Dysentery is an infectious disease that affects the end of the intestine and provokes severe diarrhea. In adults, the disease is much less common than in children. As a rule, a child older than a year gets sick.
Dysentery, the symptoms and treatment of which should be studied to determine in time for yourself or your baby, spreads through contaminated water. How exactly does this happen and what should be done to recover?
Causes of infection
When drinking contaminated water, a dysenteric bacillus enters the body . In terms of its prevalence, this intestinal infection takes first place. Without proper treatment, dysentery can be fatal, and a million people die from it every year in the world. After the body has been infected, a person becomes a carrier of infection. This means that others can get sick after contact or sharing food with someone who has already started dysentery. Symptoms and treatment do not depend on the age of the patient. In any case, the bacterium appears on the intestinal mucosa, where it releases toxins that are harmful to nerve endings and other tissues. All further symptoms are also caused by toxins, which, with the course of the disease, affect the heart, liver, and central nervous system.
Symptoms of Dysentery
First of all, a sign of the disease is abdominal discomfort. Incubation
the period may take a day, or may last a week. In total, there are three forms that dysentery can take, the symptoms and treatment in each case are somewhat different. Acute dysentery has a colitic or gastroenterocolitic character. The disease can occur in both mild and extremely severe forms. Chronic dysentery is implicitly present in the body for a long time and periodically worsens. Finally, there is a form of bacterial carriage when a person is infected, but the degree of protection of his immunity determines the strength of the disease. For timely diagnosis, bacteriological analysis for dysentery is used. At the first signs of intoxication and stool disorders with the appearance of blood, you should immediately consult a specialist.
Dysentery treatment
The main condition is mandatory hospitalization.
Dysentery, the symptoms and treatment of which are beyond the control of the attending physician, can lead to death, so the patient should never stay at home. The doctor will prescribe individually selected drugs, in some cases it is ampicillin, sometimes furazolidone or
nalidixic acid. In complex cases, intramuscular
injections of gentamicin or rifampicin are required. An important point in how to
treat dysentery is also the provision of a therapeutic diet. Prohibited foods with a lot of fiber, recommended mashed soups and cereals on the water, meat or fish in mashed form. Sour milk mixtures and cottage cheese are additionally prescribed for young children. As a rule, dysentery, the symptoms and treatment of which were controlled by a competent specialist, passes without a destructive effect for the body. For some time, it is recommended to use bifidumbacterin to restore microflora, which ensures that the intestines return to normal within a month.