Strep throat is an infection caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes. Several million people come down with this highly contagious ailment every year, especially during the spring. It’s particularly common among children and adolescents.

alt

The telltale symptoms of strep throat are severe throat pain, red and swollen tonsils, and tiny red spots on the roof of the mouth. You may have trouble swallowing, and the glands in your neck could be swollen. Fever, headache, stomachache, and rash are all associated with strep throat, but a stuffy nose and cough are more often signs of a cold or flu.

To diagnose the condition, a doctor will check for the presence of Streptococcus. She’ll swab the back of the throat and perform either a throat culture, in which case it takes up to 2 days to receive the results, or an instant antigen test. If the screening is positive, she’ll prescribe antibiotics to kill the bacteria. After antibiotics were first invented in the 1940s, some experts believed that all bacterial infections would be completely eradicated. But within a decade, bacterial strains evolved to be resistant to certain antibiotics. That’s why many public health experts discourage physicians from prescribing antibiotics without doing a screening to confirm strep throat.

Although strep throat can go away on its own, untreated cases may lead to more-serious complications. Other infections, such as sinusitis and ear infections, may occur. Kidney inflammation and rheumatic fever, which causes inflammatory deposits in the heart and other body tissues, may lead to permanent damage when strep throat is untreated.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. Strep throat is also called Streptococcus pharyngitis.
  2. If untreated, about 1 percent of patients develop kidney disease and 3 percent develop heart disease.