Tonsillitis

[Shiningstarr]

If there are white spots on the tonsils, does this mean tonsillitis is bacterial, not viral?

For viral would the tonsils just be very red?

No temperature, but feeling unwell.

Tends to form part of medics' rules of thumb (and part of the score in more formal algorithms like the Centor/FeverPAIN scores). You can still have pus from viral infection and if well in other respects this would tend to favour no antibiotics.

You can get a strep a swab from Tesco or Amazon that can test for strep and results are instant if you want to do that. Doctors don’t do rapid swabs. Its a good way of knowing if it’s bacterial

Thanks for replies, it turned out it's bacterial and we have antibiotics x

Hi OP, can I ask if you went to the GP with these symptoms and did they swab to see if bacterial? I have the same symptoms and wondering whether to ride it out for a couple of days and see if improved. I also don't want to waste time and would like to get the right treatment before it gets worse. Not sure if GP would take the amazon swabs seriously, or insist on doing their own...

In my experience the doctors tend to give antibiotics if there are white spots and they have had symptoms that are not getting better after about 4 days.