Antibiotics for Strep Throat: Do We Need Them?

What happens if you don't treat strep throat with antibiotics? If you miss the diagnosis of strep throat, what kind of complications can you expect, and how likely are they? Should you be worried about acute rheumatic fever, and why? Why are there such significant differences between different guidelines from different countries regarding the diagnosis and treatment of strep throat and the approach to a sore throat?

In this video, you will learn to recognize signs of severe illness in patients with a sore throat:

And if you want to truly master antibiotics and learn how to use them to treat the most common and most severe infections with confidence, here is a link to my online course, which includes the first three crucial lessons:
ANTIBIOTICS IN CLINICAL PRACTICE (Demo version with PDF summaries)

Every clinician has to be able to recognize life-threatening infections like sepsis and CNS infections right away! This free online course teaches you just that! If you work with patients, don't put this off! You will need what you learn in this course the very next shift!

A Clinical Approach to Serious Infections in Adults: What Every Physician Should Know:

DISCLAIMER: Please, always keep in mind that my videos are intended for educational purposes only. The content of my videos is NOT medical advice. I do not practice medicine over the Internet. If you are a patient and have any questions about your health, please talk to your doctor.

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Why do we overuse antibiotics for a sore throat?
00:37 Suppurative complications of strep throat
02:20 Acute rheumatic fever (ARF): is it still a threat?
04:01 Why is acute rheumatic fever so uncommon in high-income countries?
05:32 You will miss some patients with strep throat

REFERENCES & RECOMMENDED READING:
2. Shulman ST, Bisno AL, Clegg HW, Gerber MA, Kaplan EL, Lee G, et al. Clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and management of group A streptococcal pharyngitis: 2012 update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clin Infect Dis. 2012 Nov 15;55(10):1279–82.
3. Ou Z, Yu D, Liang Y, Wu J, He H, Li Y, et al. Global burden of rheumatic heart disease: trends from 1990 to 2019. Arthritis Res Ther. 2022 Jun 11;24(1):138.
4. Palafox B, Mocumbi AO, Kumar RK, Ali SKM, Kennedy E, Haileamlak A, et al. The WHF Roadmap for Reducing CV Morbidity and Mortality Through Prevention and Control of RHD. Glob Heart. 2017 Mar;12(1):47–62.
5. Coutinho G, Duerden M, Sessa A, Caretta‐Barradas S, Altiner A. Worldwide comparison of treatment guidelines for sore throat. Int J Clin Pract. 2021 May;75(5):e13879.

[amberbarrett]

Praying for the people who have strep throat like me😢

[killeyvedi]

I have to say strep throat is whooping my ass over here

[Cece_m]

Here in the Philippines if you have strep throat . You need to eat a semi-ripe papaya-the one that is still crisp and dip it into vinegar with salt. Your swollen tonsil or throat will get better after few hours maybe could cure after 24 hrs. Even it is so painful to swallow, just still swallow the papaya with vinegar and salt. Ofcourse, need to chew it before swallowing it. It's very effective! Believe me.

We sliced the papaya into small. I eat half of the papaya for better results.

[Thequietone]

Have strep throat now, I don’t take many antibiotics, but this hurts like hell, I’ll gladly take the pills

[prabhu]

Lord, please have mercy for those who suffer from strep throat right now 😭

[parisdrekoudis]

There is a huge need for common guidelines and clear guidelines in order to reduce the overuse of antibiotics. Centor criteria are vague that's why nobody trusts it in everyday practice. A percentage is never accepted. Either you have strepto or not. I once saw a patient 40 years old, in Greece, who had shortly after infection a heart valve damage and needed surgery. He was given antibiotics by a doctor who uses ab for every patient- but the problem is that when he was given the ab, he had minimal symptoms, no fever, and probably did not justify the use of ab. The one who had the greatest problem had symptoms that did not justify the use of ab. Cases like that lead to overuse.

[meliciodeltorro]

i have strep right now, 2nd day, I am on my 2nd dose of Amoxicillin 500 mg and 800mg ibuprofen every 6 hours. The night sweats are horrible and so are the chills, not to mention my entire body aches like as if I had a really super long gym session, so sore. My throat is on Fire. i get strep 2 times a year, usually starts to get better after 2nd day of antibiotics, but there is now a super strong strain of strep going around, fingers crossed I don't have that one. If you have it right now you're not alone. Luckily my cat hasn't left my side only to get water and eat food then he hops right back in bed with me. Anyway, I wish you all a speedy and full recovery. Yes Listerine burns the throat but it helps a lot to gargle with it.

