When there is a sore throat, malaise, a runny nose, a cough - this set of symptoms most people are used to calling one term cold. In fact, there are many infectious diseases of the nasopharynx: laryngitis, pharyngitis, tonsillitis, flu, acute respiratory infection, diphtheria and others. Each disease has its own classification, causes, complications. Since pathologies occur in closely related organs (ear, throat, nose), they all have both similarities and differences in symptoms and treatment. Of all colds, the most common is an acute respiratory viral infection. Angina is also a fairly common disease. How to distinguish sore throat from SARS?
Disease symptoms
Signs of a sore throat
There are more than five main forms of angina. Symptoms may vary depending on the form. Almost all types of acute tonsillitis, except atypical ones, can be recognized by the following signs:
acute onset, rapid development of the process, literally within a few hours;- severe intoxication: fever up to 40 degrees and above, chills, profuse sweating, severe weakness, which in the acute phase does not allow the patient to get out of bed;
- lymphadenitis, there is a pronounced swelling of the neck, in which it is very difficult to turn the head to the sides;
- very severe sore throat, the patient is so difficult to swallow that he refuses to eat and even drink;
- intense aches throughout the body;
- catarrhal phenomena are either not present, or they are weakly expressed in comparison with intoxication.
acute onset, rapid development of the process, literally within a few hours;Signs of SARS
- there may be an increase in temperature to subfebrile numbers, rarely the temperature rises above 38 degrees;
- chills, malaise;
- muscle, headache;
- profuse nasal discharge, dry or wet cough, lacrimation. Catarrhal phenomena are pronounced;
- lymph nodes may enlarge, but there is no such pain as with tonsillitis.
The main differences between sore throat and ARVI
The difference between these two pathological conditions is enormous. But some of the symptoms can be similar, so it will be difficult to distinguish one disease from another without a doctor.
As the name implies, viral infections are caused only by viruses, although there are more than 200 types of them. The causative agents of sore throats are a whole spectrum of microorganisms: bacteria, viruses, fungi, amoeba, spirochete, Escherichia coli. Tonsillitis can also develop when exposed to the symbiosis of microbes, for example, bacteria and virus, bacillus and spirochete. Another disease can be caused by a virus, and later a bacterial infection joins.- Inflammation in acute respiratory infections can be localized in any area of the nasopharynx, and the leading symptom of the disease depends on it. With inflammation of the nasal mucosa, the main symptom will be rhinitis, with localization in the throat - sore throat, with localization in the larynx - dry cough. The inflammatory process with angina differs in that it is always localized in the throat. Symptoms of inflammation in other areas of the nasopharynx may appear in the event of a secondary infection.
- With a respiratory infection, there is no plaque on the tonsils, they can be hyperemic, but without plaque. With tonsillitis, there is always a plaque on the tonsils, it can be of a different nature, but it is necessarily formed.
- The inflammatory process in the tonsils begins rapidly, the symptoms grow very quickly and the acute phase subsides just as quickly, the clinical picture is pronounced, severe intoxication is observed. The onset of acute respiratory infections is slow, the symptoms increase gradually, just as gradually and subside.
- The course of angina is always violent, heavy, requiring bed rest. The symptoms of respiratory infections can be smoothed out, in this case, the disease gives the person only discomfort. Although acute respiratory infections can also proceed violently, it all depends on the pathogen, but acute tonsillitis is never sluggish or with mild symptoms. On the other hand, a person who easily tolerates a viral disease and visits a team at the same time may be a carrier of the most dangerous bacteria meningococcus, which can cause meningitis, encephalitis, and sepsis in a person with a weakened immune system.
- With inflammation of the tonsils, very severe sore throat is always noted. There are no such intense pains with acute respiratory infections.
- With tonsillitis, cough and runny nose do not always join, they can be mild. Viral infections always go away with intense coughing and severe runny nose.
ARVI in all cases is treated at home and with proper treatment and good care goes away in 3-7 days. Some types of tonsillitis require hospitalization, for example, phlegmonous. The treatment process lasts at least 7-14 days.- Often, in the treatment of acute respiratory infections, you can do with only folk remedies, if the clinical manifestations are not pronounced. Treatment of angina requires an integrated approach, a competent choice of antibacterial drugs. In some cases, surgical intervention is indispensable. Alternative methods of treatment for tonsillitis are additional, without traditional therapy, serious complications that threaten the patient's life can develop.
- Complications of acute respiratory viral infections are few and, with timely assistance, do not threaten human life. The consequences of angina are numerous, from some of them (throat swelling, blood poisoning, brain abscess), the patient may die if he is not provided with emergency medical care. From other complications of this disease, in most cases, a person becomes disabled and is treated for the rest of his life. Of course, there are exceptions, everything is very individual, because at the beginning of the disease it is not known exactly how the virus will behave in the human body and what the consequences will be.
As the name implies, viral infections are caused only by viruses, although there are more than 200 types of them. The causative agents of sore throats are a whole spectrum of microorganisms: bacteria, viruses, fungi, amoeba, spirochete, Escherichia coli. Tonsillitis can also develop when exposed to the symbiosis of microbes, for example, bacteria and virus, bacillus and spirochete. Another disease can be caused by a virus, and later a bacterial infection joins.
ARVI in all cases is treated at home and with proper treatment and good care goes away in 3-7 days. Some types of tonsillitis require hospitalization, for example, phlegmonous. The treatment process lasts at least 7-14 days.The main difference between angina and acute respiratory infections is the presence of plaque on the tonsils with angina
At home, you can distinguish acute tonsillitis from SARS by the presence of plaque on the tonsils. But abscesses quickly appear and just as quickly open up on their own (the exceptions are sore throats, accompanied by an abscess of the tonsils, in this case, surgical intervention is required). Therefore, self-opening abscesses can be skipped. In any case, for a sore throat, you need to contact a specialist who will carry out differential diagnostics and select the right treatment.
