The sore throat: a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitis

Acute sore throat is a common complaint encountered by medical practitioners and health care workers routinely. The disease is mostly caused by viral infections of the upper respiratory tract and is usually self-limiting. Symptoms rarely exceed two weeks, irrespective of the cause. Group A beta-haem...

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Main Authors: A. Marais, M. Leuschner
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AOSIS 2019-09-01
Series:South African Family Practice
Subjects:
Online Access:https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/4957
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author A. Marais
M. Leuschner
author_facet A. Marais
M. Leuschner
author_sort A. Marais
collection DOAJ
description Acute sore throat is a common complaint encountered by medical practitioners and health care workers routinely. The disease is mostly caused by viral infections of the upper respiratory tract and is usually self-limiting. Symptoms rarely exceed two weeks, irrespective of the cause. Group A beta-haemolytic streptococci accounts for the majority of bacterial instances of tonsillopharyngitis. Clinical examination is not always adequate to diagnose bacterial infections, resulting in the irrational and over-prescribing of antibiotics, especially in upper respiratory tract infections, contributing to communal antimicrobial bacterial resistance. A few scoring systems are available to assist physicians in deciding on the aetiology without resorting to unnecessary laboratory investigations. This article briefly reviews the scoring systems and antimicrobial management of streptococcal throat infections.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2078-6190
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publishDate 2019-09-01
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record_format Article
series South African Family Practice
spelling doaj-art-94d2b0c0fca84544af3799b4a0fefac22025-08-20T03:47:10ZengAOSISSouth African Family Practice2078-61902078-62042019-09-01614192110.4102/safp.v61i4.49573933The sore throat: a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitisA. Marais0M. Leuschner1University of PretoriaUniversity of PretoriaAcute sore throat is a common complaint encountered by medical practitioners and health care workers routinely. The disease is mostly caused by viral infections of the upper respiratory tract and is usually self-limiting. Symptoms rarely exceed two weeks, irrespective of the cause. Group A beta-haemolytic streptococci accounts for the majority of bacterial instances of tonsillopharyngitis. Clinical examination is not always adequate to diagnose bacterial infections, resulting in the irrational and over-prescribing of antibiotics, especially in upper respiratory tract infections, contributing to communal antimicrobial bacterial resistance. A few scoring systems are available to assist physicians in deciding on the aetiology without resorting to unnecessary laboratory investigations. This article briefly reviews the scoring systems and antimicrobial management of streptococcal throat infections.https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/4957centor scorefeverpain scoregroup a beta-haemolytic streptococcipharyngitistonsillitis
spellingShingle A. Marais
M. Leuschner
The sore throat: a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitis
South African Family Practice
centor score
feverpain score
group a beta-haemolytic streptococci
pharyngitis
tonsillitis
title The sore throat: a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitis
title_full The sore throat: a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitis
title_fullStr The sore throat: a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitis
title_full_unstemmed The sore throat: a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitis
title_short The sore throat: a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitis
title_sort sore throat a clinical approach to tonsillopharyngitis
topic centor score
feverpain score
group a beta-haemolytic streptococci
pharyngitis
tonsillitis
url https://safpj.co.za/index.php/safpj/article/view/4957
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AT mleuschner thesorethroataclinicalapproachtotonsillopharyngitis
AT amarais sorethroataclinicalapproachtotonsillopharyngitis
AT mleuschner sorethroataclinicalapproachtotonsillopharyngitis