• Strep pharynx is a highly contagious illness that can spread easily from person to person.
  • Strep pharynx spreads through respiratory aerosol, and so it can be passed through sneezes, coughs, sharing food or drinks, or touching surfaces that are infected.
  • Strep pharynx is most contagious while you have symptoms and in the two to five days subsequently y'all're infected, which can be before symptoms announced.
  • This commodity was medically reviewed by Julia Bare, Doc, family unit medicine doc at Providence Saint John's Health Heart in Santa Monica, CA.
  • Visit Insider's Health Reference library for more advice.

Strep throat is a bacterial infection in the throat and tonsils. It is known to cause a sore or scratchy throat, as well as white patches on your tonsils.

Strep throat is highly contagious during the incubation period — the 2 to five days after y'all're infected and before symptoms appear. It stays contagious until your symptoms resolve, which tin can take upwards to seven days.

Hither's what makes strep throat contagious and how to reduce the adventure of spreading information technology.

How do you lot get strep throat?

Strep pharynx is acquired by group A Streptococcus bacteria.

This blazon of bacteria is commonly plant in the throat and on the skin, just it doesn't necessarily cause an infection in everyone who has it, says Michael Devine, Dr., an internal medicine doctor and geriatrician at Devine Concierge Medicine in Philadelphia.

"When a peculiarly virulent or aggressive strain of the bacteria is present, it is more likely to cause infection," Devine says. "These strains can be highly contagious."

Strep pharynx is spread through respiratory droplets, such as when an infected person sneezes or coughs. Y'all can become infected by breathing in these droplets, or touching something with droplets on them, then touching your nose or mouth.

Devine says the most common means you can become strep throat are:

  • Drinking from the same glass every bit someone with strep throat.
  • Eating from the same plate or using the same utensil equally someone with strep throat.
  • Touching shared surfaces that are infected — such as door handles, phones, tables, or countertops.

In addition, strep throat may be contagious when you're in close contact with someone who is infected for an extended period of time. And since there's no fashion of knowing how shut or for how long it takes to become infected, Devine says that "whatever contact with someone who y'all know has strep throat should be limited or avoided altogether."

Anyone can go strep throat, but it is almost common in children ages five to 15, where information technology accounts for 15% to 30% of all pharynx infections. One reason is that kids are more than probable to put their hands in their mouths and are in closer contact with each other in school settings, says Nate Favini, Medico, medical lead of Forrard, a preventive primary care practice.

Symptoms

One time you lot're infected with strep throat leaner, it commonly takes well-nigh two to five days to develop symptoms.

According to the CDC, the signs of strep pharynx include:

  • Sore throat
  • Fever greater than 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit
  • Bloated lymph nodes in your cervix
  • Hurting when swallowing
  • The presence of pus or white patches on your tonsils

If yous suspect y'all take strep pharynx, your doctor can test for the presence of streptococcal antigens past swabbing your throat and testing the swab. Antigens are molecules that stimulate an immune response, and the presence of streptococcal antigens indicates you lot have strep pharynx. Yous tin can get the results from this test in virtually 10 to xv minutes.

Viruses that crusade the common cold can also cause a sore throat, only other symptoms of a cold — similar a cough —  are non common strep throat symptoms, Favini says.

If you're experiencing a coughing or runny nose in improver to a sore throat, it might be due to a cold or flu virus, and not strep throat. Here's how to further differentiate your symptoms from other like conditions, like the flu or mono:

Yuqing Liu/Insider

How long is strep contagious?

Strep throat is contagious both during the incubation period and until symptoms resolve. Once you've been exposed to strep throat, information technology takes about two to v days to develop symptoms, and you're contagious during this time, fifty-fifty if you don't still realize you're sick. If untreated, strep throat symptoms can last and be contagious for about seven days, Devine says.

Withal, when treated with antibiotics , symptoms usually begin to ameliorate within ane to ii days. It is important to stop the full course of antibiotics—even subsequently you start feeling better, in gild to fully eradicate the bacteria causing infection.

To prevent contagious spread, the CDC says that people with strep throat should stay dwelling from work or school until they no longer have a fever, and take taken antibiotics for at least 24 hours.

Learn more about how to treat strep throat with antibiotics and home remedies.

How to forestall the spread of strep throat

The all-time fashion to protect yourself from getting strep throat is to avert contact with anyone who has the infection, Favini says.

Beyond that, practicing good hygiene can go a long way in keeping yourself salubrious, specially in the wintertime and early on spring when strep and other bacteria and viruses, similar the flu, are circulating at college levels than during the summertime months.

Here'south how to reduce contagious spread with good hygiene:

  • Washing your easily oft with soap and water for at least 20 seconds
  • Using a paw sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not bachelor
  • Covering your oral fissure with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, then throwing that tissue abroad
  • Teaching your kids to cover their mouths with their elbows when they coughing or sneeze, not their hands

Related articles from Health Reference:

  • How to kill germs: Everything yous demand to know to protect you and your loved ones from infection
  • How to tell if you have a fever without a thermometer
  • 5 means to soothe a sore pharynx

Erin Heger is a freelance announcer located in the Kansas Urban center area. She primarily covers stories related to healthcare policy, maternal mental health, parenting, and personal finance. Her piece of work been featured in The Atlantic, Rewire.News, Refinery29, HuffPost, and more.