If you develop any other symptoms – even milder symptoms you typically associate with a common cold – you should contact your physician or get tested for COVID-19. Tests can be done easily with an at-home test.
Do You Have Just a Sore Throat or Is It Strep?
Many different factors can cause sore throats. Viruses, bacteria such as Streptococcus pyogenes, dry air, allergies or even drainage from a runny nose can make your throat hurt.
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But not all sore throats are created equal. While allergies or a runny nose are painful nuisances, strep throat is an illness that needs a doctor’s diagnosis and treatment.
If you suspect strep throat, there are several reasons to seek treatment. For one thing, you can infect others. The bacteria that cause strep throat can also spread to other tissues, causing a more serious infection. And if you leave strep throat untreated, in rare circumstances, it can lead to a more severe illness like rheumatic fever, a potentially fatal disease that can damage your heart valves.
But how can you tell if you just have a sore throat or if you’re developing the worse condition of strep throat? Family medicine specialist Daniel Allan, MD, breaks down the difference and explains when you should make a doctor’s appointment.
Symptoms of sore throat vs. strep
Viral infections, like the common cold or flu, cause sore throats (pharyngitis). And it usually comes with other symptoms like:
- Runny nose.
- Red or watery eyes.
- Sneezing.
- Cough.
So, what’s the difference between a sore throat and strep throat? For starters, having a cough is a major symptom that sets a sore throat apart from strep.
“You do not have a cough with strep. If you’re coughing, that typically means no strep,” says Dr. Allan. “Also, when you look in the throat of a person with a sore throat caused by a cold virus, you typically do not see pus or exudate in the back of the throat.”
Colds usually take several days to develop and typically go away on their own within five to seven days. But strep throat is a bacterial infection that doesn’t always go away on its own.
If you were exposed to someone who had strep recently, that’s important information to share with your healthcare provider. Strep can be spread easily by sharing personal items with a person who’s infected, having close contact with someone who’s infected, or even through the air by sneezing or coughing. Plus, it comes with a more severe set of symptoms that include:
- Sudden sore throat.
- Red tonsils that have white spots on them.
- Pain when swallowing.
- Fever.
- Swollen neck glands.
- Loss of appetite.
- Headache.
- Abdominal pain.
Viral illnesses can have the same symptoms as strep throat, so it’s important to get a throat swab to confirm the presence of the strep bacteria in your throat if you experience any of these symptoms. A healthcare provider will dab the back of your throat with a cotton swab and the swab is then tested for the presence of the bacteria Streptococcus pyogenes.
Tips to find relief
If you have strep throat, a healthcare provider can prescribe antibiotics for treatment. But taking antibiotics for sore throats without a confirmed diagnosis of strep can create resistance to the drugs or unnecessary side effects, so getting tested for strep is important.
“Most strep will self-resolve. However, there is the risk of rheumatic fever if it’s untreated, so I would not recommend forgoing testing and treatment,” Dr. Allan warns. “If there is any concern of strep, then I would recommend getting tested.”
Antibiotic treatment for strep takes about 10 days, but treating a sore throat can be a bit less defined. There’s no one set cure for a sore throat caused by a virus and, often, the only thing you can do is wait until the virus works its way out of your system. But you can take steps to make yourself more comfortable and manage your symptoms by:
- Drinking warm liquids and plenty of water.
- Gargling with warm, salt water.
- Sucking on ice chips.
- Taking over-the-counter pain medicine like acetaminophen or ibuprofen for relief.
- Prioritizing rest.
If common winter illnesses have you guessing what ails you, it’s always good to make an appointment with a healthcare provider. And while there are home remedies that can help soothe symptoms, making an appointment with your provider’s office is key to figuring out just what might be happening with your body (and what kinds of treatments are available).
Is my sore throat COVID-19 or not?
A sore throat is pretty common, as far as symptoms of illness go. Sore throat can be caused by illnesses ranging from the non-serious to the dangerous.
If you’ve ever woken up with a sore throat after spending the day before cheering your heart out at a football game or screaming along to the lyrics at your favorite band’s concert, you also know you don’t need to be sick at all to get a sore throat. The common cold can also cause a sore throat. And, more recently, we’ve discovered that a sore throat is a sign of COVID-19.
