Pharyngitis falls under the department of ENT, that is concerned with your nose and throat and an inflammation of the pharynx is generally known as the pharyngitis.Pharynx is the area at the back of the throat and pharyngitis can sometimes be referred commonly as the sore throat. It includes difficulty in swallowing and it causes a feeling of scrappiness and scratchiness in the same. This is most often reported in the colder months. It can be caused by both viral or bacterial infection.
In pharyngitis the most common conditions include, a prior encounter of the patient with measles, chickenpox, whooping cough, group A Streptococcus bacteria, or even, adenovirus one of the most prominent agent of common cold. Barking cough in croup can also predispose a person towards developing pharyngitis. Virus is found to be the most prominent causal factor of sore throats, but pharyngitis is caused due to influence our mononucleosis or influenza. Since antibiotics does not cure viral infections so treatment using antibiotics in pharyngitis can only temporarily relieve the symptoms. pharyngitis is not always caused by bacterial infections but when they do, antibiotics can solve the case. Strep throat is the most commonly encountered form of bacterial infection. Streptococcus group A Bacteria is behind the cause.
Gonorrhea, corynebacterium, chlamydia are some of the rare forms of the pharyngitis caused by bacteria. Contact some of the best ENT specialist in India but simply surfing the net. Also if you are a person who easily gets cough, cold and flu frequently, such exposure might result in an increasing risk of proneness of developing the disease. Individuals who work in healthcare departments, who frequently develop sinus, develop an infection often,are in greater risk of developing pharyngitis. Many people must have heard of the saying that secondary or passive smoking is more dangerous than active smoking. This is true in this respect since passive smoking results in pharyngitis. Apart from a sore,scratchy or dry throat, a person who is experiencing a cold or flu might also experience, sneezing, headache, fatigue, runny nose, body aches, chills and fever.
Generally cold is associated with low grade fever and flu is associated with a much high grade fever. Both in case of viral or bacterial infection, the incubation period is 2 to 5 days. Symptoms of pharyngitis are quite similar with that of cold, flu, mononucleosis etc. Swollen lymph nodes in the patient with fever, might experience loss of appetite, muscle aches, extensive fatigue, rashes on the body, a general malaise etc. He might also go through a phase of difficulty in swallowing food and drinks, nausea, chills with or without fever,an unusual and weird taste sensation in the mouth, deterioration of appetite. Also theallover malaise is persistently followed with red throat with patches of grey or white marks here and there.
Depending on the severity of the conditions and the intensity of the symptoms, the contagious period varies from person to person. The infections period in case of a viral infection continues, until the fever subsides.