Many of us have encountered in our lives such an intestinal disease as salmonellosis. High fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, frequent trips to the toilet - this is what happens when salmonella enters the human body. Let us examine in more detail what kind of pathology it is, in what cases it arises, what forms salmonellosis takes. The incubation period, disease prevention will also be covered in the article.
What is salmonellosis?
Salmonellosis is an intestinal infectious disease, which is characterized by intoxication of the body of varying degrees and damage to the digestive tract. Pathology is caused by special microbes of the genus Salmonella, which enter the human body in several ways:
- with food
- from a sick animal
- from an infected person (who is ill himself or is a carrier of a bacterium).
The incubation period for salmonellosis is on average one day. This intestinal disease is quite insidious, because at first it may not manifest itself sufficiently, and a person, hoping for a speedy recovery, does not pay due attention to his treatment.
A mild form of salmonellosis is manifested by a barely noticeable malaise, a slight disorder of the stool. However, there are more severe cases of the course of the disease, which are manifested by high fever, loose stools, repeated vomiting, severe abdominal pain, and headache.
It happens that activity in the human body of Salmonella can cause loss of consciousness, cramps, prolonged fever, lead to an increase in the internal organs - spleen, liver - and the formation of purulent foci in them.
Salmonella germs
Salmonella is a genus of stick-shaped bacteria with a length of up to 7 microns and a width of up to 0.7 microns. Microorganisms are pathogenic for humans and animals; they usually live in the intestines. They are very unpretentious, develop and grow on elementary nutrient media.
Once in the human body, the bacterium begins to be active, but not immediately. The incubation period of salmonellosis in adults ranges from 6 hours to three days.
Bacteria are well preserved in the environment:
- in the soil - up to one and a half years,
- water - up to 5 months.
Salmonella also feels good in food. They retain their viability:
- in cheeses - up to 1 year,
- frozen meat - about 6 months,
- butter - up to 4 months,
- meat products - from 2 to 4 months,
- kefir and beer - up to 2 months,
- milk - up to 20 days.
Ultraviolet and heat are damaging to salmonella: when heated to a temperature of 55 ° C, the bacterium dies after 1.5 hours, to a temperature of 60 ° C - within 12 minutes. However, salmonella does not die completely when frozen.
In some products, such as milk or meat, salmonella is not only preserved, but also propagated.
Why does salmonellosis occur?
The most common way a person is infected with salmonellosis is through infected foods. It is noteworthy that salmonella living in contaminated food does not change its appearance and taste. Infection of animal products (eggs, meat) occurs for various reasons:
- with improper or forced slaughter of animals;
- in case of violation of the rules of food storage and cooking (for example, in contact with finished products and raw meat);
- with poor heat treatment of products (steaks with blood, etc.);
- through the eggs of sick birds, especially duck eggs.
The most favorable environment for bacterial activity is food with a liquid and jelly-like consistency - jellied dishes, creams, salads. The use of these products in the warm season becomes especially dangerous: according to statistics, it is in the summer, in the heat, the incidence of salmonellosis increases many times.
There are several forms of pathology:
- gastrointestinal (gastrointestinal),
- typhoid-like
- septic
- asymptomatic
- bacteriocarrier.
Gastrointestinal form
This form of the disease is the most common. The incubation period of salmonellosis, the symptoms of which are manifested quickly and very clearly, is the time when a person has already become infected, but there are no signs of the disease. First appears weakness and headaches, dizziness, high body temperature, chills.
Next, the first symptoms of damage to the digestive tract arise - pain in the stomach, in the navel; vomiting with noticeable food debris, later with an admixture of bile; diarrhea with greenish feces and an admixture of mucus. There are also visual signs of the manifestation of salmonellosis: white plaque appears on the patient’s tongue, dry mouth, bloating, palpation of which causes pain.
Diarrhea in the gastrointestinal form of salmonellosis lasts several days and usually has unpleasant consequences: the body is dehydrated with the loss of mineral salts, the patient may have low blood pressure and convulsions, sometimes the nervous system is affected - fainting and dizziness occur.
With timely treatment, the patient becomes much easier already on the fifth day, however, a full recovery usually occurs by the end of the second week.
Typhoid and septic forms
Typhoid-like and septic forms of salmonellosis have a more severe clinical picture.
A typhoid-like form of the disease is very similar to the manifestations of the gastrointestinal type of pathology. Such salmonellosis (the incubation period in humans is also called latent or latent) is also initially characterized by weakness and high body temperature. Further, the nature of the disease becomes similar to typhoid fever, a person develops a prolonged (within a week) fever, confusion and possible hallucinations. A rash appears on the patient’s stomach, the tongue acquires a gray-brown color, the skin becomes very pale, the abdomen is noticeably swollen. Full recovery of the patient with this form of salmonellosis occurs no earlier than after 1-1.5 months of competent therapy.
The septic form of the disease is extremely rare. In general, signs of the disease can occur in people with weakened immune systems, in newborns, and in the elderly. The course of the disease is accompanied by prolonged fever, severe sweating, jaundice, the formation of inflammatory processes in the organs. Such a course of the disease often ends in death.
Asymptomatic form and bacteriocarrier
The form of salmonellosis is considered asymptomatic, in which a small number of bacteria enter the human body and the immune system independently copes with foreign microorganisms.
Bacterial carrier is a condition in which a person does not get sick, but excrets salmonella with feces for a certain period of time (usually no more than three months).
What is going on in the body?
Salmonellosis develops within three days from the moment the bacteria enter the human body. The first 6-8 hours the disease does not manifest itself.
Salmonella, getting into the stomach with food, meets the first natural obstacle in its path - an acidic environment, due to which it is difficult for bacteria to move on. However, if the body's immune forces are insufficient, salmonella enters the small intestine. Some bacteria die, and endotoxin is released. At this point, a person has the first manifestations of the disease.
