Strep Throat Treatment

What is Strep Throat?

Strep throat is a bacterial infection of the throat or tonsils. The most common and clinically significant cause of strep throat is Group A strep. Although this is the most common group of strep, it is not the only group of strep that can cause a throat infection. The typical symptoms include:

Intense throat pain especially with swallowing
Fever
Swollen lymph nodes
A red swollen throat

How is Strep Throat Diagnosed?

After taking a careful history of symptoms and performing a physical exam, if our clinicians suspects strep, he/ she will likely run a rapid strep test in clinic. This test takes 5 minutes and is 90-95% accurate. If the test comes back negative but the pretest suspicion of strep throat was high enough (either based on known exposure or from appearance of the throat), your clinician may perform a second throat swab and order a throat culture. This swab is sent to the laboratory and can take up to five days. If the throat infection is caused by a bacterial infection, this test will capture it. Should both the rapid test and the throat culture both come back negative and symptoms persist, return to be reassessed.

How is Strep Throat Treated?

If you test positive for strep or if your provider still has a high suspicion despite a negative test, he/ she will write for an antibiotic, most likely Amoxicillin if you are not allergic. Amoxicillin not only treats the infection but also prevents the very serious complication of strep going to the heart and causing rheumatic heart disease.

When Should You See a Doctor for Strep Throat?

The highest risk age group for strep throat infections are kids less than 15 years old. If your child is running a temperature of 100.3 or greater and throat pain is the worst symptom, we recommend coming in to be evaluated.