Take the patient's temperature, and feel for tender enlarged glands in the neck.
Patients with sore throats should not smoke.
For simple tonsillitis or sore throat, gargling with warm salt water (a teaspoonful of salt to half a litre of water) every 3 hours may be all that is needed.
Give patients with only a mild sore throat, and no general symptoms of illness and fever, acetylsalicylic acid or paracetamol to relieve the pain.
Mild sore throats should NOT be treated with antibiotics.
Patients with tonsillitis, or a sore throat at companied by fever, whose glands are swollen and who feel generally unwell should be put to bed and can be given paracetamol and a gargle as above.
Give patients not allergic to penicillin one injection of 600 000 units of procaine benzylpenicillin intramuscularly, and follow this after 12 heirs with the standard antibiotic treatment.
Subsequent management
Keep a check on the general condition of the patient and keep a record of his temperature, pulse, and respiration. Recovery will usually begin within 48 hours, and the patient can be allowed up when his temperature is down and he feels better.
Peritonsillar abscess can be a complication following tonsillitis.