SORE THROAT: painful throat due to inflammation of the fauces and pharynx.
TONSILLITIS: an inflammation of the tonsils of varying degrees of severity and involving simple inflammation associated with acute pharyngitis, streptococcus infection (as in strep throat), or formation of an abscess (as quinsy).
STREP THROAT: an inflammatory sore throat caused by hemolytic streptococci and marked by fever, prostration, and toxemia. It is usually a self-limited disease, which means it will go away by itself without treatment. But in the rare case, if left untreated it can turn into rheumatic fever, which can lead to serious heart disease. Antibiotics may be used to treat strep throat, but antibiotics themselves can be hazardous, resulting in allergic and toxic reations, and in "superinfections" by antibiotic-resistant organisms; and they are becoming less and less effective. CAUTION: once starting on antibiotics, you need to finish the full course even if your test results later come back negative, to prevent breeding antibiotic-resistant "superbugs".
PHARYNGITIS: inflammation of the pharynx (the part of the alimentary canal situated between the cavity of the mouth and the esophagus that is about four and a half inches long that is continuous above the mouth and nasal passages, communicates through the eustachian tubes with the ears, and extends downward past the opening into the larynx to the lower border of the cricoid cartilage where it is continuous with the esophagus).
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