Sore throats may sometimes seem like a rite of passage through childhood. Many stem from viral infections like colds, frequent invaders when your kids go to school and play with others.
While sore throats often come and go with only minor at-home care, there’s one type that usually needs medical attention. It’s the dreaded strep throat infection.
We’ve got you covered at Dr 2 Kids, Smita Tandon MD in Fountain Valley, California. We take and process diagnostic tests for strep throat so you’ll know in minutes if group A Streptococcus is causing your child’s sore throat.
This identification is important in the age of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Potential complications of strep throat can be harmful to your child’s future health, so it’s crucial to know what’s behind your child’s sore throat.
Medically known as pharyngitis, sore throats usually present symptoms like itchiness or burning feelings at the back of the throat. It’s common to develop pharyngitis when a patient has a respiratory infection or respiratory symptoms accompanying allergies.
These forms of sore throat tend to last for the duration of the viral illness or through the heaviest parts of allergy season. Pharyngitis symptoms mix with allergy or viral infection symptoms.
Strep throat is a unique form of pharyngitis, where the sore throat is the primary symptom. Pain in the throat starts quickly, over a matter of hours, and without other warning signs.
A fever often starts quickly, peaking on the second day of infection. Your child may also experience:
Strep throat doesn’t create symptoms you normally associate with a cold, such as coughing or a runny nose. If these are present, the sore throat might not be from the strep bacteria.
Because strep throat results from a bacterial infection, we usually prescribe a course of antibiotics to slow the growth of bacteria and, ultimately, to kill the infection. This often speeds your child’s recovery and reduces the chances of transmitting the infection.
The most important reason for antibiotic treatment, however, is reducing the chances of complications. The most dangerous of these is rheumatic fever.
Also caused by group A Strep bacteria, rheumatic fever causes the autoimmune system to attack healthy tissue. In some cases, this can lead to long-term damage to the heart.
Rheumatic fever damages the heart in several ways, including:
Untreated strep throat can cause other damage too, like scarlet fever and kidney inflammation. Prompt antibiotic treatment greatly reduces these risks.
Contact Dr 2 Kids, Smita Tandon MD at the first sign of strep throat symptoms. Call or click to book a strep throat test as soon as possible.
