How to Avoid Strep Throat During Peak Season

Strep throat is named for the streptococcal bacteria that cause it. The infection occurs in the throat and on the tonsils, resulting in irritation, inflammation, and the sudden onset of a severe sore throat. Unlike the flu and the common cold, which are viral infections, strep throat is bacterial. It can strike any time of the year, but the peak seasons for strep throat are late fall and early spring.

Strep Throat Symptoms

Are you worried your sore throat might be strep? Be aware that this illness usually affects children and adults who spend a lot of time with kids. Some of the most common symptoms of strep throat include:

  • Sudden, severe sore throat
  • Painful swallowing
  • High fever
  • Swollen tonsils and lymph nodes
  • Bright red throat with white or yellow spots

You may also experience:

  • Achiness
  • Headache
  • Skin rash
  • Stomach pain
  • Loss of appetite
  • Vomiting

Strep throat symptoms are often mistaken for the common cold. The above symptoms signify strep. However, if you have a cough, runny nose, or hoarse voice, your illness is most likely caused by a virus, which won’t respond to antibiotics.

How to Avoid Strep Throat

Strep throat is quite contagious. The illness spreads easily between people in close contact, such as classmates, coworkers, and family members. Inhaling respiratory droplets that contain streptococcal bacteria or touching contaminated surfaces might make you sick.

To help avoid contracting strep throat, follow these tips:

  • Wash your hands often.
  • Avoid touching your face.
  • Don’t share cups, straws, plates, or utensils with a sick person.

If you are infected with strep throat, avoid spreading it to others with these tips:

  • Wash your hands often.
  • Don’t prepare food for others or ask to share cutlery.
  • Cough and sneeze into a tissue, and then throw the tissue away.
  • Stay home from work or school until you have been taking antibiotics for 24 hours.
  • Keep away from others in your household.

Strep Throat Treatment

Rapid testing can determine if you have strep throat. If you test positive, your doctor can prescribe antibiotics, which should start making you feel better within a day or two. Just be sure to finish your antibiotics to wipe out the bacteria completely.

Strep throat treatment is important because it can:

  • Shorten your illness
  • Lessen the severity of your symptoms
  • Prevent the streptococcal bacteria from spreading to others
  • Prevent serious complications like rheumatic fever

Strep Throat Care in Texas

Exceptional Emergency Center is a freestanding emergency room offering strep throat treatment in Amarillo, Beaumont, Brownsville, Ft. Worth, Harlingen, Livingston, Lubbock, Port Arthur, Saches/Garland, Orange, and Tyler, TX. Rest assured that we are taking every precaution to slow the spread of COVID-19, so you can confidently seek treatment at our emergency hospital. Feel free to check in online for a shorter wait time upon arrival.

Schedule an appointment today to enjoy the best ER care in Texas.

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COVID-19 TESTING UPDATE:

The Exceptional Emergency Room staff and physicians care about you and your loved ones. We are here 24/7 for all your emergency care needs.

  1. If you are experiencing fever, shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness, weakness, numbness, sensory loss, or any other emergent medical problems, please call 911 or seek medical care immediately at your nearest Emergency Room.
  2. To provide the highest quality emergency medical care to our communities, we are directing all routine COVID testing to outpatient community resources.
  3. Testing through local resources, including your primary care doctor, urgent care, walk-in clinic, or local health department, is appropriate under the following circumstances:
    1. If you have been exposed to a person known to have COVID, and you do not have symptoms, we recommend that you self-quarantine at home and seek testing 4-5 days after exposure. It often takes this long for the infection to be detected by routine lab testing.
    2. If you have no symptoms or very mild symptoms, outpatient testing is also typically appropriate.
    3. Please follow this link for local COVID testing resources.
  4. If you have tested negative, you should still self-quarantine for 14 days from the day of suspected exposure as it can take anywhere from 2-14 days to come down with symptoms of this infection.
  5. Please kindly limit your phone time with our Emergency Rooms as the phone lines are needed to communicate with other health care entities and to provide patients their test results. Thank you for your understanding during this trying time.