patches of pus. Additionally, small red spots called petechiae can appear on the roof of the mouth, the uvula may become swollen, and lymph nodes at the front of the neck also become swollen. You may have a rash as well.
Learn MoreSkin Redness: Causes, Photos, Treatment, and More
Strep Throat and Peritonsillar Abscesses
7 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Martin JM.The mysteries of streptococcal pharyngitis.Curr Treat Options Pediatr. 2015;1(2):180-189. doi:10.1007/s40746-015-0013-9Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.About group a strep infection.Penn Medicine.Strep throat (streptococcal pharyngitis).MedlinePlus.Strep throat.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.About strep throat.Wessels MR.Pharyngitis and scarlet fever. In: Ferretti JJ, Stevens DL, Fischetti VA, editors.Streptococcus pyogenes:Basic Biology to Clinical Manifestations. Oklahoma City, OK: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.Yale Medicine.Strep throat.
7 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Martin JM.The mysteries of streptococcal pharyngitis.Curr Treat Options Pediatr. 2015;1(2):180-189. doi:10.1007/s40746-015-0013-9Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.About group a strep infection.Penn Medicine.Strep throat (streptococcal pharyngitis).MedlinePlus.Strep throat.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.About strep throat.Wessels MR.Pharyngitis and scarlet fever. In: Ferretti JJ, Stevens DL, Fischetti VA, editors.Streptococcus pyogenes:Basic Biology to Clinical Manifestations. Oklahoma City, OK: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.Yale Medicine.Strep throat.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Martin JM.The mysteries of streptococcal pharyngitis.Curr Treat Options Pediatr. 2015;1(2):180-189. doi:10.1007/s40746-015-0013-9Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.About group a strep infection.Penn Medicine.Strep throat (streptococcal pharyngitis).MedlinePlus.Strep throat.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.About strep throat.Wessels MR.Pharyngitis and scarlet fever. In: Ferretti JJ, Stevens DL, Fischetti VA, editors.Streptococcus pyogenes:Basic Biology to Clinical Manifestations. Oklahoma City, OK: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.Yale Medicine.Strep throat.
Martin JM.The mysteries of streptococcal pharyngitis.Curr Treat Options Pediatr. 2015;1(2):180-189. doi:10.1007/s40746-015-0013-9
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.About group a strep infection.
Penn Medicine.Strep throat (streptococcal pharyngitis).
MedlinePlus.Strep throat.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.About strep throat.
Wessels MR.Pharyngitis and scarlet fever. In: Ferretti JJ, Stevens DL, Fischetti VA, editors.Streptococcus pyogenes:Basic Biology to Clinical Manifestations. Oklahoma City, OK: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
Yale Medicine.Strep throat.
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