Throat Infections
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 rarely turns into a tonsillar abscess (a collection of pus behind your tonsils)
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If you get tonsillitis very often, your doctor may do surgery to take out your tonsils (tonsillectomy)
What causes throat infections?
Throat infections are caused by:
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A viral infection, such as the common cold (most common cause)
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Sometimes, a bacterial infection, such as strep throat
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 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.
