Purulent sore throat is a serious throat disease, accompanied by redness and inflammation of the tonsils. Purulent plaque appears on the tongue, which can be easily diagnosed even without visiting a doctor. Angina passes quite hard in both an adult and a child. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize the risk of contracting this disease by figuring out everything about how purulent tonsillitis is transmitted. It is also very important to know about all treatment methods that will help stop the disease in time and not bring it to complications.
Ways of transmission of the disease
The disease is transmitted in the following ways:
- Like all airborne infections. This happens due to the spread of bacteria that cause the disease, which enter the air together with sputum during sneezing, during coughing attacks or when talking. These bacteria instantly enter the mucosa of another person and settle on its tonsils.
- Purulent tonsillitis is transmitted by contact. In this way, you can become infected by bodily contact or a kiss with a sick person. Most often, it is in this way that infection occurs in children, during games on the playground or in the kindergarten.
- In a household way. This way of transmitting purulent tonsillitis is easy to get infected. All family members may suffer from it, even if the patient has a special bandage on his face. Purulent sore throat infection in a household way occurs through common objects of use: towels, dishes, door handles, taps, etc.
Knowing all the methods of infection with this disease, you can protect yourself and your family. To do this, try to avoid crowded places during epidemics.
Sore throat infection statistics
Knowing how purulent tonsillitis is transmitted, we can conclude about the most common ways of infection. Children are most often infected by the airborne droplet or contact method, as they often hug and touch each other during joint games. It is also difficult for them to notice the signs of the disease in another child, so they do not avoid bodily contact at all. Adults are more careful about the touches of strangers, so they are more often infected with tonsillitis by airborne droplets.
What to do when infected
Despite the statistics of how purulent tonsillitis is transmitted, it is almost impossible to determine the exact method of infection. But with a severe course of the disease, this is not so important. When the first signs of the disease appear, you should immediately consult a doctor, going to the hospital or calling an ambulance home. When leaving the house you need to wear a special dressing, which can be bought at any pharmacy. It will help prevent the spread of airborne infection.
Primary symptoms of purulent sore throat
In its symptoms, this disease is similar to the development of a common cold. However, in addition to general malaise, characteristic signs of tonsillitis should be noted: purulent plaque and whitish rash on the tonsils. Primary symptoms of the disease include:
- Elevated temperature, which can often reach 40 degrees.
- Fever, chills, and also aches and weaknesses in the body.
- Headache, lack of appetite.
- Throat with purulent tonsillitis will hurt.
- Salivation increases.
- Swollen lymph nodes on the neck.
Secondary symptoms
After the appearance of primary signs of purulent sore throat, secondary ones begin to develop:
- Sore throat, hoarseness.
- Cough and runny nose.
- Swelling and redness of the tonsils.
- The appearance of small purulent pimples in the tonsils.
In addition to the above symptoms, purulent tonsillitis in adults and children can be accompanied by symptoms such as abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, and pain in the stomach. If you take treatment in a timely manner, all the signs of the disease can disappear in a week. If delayed with drug therapy, angina can provoke a risk of secondary infection. To avoid this, you need to know how to treat purulent tonsillitis in an adult or a child, as well as how to reduce fever in the first days of infection.
Fever with sore throat
The first day of the disease is considered the most difficult. During this period, body temperature rises to the maximum mark. This is explained by the active struggle of the immune system with viruses. The next two days pass with a lower temperature, which decreases every day. Such a course of the disease is considered normal, it occurs with competent and timely treatment. Basically, after three days there is a noticeable improvement in the patient's condition. In the opposite case, you need to change the tactics of treatment or the doctor who prescribed it. If the fever lasts longer than two days, and the pills help only for a short period of time, you need to call an ambulance. The doctor will lower the temperature with a special injection.
Incubation period
Purulent sore throat is a serious viral disease that is very easy to get infected. Unfortunately, few people know if purulent tonsillitis is transmitted by airborne droplets. If people were more aware of the process of infection with this disease, the percentage of cases would be significantly reduced.
The incubation period lasts up to three days. Therefore, you can identify the person from whom the infection probably occurred. You just need to remember all the people who were in the same room with the patient three days before the onset of signs of the disease. If a person came into contact with infected tonsillitis more than 5 days ago, but still did not get sick, then his immune system defeated viruses. Therefore, when thinking about whether purulent tonsillitis is contagious to others, it is important to remember that a lot depends on human immunity. The higher it is, the more likely it is to defeat the infection.
