Viral Throat Infections

Throat infections are very common in both children and adults alike; the usual type of throat infection to affect both groups is one of a viral nature.

What Is A Viral Throat Infection?

Viral throat infections are caused when a virus attacks the throat. These viruses can enter the body in many ways such as with the flu virus, head colds or more specific viral causes such as mononucleosis.

Viruses spread more rapidly in the winter months for two main reasons. Firstly people tend to spend more time indoors in close proximity to each other than in warmer months meaning that viruses in saliva are more likely to be shared through talking, laughing, coughing and even leaving tissues lying around. Secondly, as we are protected indoors, our immune systems can adapt to the environment and mean that it is slightly weaker than when it is faced with the outside world.

What Are The Symptoms?

Throat infections can vary in different people with some suffering mild discomfort to others finding it very difficult to swallow. The pain can begin as a dryness of the throat with an increased discomfort when swallowing along with the voice becoming deeper, harsher and less able to reach high volumes. This can lead to generalised pain and discomfort most of the time and increase to feeling as though you are unable to swallow at all, or having to make a great effort to swallow, even your own saliva.

In some cases it is common to experience a head cold with the sore throat and this can bring congestion, sinus pain, a runny nose, a cough (which can aggravate the throat pain) and a high temperature.

Feeling unwell with a sore throat doesn’t happen all the time, but is more likely to occur if a head cold or other illness is present.You may also suffer from swelling to the throat and the surrounding glands and tissues as the tissues becomes inflamed and the body struggles to fight the virus and heal.

How Are They Treated?

Viral throat infections are best treated at home as they will not respond to anti-biotic treatment as many people are mislead. At the present time there is no anti-biotic that will eliminate a virus and the people who request anti-biotics as a treatment option are taking medications unnecessarily.

Most viral throat infections will simply heal without medical treatment as the body uses its own resources to rid the cells of the infection.

Drinking plenty of water will help to keep the body and therefore the cells hydrated which will help your own immune system fight the infection. If drinking water or other thin fluids is difficult, try milkshakes, ice lollies, or soups as these are thicker and easier to swallow.

Mild pain relief will help to keep your temperature down and our pain minimal, and throat lozenges can help to numb the tissues of throat and aid swallowing and relieve pain.

It is very helpful to avoid dry or smoky atmospheres as this will exacerbate your symptoms and may prolong your illness.

For most people, these measures do help relieve some of the symptoms but they don’t cure the infection and nature will have to take its course. Viral throat infections generally don’t last longer than a week, but if your symptoms do worsen after this time, especially after following the treatment measures, please see your doctor as your may have developed a bacterial throat infection that may need anti-biotic treatment.

Viral throat infections are very common and are usually not harmful in the long term and it is usually recommended to get some rest, take mild pain killers and drink plenty of fluids to overcome the complaint or just to ride-out the illness.

Do you think your throat problem might be bacterial? Take a look at our feature on bacterial throat infections for more information about how to identify it and the potential treatments.