Tonsillitis

Tonsillitis can cause several symptoms:

• a sore throat
• pain when swallowing
• earache
• high temperature (fever) over 38°C (100.4°F)
• coughing
• headache
• feeling sick
• feeling tired
• swollen, painful lymph glands in your neck
• white pus-filled spots on the tonsils
• bad breath
• loss of voice or changes to your voice

These symptoms usually get better within 3 to 4 days.

• you've had symptoms for longer than 4 days and they don't show any signs of getting better
• your symptoms are severe, for example if you can't eat or drink because of the pain, or you have difficulty breathing
• you keep getting throat infections

If your doctor's chamber is closed, phone a doctor or the 16263 health line.

If needed, your doctor will look at your throat and ask you some questions about your symptoms. They may take a swab from your throat to check whether tonsillitis is caused by a virus or by bacteria. You'll usually get the results in a few days.

If you have severe tonsillitis as a teenager or adult, your doctor may suggest a blood test for glandular fever.

There's no specific treatment for tonsillitis. In most cases it gets better on its own within a week.

• take paracetamol or ibuprofen to help relieve pain
• drink plenty of fluids
• get plenty of rest

Always read the leaflet that comes with your medicine before taking it, and follow the recommended dosage instructions. If you're not sure which treatments are suitable for you or your child, speak to a pharmacist for advice.

If tests show your tonsillitis is caused by a bacterial infection, your doctor may prescribe a short course of antibiotics to take by mouth.

Sometimes these don't help and your symptoms keep getting worse. In that case, your doctor may send you to hospital, where antibiotics can be given straight into a vein (IV antibiotics).

A small number of children and adults have tonsillitis for longer, or it keeps coming back. This is called chronic tonsillitis, and surgery may be needed.

Surgery to remove the tonsils (a tonsillectomy) is usually only recommended if:

• you've had several severe episodes of tonsillitis over a long period of time
• repeated episodes are disrupting normal activities

Most cases of tonsillitis are caused by a viral infection, like a cold or flu. Some cases are caused by a bacterial infection, usually a strain of bacteria called group A streptococcus.

Tonsillitis itself isn't contagious, but the infections that cause it are.

• wash your hands often, especially after you touch your nose or mouth and before you handle food
• always sneeze and cough into tissues
• throw used tissues away and wash your hands

Complications of tonsillitis are rare. They usually happen only when a bacterial infection is the cause, and they come about when the infection spreads to another part of the body.

The possible complications are:

• quinsy (peritonsillar abscess), which is an abscess (a collection of pus) that develops between one of the tonsils and the wall of the throat
• obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), where the walls of the throat relax during sleep, causing breathing difficulties and poor sleep

Other complications of tonsillitis are very rare. They usually occur only if an underlying bacterial infection is left untreated.