Contagiousness or strep throat includes infectiousness, transmission, and contagion methods and vectors. The illness is spread by direct, close contact with another person via respiratory droplets, coughing, or sneezing. It is not known how early contagion begins before symptoms appear or how long it might linger after the symptoms. Casual contact rarely results in transmission. To avoid getting strep throat, it is a good idea to avoid contact with anyone who has a strep infection.The strep infection causes the throat pharynx and the tonsils or adenoids to become irritated, inflamed, and painful. Sore throats are most commonly caused by viral infections or other irritants such as smoke, allergies, dry air, or a throat injury, and not by a strep infection.
The more cold symptoms you have, the less likely it is that your sore throat is a strep infection. In some cases a skin rash develops and spreads over the neck and chest and eventually over the whole body. Complications can occur when the infection spreads to other parts of the body and causes other infections such as an ear or sinus infection, or an abscess on the tonsils peritonsillar abscess. It is not clear whether treating the infection with antibiotics reduces your risk of developing inflammation of the kidneys acute glomerulonephritis.
If symptoms of strep throat are present, it is important to be tested for strep infection. Surgical removal of the tonsils is much less common today thanks to the present ability to rapidly and accurately diagnose strep infection, and thanks to the excellent antibiotics currently available. Scarlet fever, a rare form of strep, is characterized by a sore throat, fatigue and a red rash on the body that feels like sandpaper. Your doctor will do a physical exam, ask you about your symptoms and past health, and do a rapid strep test to diagnose strep throat. If the rapid strep test says that you don't have strep the test is negative, but your symptoms suggest that you do, your doctor may want to do a throat culture to be sure.
This is because rapid strep tests are not always accurate. If the rapid strep test is positive and says you do have strep, there's no need to do the throat culture. Although some people are quick to think that any painful throat is strep, sore throats are usually caused by a viral infection and not strep bacteria. Antibiotics shorten the time you are able to spread the disease to others and lower the risk of spreading the infection to other parts of your body.
Strep infections can occur at any age even if a person has had a tonsilectomy.
Contagiousness or strep throat includes infectiouness, transmission, and contagion methods and vectors. The illness is spread by direct, close contact with another person via respiratory droplets, coughing, or sneezing.