The disease can last from 8 to 10 days from the onset of the first signs. Purulent sore throat is always severe and is accompanied by severe malaise in the patient. A person often cannot eat or even drink due to the accumulation of deposits on the tonsils. Therefore, even an adult needs constant care and help in cleansing the throat from pus. Hygienic procedures should be carried out from 1 to 3 times a day, depending on the severity of the disease.
Susceptibility to infection
Young children are most susceptible to this disease. Those who have not previously been exposed to streptococcal infection fall into the risk category. The weaker the immune system, the greater the risk of infectivity with purulent tonsillitis. The incubation period in children lasts as much as in adults - up to 3 days. It is also important to remember that infection with purulent tonsillitis is most likely in the following categories of people:
- Suffering from immune deficiency. This category of people includes those who have recently undergone an organ transplant and prior administration of drugs with an immunosuppressive effect. These are people with HIV and cancer.
- Having upper respiratory tract disease.
- At risk are those who are fond of diets. An unbalanced diet and a lack of vitamins can lead to a weakening of immunity. The body will not be able to cope with the bacteria.
The most important factor that provokes the development of purulent tonsillitis is considered to be frequent visits to public places. It is large crowds that increase the risk of infection even for people with strong immunity. Children can bring the infection home from school or kindergarten, and adults can catch the disease from a colleague at work or from an outsider in public transport.
Features of the disease
A person can become infected with purulent tonsillitis only from another patient. If staphylococcus or streptococcus does not get into his body, he will not get sick even with the most severe cooling or a decrease in immunity. The only exception is chronic inflammation of the tonsils. Doctors call this pathology chronic tonsillitis. Only in the presence of this disease purulent tonsillitis can develop without infection from other patients.
The presence of streptococcus in the throat will always contribute to an exacerbation of the disease, even with relatively strong immunity. However, even chronic tonsillitis develops only after the initial infection or ignoring signs of angina. Antibiotic treatment speeds up the healing process, so doctors often prescribe them when the symptoms of this disease appear. But even without such treatment, the infection does not last for more than three weeks. If there are complaints after this period of time, complications may develop. That is why it is so important not to ignore drug therapy and to start the competent treatment of purulent tonsillitis in time.
Treatment of angina in adults
How to treat purulent tonsillitis in an adult, the doctor must say. You can not self-medicate and make a diagnosis without visiting the hospital. If pathology is detected in adults, the following complex of treatment is often prescribed:
- The use of medications aimed at eliminating bacteria. The attending physician individually prescribes Kagocel, Neovir, or Cycloferon to the patient. The duration of treatment with such drugs usually does not exceed 7 days.
- Medications with an antipyretic effect. When the temperature rises to 38 degrees or more, it is necessary to take drugs that reduce heat. For adults, Paracetamol and Aspirin will be effective.
- Preparations with an immunostimulating effect. These include drugs such as Amiksin and Likopid. Treatment of purulent sore throat at home will quickly and efficiently take place only if, together with drug therapy, the patient improves immunity.
- Treatment of severe sore throat can be accompanied by a drug such as Regidron. It perfectly replenishes the water balance in the body.
- Vitamin complexes containing vital minerals and elements are also needed. Vitamin C is especially important for a sick person.
Treatment of tonsillitis in children
A doctor usually prescribes antihistamines to treat this disease in a child. The most effective are Zirtek, as well as Fenistil. These medicines relieve swelling from the sore throat. If a child develops tonsillitis against a sore throat, it is necessary to include physiotherapeutic procedures in the course of treatment. For a quick recovery, the doctor may prescribe the following medicines:
- Absorbable antiseptic tablets. This is primarily “Faringosept”, “Travesil”, as well as “Lizobakt”.
- Irrigation of the pharynx with special antibacterial sprays. The most effective are: "Hexoral", "Miramistin", "Tantum Verde".
- It is also necessary to gargle with solutions: "Furacilin", herbal decoctions, an aqueous solution with salt and soda.
- Do not forget to treat the inflamed tonsils with propolis tincture or sea buckthorn oil.
All medicines must be applied to tonsils peeled from pus. You need to remove deposits with a cotton swab moistened with water.
Traditional methods of treating angina
The most effective folk methods for treating purulent tonsillitis at home are rinses quickly and effectively. They are especially needed in the first days of treatment of the disease. Gargle as often as possible. To prepare the infusions, you will need such herbs as calendula, chamomile, sage and oak bark. Rinses should be repeated up to ten times a day.
You can not use aggressive components for this, which can damage the sore throat or burn it. These include various popular homemade products: garlic, onions, potassium permanganate. Also, you should not be treated exclusively with folk recipes. Purulent sore throat requires complex therapy, including both herbal rinses and pharmacy preparations.