[noklarok]

my GP couldn't recognise my strep throat, now i am suffering so bad

[EmilyGloeggler]

Sepsis and toxic shock and meningitis is serious. Best to have them checked.

[Yo-yo-dtze]

I caught strep on my birthday 3/25 and it came on quickly by the time I got to urgent care they had me rushed to the er after checking vitals because my heart rate was extremely high and low blood pressure I was going septic from strep had to get intravenously antibiotics I don’t wish this on no one it was horrible felt like razors and glass was being swallowed I never had strep before 😞

[lilafeldman]

I had a great uncle who died from complications of rheumatic fever, way back in the 1950's. He had it as a kid. Had lifelong disability. His sister did, too, but it was milder. I had another great uncle who died from strep in 1935. I am doing some family research now.

[TheFirstManticore]

When I don't get antibiotics for strep throat, it lasts a few weeks or months and eventually goes away. Unless I find some kind of immune support which helps me, then it doesn't last very long. Sometimes I get tired of being sick for months on end, even if it is mild, and I go to a doctor for an antibiotic. And BTW it is contagious.

[ashutoshmahajan]

Best treatment to Strep Throat is to Gargle with Turmeric, Black Pepper and Rock Salt boiled water. While gargling, your Uvula must be dipped into the Lukewarm Gargle Water, because Streptococcus Bacteria mostly attacks or catched by Uvula which gets swollen during this infection. This treatment must be followed as soon as possible after you gets the Sore Throat symptoms.

[oopie]

I got strep throat recently and as a scientist in the medical field of course I was like "🤔 I wonder what happens if..." 😄 so I didn't get antibiotics, isolated myself (of course), dealt with the fever, headaches and face pressure. But my god...the feeling of swallowing two lumps of Play-doh was Miserable. Uuuugh... 😞 I drank green tea with honey and lemon constantly, moping around moaning "Uuuugh this suuucks 😞" But I wanted to see how long my immune system would take to overrun it. It took about 4 days before I started feeling like it had begun taking over the illness and things were looking up, like I could get up and move around a little more. Then the next day more, and better. After a week, I was healing extremely well and doing good. No headaches, no face pressure/pain. Tonsil swelling gone down a LOT, with just a little streak here and there left. I concluded that historically, antibiotics made me feel better 2 days faster and that was it. They do say your're not contagious after having antibiotics in your system for 24 hours which allows you to be out and around people if you WANT or HAVE to but I didn't want to and didn't have to because I isolated and called in from work using sick days. So it all worked out because I gave it time since I had time and decent immunity to give. And patience. Of course, not everybody wants to deal with all that 🤣 But it was an interesting "adventure" for me.

[josephmousley]

I’m in such a bad way- 5 days of extreme throat pain, all the time, and just feel rubbish. GP said it was tonsillitis and I need penicillin; but did no tests on me to establish if it was viral or bacterial. I’ve so far self treated with raw honey, ginger, sage, oregano, gargling salt water…the lot! Still sleepless nights where every time I cough or swallow it’s like millions of little pin like nails are in my throat. Nervous to take the penicillin prescribed, so just in stale mate in such pain with absolutely nothing working to help.

[JoseRodriguez-uuox]

Does strep throat has something to do with shortness of breath???

[lovelyla]

Thank you I needed this lol. I think I had strep. Not sure because my symptoms were pretty mild. No fever. Just mild malaise for one day and sore though with mild pain. I took oregano oil three days 1 drop with 1 spoon of honey for 3 days and it went away. But now 2 weeks later I was a little worried because of what I saw online about not treating it. 😭

[swedenorway]

i have Mononucleosis and streptococcus both at once, went to the doctor and they tested me and told me i have both, the worst sick i have ever experienced. i literally cant eat anything, i have had two spoons of soup in the last two days

[caledoniacrusader]

I've been hours from death and this mother fucking throat pain tops that by miles.

[jonnyblaze]

Antiseptic gargles or salt & pepper gargles rend to relieve some symtpoms without antibiotics in some to most cases unless severe..