Sore throat is a symptom of many medical disorders. Infections cause the majority of sore throats and are contagious. Infections are caused either by viruses such as the flu, the common cold, mononucleosis, or by bacteria such as strep, mycoplasma, or hemophilus.
While bacteria respond to antibiotic treatment, viruses do not.
Most viral sore throats accompany flu or colds along with a stuffy, runny nose, sneezing, and generalized aches and pains. These viruses are highly contagious and spread quickly, especially in winter. The body builds antibodies that destroy the virus, a process that takes about a week.
Sore throats accompany other viral infections such as measles, chicken pox, whooping cough, and croup. Canker sores and fever blisters in the throat also can be very painful.
One viral infection takes much longer than a week to be cured: infectious mononucleosis, or "mono." This virus lodges in the lymph system, causing massive enlargement of the tonsils, with white patches on their surface and swollen glands in the neck, armpits, and groin. It creates a severely sore throat and, sometimes, serious breathing difficulties. It can affect the liver, leading to jaundice- yellow skin and eyes. It also causes extreme fatigue that can last six weeks or more.
"Mono," a severe illness in teenagers but less severe in children, can be transmitted by saliva. So it has been nicknamed the "kissing disease," but it can also be transmitted from mouth-to-hand to hand-to-mouth or by sharing of towels and eating utensils.
