Strep throat symptoms

Knowledge of strep throat symptoms can help differentiating it from sore throat or tonsillitis and get professional help quickly, thus it is important to bear in mind the following information. The first symptoms of strep throat usually appear within two or three days since the infection. Among the most noticeable strep throat symptoms there are:

• Difficulty swallowing
• Enlarged, red tonsils
• White spots on tonsils
• Muscle aches
• Rash
• Abdominal pain (with vomiting in case of younger children)
• Nausea and loss of appetite
• Cold chills
• Headache
• Throat pain

However, depending on the age of the infected person some symptoms may be intensified, while others disappear altogether and thus:

• Infants might have decreased appetite and fever, along with green or yellow drainage from nose.
• Toddlers will most probably have swollen glands, even worse appetite than usual, as well as sore throat.
• School age children may have high fever and extreme difficulty swallowing (even drinks). Sometimes their tonsils may be covered with pus.

You should be concerned when some of the following signs are present:

• Swelling of the neck
• Difficulty breathing
• Inability to swallow even saliva
• Bleeding in the throat

Moreover, sometimes it is possible to have strep throat while not having a sore throat. On the top of that, some people may be carries of the streptococcal bacteria, which means that they are not longer affected by it, yet they can pass the bacteria further to other people.