Symptoms of Strep
When establishing the symptoms that affect people with pharyngitis, we must be clear that these can vary depending on whether it is an acute and chronic pharyngitis. Within the latter, the symptoms can be different depending on whether it is a sore throat caused by bacteria or virus.
Acute Pharyngitis:
As already mentioned, the symptoms that can occur will depend on the type of infection that causes.
1. Widespread acute viral pharyngitis: Are the most common and can occur throughout the year, taking between a few days or a week to incubate. Symptoms appear gradually and are often limited to the pharynx. Among them:
- Painful swallowing (odynophagia), which can cause no difficulty in swallowing food and even saliva (dysphagia).
- The mucous membranes of the throat are red, swollen.
- Loss of voice or changes therein.
- Throat irritation and itching, so it is common cough and dry cough.
- No fever as such, as much a slight fever, ie temperature below 38 ° C.
- Loss of appetite, weakness, malaise.
- It can affect lymphoid glands of the throat, tonsils calls, which are responsible for the defense of it, causing inflammation in what is known as tonsillitis.
- Infection can spread to other tissues, inflaming them, as may be the case of sinusitis, otitis, or, more rarely, conjunctivitis.
- In some cases diarrhea may occur and canker sores, which are small ulcers that occur inside the mouth, especially on the lips, cheeks and tongue.
- In the case of young children, in addition to the above symptoms may be other as lack of sleep or problems when feeding, all derived from the discomfort and pain.
2. Acute generalized bacterial pharyngitis: As we have seen, most are caused by Streptococcus pyogenes. Unlike before, this usually occurs more frequently during the autumn and winter. It has a gradual onset, but symptoms appear suddenly as:
- Painful swallowing and because of this, difficulty swallowing food.
- High fever: You can easily exceed 39 degrees and it appears suddenly.
- Malaise, loss of appetite, tiredness, headache and other symptoms characteristic of colds.
- The mucosa of the throat is red and swollen, but also may appear small plates pus white or gray.Also usually appears bad breath (halitosis).
- The glands (lymph nodes), which usually can not be felt, are now easily and they are painful when touched.
- The infection can spread and affect other tissues, causing sinusitis, otitis and even the formation of pus called abscesses accumulations, and is colloquially known as boils.
Other more serious complications attributed to this bacterium can be scarlet fever or rheumatic fever, which later affect organs such as the heart.
In young children, in addition to the above can cause abdominal pain and vegetations, a disease characterized by inflammation of the glands of lymphoid tissue called pharyngeal tonsil.
Among other things, this gland acts, with others located in the pharynx, as an outpost in the defense of the throat, as it is the first structure to fight the germs that pass into the nose or mouth, which explains that when there is an infection, it will swell.
When the pharyngeal tonsil is inflamed, enlarged and, to be located near the nostrils, can cover them to some extent, which results in snoring characteristic of children with adenoids and they breathe through your mouth, between other less specific symptoms.
3. Localized acute pharyngitis: refer to those in which inflammation is limited to the regions that correspond to lymphoid glands of the throat, ie the tonsils, which are responsible for acting as “outposts” in defending pharynx.
The main symptom that will take is pain in the region of the neck, but not often appear discomfort when swallowing because of the pain. They are very common in young children.
2. Chronic pharyngitis:
As a result of bad habits or exposure to substances that can damage the throat for a long period of time, the symptoms are quite different from the sharp, and the most common are:
- The mucosa is not going to be red and inflamed, but we will find appearing mucosa dry and brittle, a shade paler than usual.
- The pain is much sharper than in the acute, and increases when breathe for a while by mouth.
- The patient constantly has the feeling of having a foreign body, ie, as if an object in the throat or something unusual. Also often much mucus to become thicker and offers an ideal place for infection to occur.
- The mucosal dryness causes almost continuous need hawking. Also, being so damaged, is extremely sensitive, which usually appear very irritating coughing, and may even appear like vomiting.