That's plausible, although I'd say it would be very careless of a doctor to use that terminology. I get not wanting to use the phrase "severe sore throat" which sounds a bit childish, but there are perfectly good alternatives like pharyngitis (or tonsillitis, as the case may be), which describe the symptoms rather than the cause (strep throat is one cause of pharyngitis, but more commonly it the cause is a viral infection, which can still be very nasty). Or just "inflammation of the throat" if you prefer plain English over Latin & Greek.