Those bacteria that have not died settle in the small intestine and attack its wall, while releasing the toxin. There is a loss of water through the intestines, the nervous system is affected, the tone of the vessels is disturbed. Gradually, salmonella enter the bloodstream, through which it spreads throughout the body and penetrates the kidneys, lungs, lymph nodes, spleen, where it settles.
If the human immunity is strong, at the next stage, salmonella dies, otherwise the formation of fresh foci of inflammation occurs - there is a development of a typhoid-like or septic form of pathology.
It is known that salmonellosis is extremely dangerous for babies. The incubation period in children is the same as in adults, but in most cases the course of the disease is much harder and treatment is more difficult. As a child grows older, his immunity strengthens, and susceptibility to Salmonella decreases markedly.
Diagnostics
Diagnosis of salmonellosis begins with an external examination of the patient. The doctor fixes symptoms that may indicate the presence of a disease in a person, determines the general state of his health, prescribes bacteriological tests and serological tests.
As a material, not only blood and urine are used, but also vomit, stool, bile, and stomach water obtained during the washing procedure.
The correct diagnosis of salmonellosis is incredibly important, because untimely treatment does not give a person a full recovery, and the pathological condition often takes a severe form and leads to the development of the inflammatory process in the peritoneum (peritonitis), joints (polyarthritis) or causes an infectious toxic shock.
Treatment should be resorted to immediately when the first suspicions of salmonellosis appear (incubation period). Treatment of the disease, as a rule, occurs on an outpatient basis. Hospitalization for salmonellosis is optional. However, the hospital is indicated for children, the elderly, food industry workers, as well as in severe cases of the disease.
Treatment
Salmonellosis treatment is a complex process that combines several directions:
- antibacterial therapy to combat salmonella;
- rehydration of the body through special solutions to restore the volume of fluid lost with diarrhea and vomiting;
- medications to stop the process of intoxication of the body;
- restoration of microflora in the intestine;
- adherence to a special diet in nutrition;
- general strengthening measures.
In the fight against bacteria, drugs that are derivatives of penicillin, as well as fluoroquinolones, are used. Due to the fact that salmonella have the ability to quickly get used to antibiotics, the use of other drugs, such as tetracyclines and aminoglycosides, is often limited. There is a rule according to which antibiotics are not prescribed for a mild form of the disease, as well as if there is no blood in the stool.
To eliminate the effects of intoxication, enterosorbents are used, for example, activated carbon, Enterosgel, Polysorb. Spasmolytic agents (No-Shpa) help relieve pain.
If the patient’s age is close to the elderly, as well as in the case of a history of chronic diseases of the stomach or intestines, the use of enzyme preparations such as Pancreatin or Festal is recommended.
Of great importance is the restoration in the body of the volume of lost fluid. In addition to water, it is useful to consume fruit drinks, compotes, weak tea.
Together with drug therapy, recipes of traditional medicine are often used. In the early days of the disease, agents containing tannins are used - pomegranate peels, bird cherry, oak bark. Later, the above remedies can be supplemented with anti-inflammatory herbs - calendula, chamomile, strawberry, sage.
Salmonellosis Diet
Of great importance in the treatment of salmonellosis is the diet. In the early days of the disease, milk and dairy products are excluded from the diet.
Food that is irritating to the gastrointestinal tract is contraindicated for the patient: foods saturated with coarse fibers, fiber; canned foods; pickles; spicy and fried foods. This measure should be carried out not only during treatment, but also a month later after recovery.
Excluded are products that stimulate the processes of fermentation and decay in the intestine. These include vegetables, fruits, fast carbohydrates - muffin, bakery products.
As an alternative, the patient is recommended to use low-fat soups (for example, from pureed vegetables), steamed meat or low-fat fish; soft-boiled or scrambled eggs; porridge cooked on water, not milk, cottage cheese, dosed butter; crackers; jelly; dried fruit compotes, tea.
In the case of an illness of the infant, it is not recommended to stop breastfeeding.
Preventive actions
Prevention of salmonellosis comes down to following simple rules that everyone knows:
- You can’t eat meat that has not passed the control of the relevant sanitary services.
- The meat must be cooked for at least two hours, if it is cooked in one large piece.
- Do not eat duck eggs in their raw form - they should be cooked for at least a quarter of an hour.
- Before cooking the eggs, the eggs should be washed. After handling the eggshell, hands should be washed thoroughly.
- The kitchen should have at least two cutting boards: one for meat, and the second for everything else.
- Do not store raw meat in the refrigerator in the immediate vicinity of other products.
- For drinking and washing fruits, you can use only tap (or boiled) water.
- Bathing in the warm season should only be allowed for this, because you can become infected with salmonella simply by swallowing water from a reservoir during bathing.
- Children are at risk because the protective properties of the child’s body are weaker than that of an adult. The task of parents is to teach the baby the correct handling of animals and birds.
Thus, we can summarize all of the above. In this article, we examined the main points regarding salmonellosis - an intestinal disease caused by the salmonella bacterium.
Since the causative agent of the pathology enters the body with food, as well as from an infected person or animal, you should carefully monitor what we eat and how we behave in society and with pets.
From the materials of the article it is obvious that medicine knows several forms that salmonellosis takes. The incubation period, the causes of the disease in adults and in children are the same, however, children are more difficult to tolerate the course of salmonellosis. This is due to the characteristics of the children's immune system.
The treatment of the disease should be resorted to immediately. Salmonellosis therapy is multicomponent, aimed both at stopping the activity of bacteria in the body, and at restoring health after dehydration of the body and disturbance of the intestinal microflora due to diarrhea, vomiting, and febrile conditions.