Sore throat and the sniffles
There are two take-home points regarding these two common ailments:
1) Antibiotics only treat bacteria, NOT viruses. Antiviral drugs are associated with lots of side effects and are reserved for serious viruses only (i.e. herpes, HIV, etc)
2) Viral sore throats and colds go away by themselves.
The important decisions, then, are 1) whether your symptoms are caused by a virus or bacteria, and 2) even if it is bacteria, whether antibiotics would even be helpful, given that the symptoms will probably pass anyway.
SORE THROAT
Strep throat is a big deal. It is caused by a well-designed bacterium that can go on to infect other organs and cause long-term disease. This is rare, but serious. The bugger is also sublimely sensitive to antibiotics, so with proper identification it can be eradicated in nearly all cases. So:
Sore throat from a virus: just wait for it to pass. Antibiotics will not help.
Sore throat from strep: definitely use antibiotics.
Sore throat from something else: very very rare.
How do you know if it is strep? The clinical criteria include:
-Fever over 101
-Enlarged or swollen lymph nodes around the neck
-White mucousy stuff on the tonsils
-NO cough
If 3 or 4 of the criteria are met, it is almost certainly strep and you should see a doctor for sure. If none are, it is almost certainly viral and you should just use cough drops. If 1 or 2 of the criteria are met, see a doctor for a strep test.
THE SNIFFLES
The common cold is caused by one of several viruses. Clinically, that means antibiotics will not work. Colds also tend to get better on their own within a week. So, unfortunately, the only thing you can do is wait it out and take decongestants (Tylenol, by the way, does not seem to do anything for cold symptoms).
If, after a week, you have facial pain or pressure or start blowing out colorful things from your nose, a sinus infection is possible. Sinus infections also tend to go away by themselves, but if symptoms are particularly uncomfortable or don't get better, antibiotics might help. On average, antibiotics will shorten the duration of an upper respiratory infection by a matter of hours to a day.
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