Pharyngitis - streptococcal; Streptococcal pharyngitis

Symptoms may be mild or severe. You usually start to feel sick about 2 to 5 days after you come in contact with the bacteria.

Symptoms usually begin suddenly, and can include:

• Fever that begins suddenly and is often highest on the second day
• Red throat, sometimes with white patches
• Sore throat
• Headache
• Nausea
• Chills
• General ill feeling
• Loss of appetite and abnormal taste
• Swollen lymph nodes in the neck
• Difficulty swallowing

Some strains of strep throat can lead to a scarlet fever-like rash. This rash is thought to be an allergic reaction to toxins made by the strep bacteria.

A rapid test can be done in most health care provider offices, but misses a few of the cases.

If the rapid strep test is negative and your health care provider still thinks you or your child may have strep, a throat swab can be tested (cultured) to see if strep grows from it. However, it will take one to two days for results to come back.

Images

Strep throat

Throat anatomy

Review Date: 02/12/2011
Reviewed By: David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc., and Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Medical Director, MEDEX Northwest Division of Physician Assistant Studies, University of Washington, School of Medicine.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)