16 Nov 2017

A medical officer at Princess Marina Hospital Dr Orapeleng Phuswane-Katse says tonsils is a curable condition.

   She explained that there are two masses of tissue at the back of the throat which are called tonsils. 

 

Dr Phuswane-Katse told BOPA that these tissues acted as filters, trapping germs that could otherwise enter a person’s airways and ultimately cause infection.    

  She said that these also produced antibodies to fight infection adding that sometimes the tonsils themselves become infected and when overwhelmed by bacteria or viruses, they swell and become inflamed, a condition known as tonsillitis. 

 

“Currently we do not know the prevalence of tonsillitis in Botswana because this is a disease that is not commonly reported and the trend followed,” she said adding however that a lot of people presenting to the health facilities with tonsillitis and other allergy related diseases probably due to change in seasons.

 

Dr Phuswane-Katse said certain bacteria (most common being the streptococcal group of bacteria), viruses, and allergens were known to produce tonsillitis. 

She said  common food articles that could   trigger tonsillitis were artificially colored sweets, sour fruits, bananas, preservatives added to certain drinks, cold food or drinks, ice-creams and as a result should be avoided when one had tonsillitis as they could make it worse.

 

She however cited that the above mentioned food stuffs did not cause tonsillitis but could trigger it or make it worse. 

“It must be borne in mind that bacteria and viruses tend to flourish in crowded areas and hence patients who are prone to tonsillitis could easily catch the infection in schools,” she said, adding that all these factors contributed to lowering the immunity of the body and thus the tonsils fell prey to infection by the micro-organisms. 

 

Dr Phuswane-Katse said the main symptoms of tonsillitis were inflammation and swelling of the tonsils noting that sometimes they were severe enough to block the airways.

Other symptoms, she said, included throat pain or tenderness, redness of the tonsils, headache, a white or yellow coating on the tonsils, loss of appetite, ear pain, fever, chills, difficulty swallowing or breathing through the mouth, swollen glands in the neck or jaw area, bad breath and others.

 

However, in children, symptoms may also include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains and others. 

 

Dr Phuswane-Katse noted that treatment for tonsillitis would depend in part on the cause.

 

If it is caused by bacteria, treatment will consist of antibiotics to cure the infection and antibiotics may be given as a single shot or taken 10 days by mouth.

 

She said   although symptoms would likely improve within two or three days after starting the antibiotic, it was important to take all of the medications that the doctor had prescribes to make sure that the bacteria was totally gone adding that some people needed to take a second course of antibiotics to cure the infection.

 

Together with the prescribed medications, she said that, it is important to get enough rest, drink warm or cold fluids to ease throat pain and eat smooth food that will not cause more pain to the throat. BOPA