Intestinal infections are dangerous for children and adults. Most of them occur in the form of an epidemic, that is, a whole group of people gets sick immediately. Specialists of the general population pay special attention to salmonellosis. What is this infection, and why is there so much talk about it?
What is salmonellosis
The disease is caused by bacteria from the Salmonella genus. They are widespread in nature, live in water, soil and in the gastrointestinal tract of many animals. In total, there are many varieties, more than 2200 of them can cause an infectious disease in humans. Once in the intestines in large quantities, salmonella are introduced into the bloodstream and spread throughout the body.
Salmonella are quite stable in the external environment. For a long time, bacteria are stored in frozen foods, contaminated water and soil. In meat and milk, they multiply perfectly, while the quality of the products does not deteriorate in any way by external signs. Microbes are destroyed at a temperature of + 70 ° C for 5-10 minutes. So boiling foods protects against infection. Eggs must be cooked for 4 minutes. But in the fried eggs, salmonella can retain their pathogenicity. Also, salting and smoking will not affect them.
How does the disease go?
Depending on the variety of bacteria and the characteristics of the human body, several forms of the disease may occur.
- Intestinal form with varying degrees of damage to the stomach, small and large intestines.
- The generalized form is characterized by a severe course of the disease and the spread of the pathogen throughout the body. It is divided into typhoid-like, septic and meningial.
- The erased form and bacterial excretion can be asymptomatic, but the person in this case is a carrier of Salmonella and a source of their release into the external environment.
The disease is severe in children under one year old and older people, weakened by chronic ailments. After recovery, a person develops an unstable immunity to salmonellosis. What does this mean? As a rule, the body acquires resistance to re-infection within one year. Then a person can become infected and get sick again.
Transmission routes
Salmonellosis - what is it, intestinal or general infection? The behavior of the microbe in the body largely depends on the method of infection.
- Food . The most common route of transmission, often causing outbreaks of infection due to violations of sanitary rules in public catering facilities. Salmonellosis in adults and children develops when eating animal products that are seeded with salmonella in significant quantities: these are meat, eggs and egg products, milk and dairy products, fish. Bacteria enter the products either as a result of contamination with intestinal contents in meat processing plants, or during the slaughter of sick and weakened animals.Also, the source of infection can be a person - a carrier of infection in contact with food. The second significant way salmonella enters the human body is with drinking water from contaminated water bodies or as a result of emergency situations in the water supply system.
- Contact-household transmission is important for outbreaks of infection in hospitals. When isolating specific microflora in these cases, the diagnosis of salmonellosis is made. Symptoms in children being treated in hospitals occur massively, more often in the summer.
- Salmonella can be transmitted by airborne dust in megacities, but this method of infection does not play a significant role in the occurrence of mass diseases.
Symptoms of Salmonellosis
Once in the intestines, salmonella begin to multiply actively and destroy the mucous membrane, causing inflammation. In addition, bacteria release a number of toxins. They play a significant role in the pathogenesis of a disease such as salmonellosis. Symptoms and treatment will vary slightly depending on the form of the course of the infection.
- The incubation period averages from 12 to 24 hours, but can be from 6 to 72 hours.
- Usually the disease is acute. Body temperature rises to 39 ° C, there is nausea, headache, weakness, spastic abdominal pain.
- Liquid stool 4 to 9 times a day, the nature of the bowel movements is watery, foamy, with an unpleasant odor. On day 2-3, an admixture of mucus appears, sometimes with blood.
- In the case of the development of the gastrointestinal form of the disease, the duration of the course of salmonellosis is from 2 to 10 days.
- In severe cases, it is possible to develop dehydration and toxic shock caused by salmonellosis. Symptoms in young children with septic form indicate damage to the meninges.
- With typhoid form, symptoms of intestinal damage may be absent. Characteristic is a high temperature, up to + 40 ° C, pallor of the skin, a rash on the abdomen and trunk.
- The disease can be complicated by peritonitis, toxic expansion of the intestine, appendicitis, acute cardiac and renal failure, the development of purulent foci in organs and tissues. For this reason, meningitis, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, arthritis, abscesses of internal organs, pneumonia and urinary tract infections can develop.
Diagnostics
To make a diagnosis, an analysis for salmonellosis is done. For bacteriological culture, blood, feces, urine, bile, pus from the lesion, vomit are taken. Products suspected of being a source of infection are also being investigated.
Serological reactions are used to detect antibodies to salmonella in serum.
Disease treatment
Treatment of salmonellosis requires hospitalization in the event of the development of severe damage to the organs of the gastrointestinal tract and the course of the disease in a generalized form. In other cases, patients are treated at home. It is first necessary to confirm the laboratory diagnosis of salmonellosis. Symptoms and treatment of the disease are interconnected.
- Antibiotics of a wide spectrum of action are prescribed until the results of subtitling are obtained (determining the sensitivity of the pathogen to antibacterial drugs), then the treatment is adjusted if necessary. The analysis takes 5 days. The difficulty lies in the fact that today there are many varieties of salmonella, resistant to almost all drugs.
- The stomach and intestines are washed.
- Compensate for fluid loss by the introduction of intravenous or intravenous water-salt solutions.
- Conduct detoxification of the body.
- Painkillers and antispasmodics (the drug "No-spa" or its analogues).
- To maintain digestion, the administration of enzymes is prescribed: means "Festal", "Mezim Forte" and so on.
- During the period of the disease and after it is necessary to strictly adhere to a sparing diet.
The effects of infection on the body
If a person has suffered salmonellosis, what does this mean for overall health? Duration of hospital stay is from 14 to 30 days. After recovery, a laboratory analysis is performed to isolate the pathogen, with a double negative result, the patient is recognized as free from infection. Within 2-4 weeks after salmonellosis, you must adhere to a diet and take probiotics - drugs that restore the intestinal microflora.
In order to prevent the disease, it is necessary to observe the hygiene of cooking, comply with the rules and conditions of food storage, boil meat well, do not buy food in suspicious places. If there are signs of salmonellosis, a timely visit to a doctor, a correct diagnosis and proper treatment make the outcome of the disease favorable, and the damage to health is minimal.