Find Out About Pharyngitis Here

In ordinary people, pharyngitis is often referred to as a sore throat. Pharyngitis is inflammation of the pharynx, which is behind the esophagus. This disease causes inflamed pharyngeal or throat tissue, swelling and redness. A sore or itchy throat, coughing runny nose, painful swallowing and sneezing are often complaints that take you to see a doctor. These symptoms occur due to strep throat or pharyngitis. Some risk factors that can cause you to get pharyngitis, such as the flu season, being close to someone with a sore throat or runny nose, smoking or exposure to cigarette smoke, allergies, frequent sinus infections, decreased body immunity, and often being in day care. This disease can be transmitted to others, therefore if you are sick and need to leave the house to work or travel it is advisable to wear a mask to prevent transmission and protect you from exposure to dust or germs.

Recognize Symptoms

Pharyngitis is generally caused by viruses and bacteria, there are many viral and bacterial agents that can cause pharyngitis, including measles, adenovirus (the cause of the common cold), chicken pox, croup (a disease of children with a barking cough), and whooping cough. However, pharyngitis is most often caused by viral infections such as the common cold, influenza, or mononucleosis. This disease can cause inflammation in some or all parts of the throat, including the back of the tongue, palate, and tonsils. The symptoms that accompany this disease usually vary, depending on the underlying condition. In addition to feeling a sore or itchy throat, this disease can also cause flu-like symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose, headache, fatigue, aches, chills, mild fever, to high fever. Pharyngitis can also cause other symptoms such as swollen lymph nodes, muscle aches, loss of appetite, rashes, difficulty swallowing, difficulty speaking due to hoarseness, and bad taste in the mouth. Sore throat due to viral infection usually does not cause cough with phlegm, if there is a coughing of slimy, mucus color is usually clear or white accompanied by the symptoms mentioned above. Bacterial infections of the throat often cause symptoms of coughing up phlegm with thick yellow or greenish phlegm, if inflammation is too severe sometimes there are blood spots due to sores in the throat caused by bacterial infections. Bacteria also often cause swelling of the tonsils that are painful and sometimes itchy. In this condition you need to immediately see a doctor to get the right treatment.

How to treat

Pharyngitis can be treated depending on the cause. If your illness is caused by a virus, pharyngitis will heal itself within 5-7 days but you must rest and maintain food and fluid intake so as not to become weak due to dehydration. If needed, the doctor will give antibiotics for pharyngitis caused by bacteria. Penicillin is the most commonly prescribed medication for pharyngitis as the antibiotic of choice. If you are given antibiotics, it is very important to spend antibiotics to prevent infections from coming back or getting worse. These antibiotics usually need to be taken for 7-10 days. In addition to penicillin, antibiotic drugs given by doctors include amoxicillin, macrolide groups such as erythromycin or azithromycin. The use of antibiotics that is not right or not according to doctor's advice can cause germ resistance so that bacterial infections become difficult to treat. Symptoms relievers such as fever medications are only given when there is a fever or severe pain that interferes with activity. Sputum thinners such as ambroxol can help expel phlegm so as not to interfere with breathing. Providing medicines to both adults and children must be according to the doctor's dosage and recommendations. In cases where infections often recur or symptoms do not improve after drug use is complete, the doctor may recommend a complete blood test, bacterial culture from a blood sample or sputum to determine the bacteria causing the infection and detect possible antibiotic resistance.

Do This To Avoid Pharyngitis

If you often experience pharyngitis, there are a number of things you can do as a home treatment strategy to relieve symptoms, including:

• Drink plenty of water to keep the throat moist and prevent dehydration.
• Avoid caffeine and alcohol to prevent dehydration.
• Rest and rest your voice too.
• Eat warm food and drinks. For example, soup broth or warm water mixed with honey.
• Gargle with salt water. Dissolve about ½ teaspoon of salt in a glass of water and then rinse your mouth. Do not swallow salt water.
• Use an air humidifier to avoid dry air that irritates the throat or breathe hot steam while in the bathroom. Hot steam is not necessary with a very high temperature because it can cause burns, the use of steam as an air humidifier in children must be under the supervision of parents. If using a humidifying machine, clean the air humidifying machine routinely rather the machine is not overgrown with fungus.
• Keep your home away from cigarette smoke and cleaning products that can irritate the throat.
• Certain herbal or herbal medicines are believed to be able to treat strep throat, but before taking them you should consult a doctor first.

The main goal of treatment in this disease is to improve the condition, the administration of appropriate antibiotics according to the germ of the cause if the symptoms are caused by a bacterial infection, and rest and maintain adequate body fluids. In addition, it is important to wash your hands frequently, especially before eating and after coughing or sneezing. If water is not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer as an alternative. If you feel and experience some of the symptoms of pharyngitis that have been described previously, but there are conditions such as difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, coughing up blood, complaints often recur, difficulty swallowing or neck stiffness, and there is ear pain immediately consult your health to your doctor to get appropriate treatment because these conditions are severe symptoms that need to be treated immediately.