How to tell if your sore throat is actually strep throat

With cooler weather, our primary and urgent care providers are already seeing an uptick in sore throat cases. Most of them come from cold and flu viruses, but strep is also possible, especially in kids and teenagers during the winter months.

Strep throat is caused by Group A Streptococcus bacteria and tends to come on quickly, whereas a viral infection tends to build over days and is accompanied by a cough or runny nose.
With strep throat, which is notoriously painful, there’s often an accompanying fever and swollen lymph nodes in the front of your neck. In the bathroom mirror, you can check your tonsils for white patches and pus and tiny red dots on the roof of your mouth. Some kids also experience headaches or stomachaches.

To diagnose strep, we check with a rapid antigen test, which returns results in 10 or 15 minutes. If the test comes back negative, we may send a second swab to the lab for a throat culture to be sure.
If the test comes back strep-positive, antibiotics like penicillin or amoxicillin are often the first line of defense. Most people feel better within a couple days, but it’s important to always finish the whole prescription to avoid the infection coming back. To help with the pain, honey, warm saltwater gargles, lozenges, and ibuprofen or acetaminophen can all take the edge off as you rest up and drink plenty of fluids.

Because strep spreads easily, do not return to work or school until you’ve been on antibiotics for at least 12 hours and have been fever-free for 24 hours.

If you have an aggressive sore throat that seems to appear overnight, especially if it’s accompanied by a fever or white patches on your tonsils, it’s worth coming in to get checked out. A quick strep test can get you the treatment you need and have you feeling like yourself again in a matter of days.