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What are the Treatments?

In the past, when patients displayed the characteristic red, raw throat, spikes in fever, and white spots on the tongue and tonsils, a careful physician would culture a specimen from the patient's throat and wait 24 to 48 hours for the results. If the test indicated streptococcus, the patient could then start taking antibiotics. To avoid this delay — in which the infection often grew worse — most doctors started patients on antibiotics immediately, not waiting for the results of the culture.

Diagnosis has been made much simpler today as a result of the "rapid strep" test. The specimen is obtained just like a culture, and involves taking a swab of fluid from the back of the throat. This test, in contrast, only takes about 15 minutes. If the results are positive, the diagnosis is confirmed. A negative test does not rule out strep throat since the rapid test can miss as many as 20% of strep throat infections. These negative tests are routinely verified by a culture, a more sensitive test. The culture results may take up to 48 hours. The beauty of the quick test is that you may not need to take antibiotics without confirmation that the strep organism is the culprit.
Strep throat is best treated by conventional medicine. For one thing, antibiotics are a quick treatment. Also, the disease can lead to serious complications if left untreated.

In most cases, a standard dose of penicillin, taken for 10 days, will eradicate a strep infection without any problems. For patients who are allergic to penicillin, the alternative is usually erythromycin. Antibiotics reduce the duration and severity of symptoms, the risk of complications and the period of potentially spreading the infection to others. The contagious period is within 24 hours after beginning antibiotics. Relief from the sore throat should come within 24 to 36 hours after you start taking antibiotics. Doctors recommend throat lozenges and throat sprays to ease the pain for the first few hours.

Frequently, people on antibiotics notice improvement quickly and stop taking their medications before the course runs out. This practice can have dangerous consequences. Prematurely halting the dosage may lead to some developing post infection heart (rheumatic disease) or kidney disease. So even though you may feel better right away, it's important to finish the entire prescription.