What are throat infections?
Throat infections can involve the whole back of your throat or just your tonsils. Tonsils are small lumps of tissue in the back of your throat. Tonsils help fight infection but sometimes get infected themselves. Infection of the tonsils is called tonsillitis.
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Everyone gets throat infections, but tonsillitis happens mostly to children
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Throat infections are usually caused by a virus but may be caused by bacteria
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Symptoms include severe pain when you swallow and swollen, red tonsils
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If not treated, tonsillitis from bacteria can turn into a tonsillar abscess Tonsillar Abscess Your tonsils are small lumps of tissue in the back of your throat. Tonsils help fight infection but sometimes get infected themselves. An abscess is a pocket of pus. A tonsillar abscess is a... read more
(a collection of pus behind your tonsils), but this is rare -
If you get tonsillitis very often, your doctor may do surgery to take out your tonsils (tonsillectomy)
What causes throat infections?
What are the symptoms of throat infections?
How can doctors tell if I have a throat infection?
Doctors can tell if your throat is infected by looking in your throat and seeing that it's red. Sometimes they'll swab your throat and do a strep test, to see if strep throat Streptococcal Infections Streptococcus (simply called strep) is a common group of bacteria. Different types of strep cause different diseases. Most often they cause sore throat (strep throat) or skin infections. But... read more is causing the infection.
Sometimes people think that big, red, swollen tonsils with white patches means it's strep throat. That's not true. All kinds of throat infections can look that way, not just strep.
