I found Eludril (with tetracaine, bought in pharmacy here sans prescription) to be really good. It's a spray and fixes very painful viral throat for a couple of hours. Strepsils don't do anything here. And when buying them I had to go through a rather lengthy investigation why I need them and who all will pop them. Like, they are for hemoroids, or sumfin? It's not like they are evil strong meds, the pharmacy folks sometimes kill me, they don't seem to give ton of credit to customers here. Gurgling very diluted peroxide works too, but only at the beginning of throat trouble.