Sore- throat is a common health problem that makes individuals visit their doctor frequently. The illness affects all types of people but children and young adults suffer from sore- throat the most. Sore- throat occurs when viruses or bacteria invade the throat and cause an infection. Up to 70% of sore- throat is caused by viruses while bacteria are responsible for the rest.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
Sore-throat brings lots of discomfort and causes symptoms that may include pain on swallowing, fever, headache and vomiting. There may also be yellowish discharge on the throat and children may complain of abdominal pain. When the sickness starts with cold or running nose it is most likely due to infection by viruses. Bacteria also causes infection on its own or after viruses have already infected and destroyed the layers covering the throat.
Simple sore-throat infection may become complicated leading to swellings (large tonsils) in the throat with discharge of creamy fluid. This may cause serious pain when you try to swallow anything including saliva and there may be difficulty in opening the mouth. Also this may lead to infection in the ear causing severe pain and fever.
Children suffer many attacks of sore-throat but as they grow older the attacks reduce in frequency.
TREATMENT
Sore-throat is a self limiting illness: meaning that the disease restricts itself to a few days. 9 out of 10 people affected by sore-throat regain their health in less than 1 week even without taking any treatment.
To ease the discomfort of sore-throat you need to do the following:
Have plenty of rest to save your energy and help fast recovery.
Take pain relievers such as Paracetamol to reduce pain and fever.
Drink lots of fluids as these help prevent dryness of the throat and make it feel better.
Use warm saltwater to gaggle and spit out. This will bring some relief immediately.
Drink warm tea, water or soup.
Lozenges help to reduce the amount of bacteria in the throat as well as reduce the discomfort.
Avoid cold and dry air instead use a humidifier to make the air you breathe less irritating.
Treatment with antibiotics is not necessary in most of the cases but is used if illness did not get better in 2 to 3 days. However if you have high fever and creamy discharge from the tonsils and serious pain in the neck then antibiotics are started immediately. Also antibiotic treatment is started immediately if a person has other serious diseases such as heart disease, HIV or others.
In some serious situations surgery may be needed to remove tonsils by the ENT surgeon. These situations include:
When a child has more than 5 attacks each year for 2 years
When the tonsils grow too big and choke the person during sleep
Large tonsils that last more than 3 months leading to bad breath from the person
HOW TO AVOID SORE-THROAT
Sore-throat is easily avoided through the following:
Avoid over-crowded rooms or halls with no proper ventilation. Over-crowding increases the chance of catching the infection from others who are suffering from the sickness.
Avoid close contact with people who already have sore-throat.
Wash hands regularly as this will reduce the transfer of bacteria or viruses from contaminated surfaces to you.
Avoid smoking cigarette and polluted air as these cause irritation as well as destruction of the layers covering the throat leading to infection.
Drink lots of fluids to flush your throat and prevent dryness.
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