We’ve all likely experienced a sore throat before, but when should it be a cause for worry? And when a sore throat feels the same no matter what the cause, how can we tell if it’s a cold, too much yelling, allergies or a COVID sore throat?
What does COVID sore throat feel like?
Have COVID-19 questions?
Well, it can feel exactly the same as a cold, according to Brian Curtis, MD, vice president of Clinical Specialty Services for OSF HealthCare. That makes it hard to tell the difference between a cold and a mild case of COVID.
It’s even harder to tell the difference knowing that sore throat is a COVID symptom. The common cold and the virus that causes COVID-19 are both the same type of virus – called a coronavirus – and can cause similar symptoms.
One of the early symptoms of COVID is a fever. However, as different strains of COVID spread, it’s possible to have a COVID sore throat and no fever or other symptoms.
But, Dr. Curtis said, it’s more common to have other symptoms in addition to a sore throat if you have COVID.
“Only about 5-10% of COVID-19 patients will have an isolated sore throat. Usually, they will have a touch of fever, loss of taste and smell and difficulty breathing.”
Catching COVID symptoms
“We have to be very vigilant with cold symptoms,” Dr. Curtis said. “We as a society used to be kind of dismissive of cold symptoms, but we can’t be dismissive of them now. If you have just a sore throat with no other symptoms, it’s less likely to be COVID-19. But with other symptoms, it is possible you have COVID. Sore throat, cough, fever – I would be worried about COVID.”
If you develop any other symptoms – even milder symptoms you typically associate with a common cold – you should contact your physician or get tested for COVID-19. Tests can be done easily with an at-home test.
Even if you have a mild case of COVID-19, you could spread the coronavirus to someone who suffers a worse infection. You need to be sure you aren’t putting others at risk if you have any possible COVID-19 symptoms.
How long does COVID sore throat last? According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms of COVID typically last between five days and two weeks. But if it lasts longer than five days, Dr. Curtis said, it could be something else and is worth getting checked out by your provider.
COVID sore throat remedy
For symptom relief, use over-the-counter medications like Tylenol or Motrin for fever, body aches and pain. For sinus issues, congestion, ear or facial pain, try a decongestant or allergy medication. And for a persistent cough that produces mucus, Mucinex is a good option. And continue to rest and consume plenty of fluids, like water and herbal tea.
What else could it be?
Did you recently get a new pet and are now experiencing a sore throat? Could be allergies. There are many causes for your sore throat, such as:
- If you also have difficulty swallowing, you should be seen by your physician. If you experience shortness of breath, you should be evaluated. If you have a single lump on one side of your neck, you should get evaluated.
- If your cold symptoms turn out to be due to an actual cold, you need some fluids and rest, and you should be back up in a couple days.
- If you’ve got a sore throat with a fever, but no runny nose or cough, you might have strep throat. Check for white spots on the tonsils – a sign of a secretion caused by inflammation of the tonsils – and tender nodes on the front of your neck. Contact your physician.
- If your sore throat is accompanied by a low-grade fever and extreme fatigue, it could be mononucleosis (mono), which is most common in people in their teens and 20s. Contact your physician.
- Influenza can cause a sore throat that is typically very abrupt, and commonly joined by body aches, fevers and headache.
When to worry about a sore throat
“A sore throat by itself is typically not something to worry about,” Dr. Curtis said.
Your throat could be irritated from allergies, air pollution or overuse. It could also be due to smoking, in which case the solution is simple (QUIT).
If it lingers longer than a week, however, you should contact your physician.
The main point, according to Dr. Curtis, with so many diagnoses, it’s safest to get it checked out. You should contact your physician if you have any questions or concerns about your health and any symptoms you experience.
Last Updated: August 22, 2022
January 22, 2021 –>
About Author: Ken Harris
Ken Harris is the proudest father and a writing coordinator for the Marketing & Communications division of OSF HealthCare.
He has a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked as a daily newspaper reporter for four years before leaving the field and eventually finding his way to OSF HealthCare.
In his free time, Ken likes reading, fly fishing, hanging out with his dog and generally pestering his lovely, patient wife.
View all posts by Ken Harris
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