Sore throat for 5 days

[armiva]

I visited an extremely dry and high-altitude city and about a week into the stay, I developed a sore throat (it is more of a painful throat, rather than the scratchy/itchy/raw feeling type of sore throat). It felt very severe on the first night, but then felt better, and has been off and on since the past 5 days. I am also a mouth-breather when I sleep so I thought that would make the throat worse with the low humidity. Now, when I google I see some of the more serious symptoms of sore throat are diphteria and epiglottitis, both of which can cause death. I had just written it off as due to the extreme climate change, but now I am anxious. I don't have any fever, difficulty breathing or hoarseness as of now, but worried that it may develop. As for as diphtheria goes, I have taken the Tdap booster shot about 6-7 years ago but worried that the vaccine may now have been 100% effective. Can the intermittent sore throat be a symptom of epiglottitis? Deliberating whether I should go to ER now or wait a day or two longer:weep:

[Josh1234]

You've just listed all the reasons you have a basic sore throat, so why do you wanna go to ER? I lived in a dry climate after living in a humid one, and I had a sore throat well over a month straight before.

[armiva]

Thanks Josh, I was looking for someone else with an experience like yours I guess. The reason I was thinking ER is because the dry place I came from was South Africa (though I only stuck to the major cities, no rural areas etc), and because of the travel to Africa, it makes one more paranoid about all the things one can pick up. I stayed in Pretoria for 11 days and it was extremely dry, the heat didn't bother me as much as the dryness. Now the sore throat has lessened (though it may come back) and I have itchy, watery eyes, a little sneezing and temperature in the 99s now. So back to being a bit antsy because ordinarily I would think it's just a cold but I don't think the trajectory of a cold is to have 6 straight days of sore throat with no other symptoms.