You wake up with a sore throat and wonder: Is it just a cold or something more serious like strep? The truth is, it’s not always easy to tell.

“Unfortunately for the patients themselves, there’s no easy way to tell,” says Mae Janiga, a physician assistant at Tidelands Health Family Medicine at The Market Common. 

Still, there are a few clues that can point toward strep throat.

Strep throat is a bacterial infection that shares a lot of symptoms with other wintertime sicknesses, like the common cold, flu and COVID. The most common symptoms of strep throat:

• Sudden sore throat
• Pain with swallowing
• Red, swollen tonsils
• White patches in the throat
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Headache
• Nausea and stomachache, for kids

You can have strep throat even if you don’t have a fever or every symptom on the list. Strep throat season in South Carolina tends to fall between late November and early March, with a peak in February, Janiga says.

Because strep can’t be diagnosed by symptoms alone, seeing your care provider is necessary. You’ll need a test and antibiotics to treat it. Make an appointment if:

• Your sore throat lasts more than three days
• You develop a fever that lasts more than three days
• You have trouble swallowing or breathing
• You notice a rash

“These are what we call alarm symptoms,” Janiga says.

And if you start antibiotics but don’t feel better within 48 hours, check back with your provider.

Once you start a course of antibiotics, you can expect to improve pretty quickly. You won’t be contagious after 24 hours, your symptoms will improve within two days and the infection will be fully gone in three to five days. In the meantime, there are a few things you can do to treat the symptoms:

• Gargle with salt water. Warm water mixed with a bit of salt can help relieve throat pain. Gargle with the mixture several times throughout the day.
• Use throat lozenges. Over-the-counter cough drops can help soothe and numb an irritated throat. Look for ones made with honey, which can also help ease pain.
• Rest. Help your body get better by staying home from work.

Strep throat doesn’t tend to be as common as the flu or COVID, Janiga says, but it’s too soon this year to tell how common the infection will be.

“We have to wait and see what this year is going to bring,” she says.