|
A sore throat, otherwise known as pharyngitis, is a painful inflammation of the throat. Infection of the tonsils, tonsillitis (American English: tonsilitis), often occurs simultaneously.
The major cause is infection, of which 90% are viral, the remainder caused by bacterial infection. Some cases of pharyngitis are caused by irritation from agents such as pollutants, chemicals, or smoke.
Treatment of a sore throat will vary according to the cause. Antibiotics are only helpful when a bacterial infection is the cause of the sore throat. For bacterial sore throats, antibiotics have been shown to affect the degree of pain by day 5 and shorten the average natural duration from 7 to 6 days.
Antibiotics also decrease the number and severity of the complications of bacterial pharyngitis, specifically post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis (an inflammation of the kidney) or rheumatic fever. The incidence of rheumatic fever, dramatically decreased by the use of antibiotics when they were first introduced, seems not to increase as antibiotic use drops off. This may be a result of a change in the prevalence of various strains of bacteria. In underdevelopped regions, untreated bacterial sore throats still give rise to rheumatic heart disease.
A popular household remedy is gargling with warm salty water.
References
| 
