Yersiniosis in children is an infectious intestinal disease. For this ailment, severe intoxication is characteristic, and during the disease, the gastrointestinal tract is primarily affected. In addition, bacteria can cause inflammation and other organs.
What causes yersiniosis in children?
This disease is spread all over the globe. The fact is that the bacterium that causes this ailment, the polyform gram-negative bacillus, has high survival rate in almost any conditions. However, at too low or high temperatures, this stick becomes inactive. Therefore, yersiniosis is especially common in temperate countries.
Intestinal yersiniosis does not tolerate modern treatment, so it is not difficult to cope with this disease. But do not start the disease. The fact is that the stick is able to actively multiply and in a short time can spread throughout the digestive tract. The causative agent of the disease tolerates many antibiotics, especially penicillin, so they treat the disease with modern drugs that perfectly kill pathogens.
How does the disease manifest itself?
Parents are often interested in a disease such as yersiniosis. So, how to recognize the first symptoms? The disease can be divided into three periods:
- Incubation, which usually lasts no more than a week. In some children, the incubation period may be delayed for three weeks.
- The next period is called capless. It lasts no more than five days and is characterized by intoxication symptoms. The child may even have a fever.
- High season. It is at this moment that the symptomatology of the disease manifests itself most acutely. The child has symptoms of intoxication, fever, upset gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system. Damage to the joints, urinary and nervous systems is also possible.
- The last period is called convalescence. Its duration is from a month or more. A person may experience general weakness and fatigue.
It is clear that intestinal infections are very dangerous, such as yersiniosis. What it is has been described above, but this ailment still has a generally accepted classification.
Classification of childhood yersiniosis
This intestinal infection is very similar in classification to pseudotuberculosis. Moreover, the diagnosis of yersiniosis and pseudotuberculosis is also somewhat similar.
The disease can be classified by its forms.
- Atypical form. It is characterized by mild symptoms. All symptoms do not show up much, including intoxication.
- A mild form of the disease. She also has mild symptoms, a low body temperature (38.5 ° C), and some are only noted for a short period of time.
- Moderate yersiniosis. The child's body temperature can rise up to 39.5 ° C. Other symptoms are also more pronounced than with a mild form.
- A severe form of the disease is accompanied by fever, fever and fever. Most organs of the child and systems in the body are affected.
Also, diseases can vary in the duration of symptoms, including those such as yersiniosis. What it is? An intestinal infection is most often expressed in an acute short-term form, however, a long course of the disease can be noted, and it can also turn into a chronic form.
If a child is sick, it is very important to prevent complications of the disease. A complication is noted, as a rule, in the second week of symptoms.
Laboratory diagnosis of the disease
Due to the fact that this ailment is accompanied by severe symptoms, for example, fever may develop in children, it is important to diagnose it in time. One method is laboratory diagnostics.
When it is carried out, feces, blood, urine, pus or cerebrospinal fluid can be sampled. You may need several components at once, so do not be surprised if the doctor wrote out directions for several tests immediately.
All materials undergo a thorough study and after that the pediatrician already makes an accurate conclusion and diagnosis. Intestinal yersiniosis, as a rule, increases the ESR in the blood.
Diagnosis of the disease by differential method
It is worth noting that the differential diagnostic method is mainly used for intestinal diseases. The fact is that the symptoms of almost all infections are similar, so an accurate diagnosis is difficult to make at first.
Initially, the child is sent to the laboratory for appropriate tests. After the doctor has received their results in his hands and he has all the data about the symptoms that appear, he can already conclude what kind of disease is involved. Yersiniosis in children is detected by the exclusion method, and this is the differential method.
First aid for the manifestation of the symptoms of the disease in a child
As soon as the parents suspect an intestinal infection in the child, do not panic and urgently sound the alarm. Any disease should be treated sequentially, including yersiniosis. Symptoms in children can be severe or mild.
Only patients with a severe form of the disease are hospitalized. In other cases, the child will be shown rest and bed rest. At the first manifestations of the disease, it is necessary to put the child on the bed, give him more fluid to lower the temperature and ventilate the room. No medication alone is recommended. This can "lubricate" the symptoms and prevent the doctor from making an accurate diagnosis.
Drug treatment of the disease
To combat this ailment, chloramphenicol is widely used. The course of its administration lasts exactly 1 week. However, chloramphenicol cannot cope with severe yersiniosis. If there is a fever in children, then stronger medicines are prescribed, for example, cefotaxime.
In addition, the treatment of the disease includes drugs that would relieve symptoms of intoxication, as well as restoring the water-salt balance in the body. Such tactics should be maintained until the full restoration of normal body temperature. After the temperature of the sick child has recovered and is at a normal level for a long period of time, the doctor changes the tactics of treatment and prescribes drugs that could fight not the symptoms, but directly with the causative agents of the infection.
Preventative measures
Prevention of yersiniosis consists in eating only pure food. It is more likely that the disease is transmitted through the use of dirty fruits and vegetables.
So that the disease does not have an epidemiological character, preventive measures are taken in vegetable stores, at water stations and in the territory of points that are engaged in food production. It is also important, in order not to become infected with yersiniosis, eat only fresh products and monitor their conditions and storage time.
In addition, parents are strongly advised not to attend activities with children, where a large crowd is expected. If measures cannot be avoided, then it is necessary to wash the child’s hands thoroughly or use disinfectant gels or solutions that can be used from an early age. The fact is that the incubation period of yersiniosis is set at three weeks.
Also, for people who have had this disease, strict control by doctors should be established.
Features of the disease in infants
Breasts or children under the age of one year practically do not suffer from yersiniosis. The fact is that at this age, children eat either breast milk or special milk mixtures. After that, various mashed potatoes (vegetable, fruit or meat) are connected to them. Such products are not dangerous and can not serve as carriers of polyform gram-negative bacillus.
However, yersiniosis in children can also be expressed in the form of other diseases, for example, gastroenteritis. Such diseases may be accompanied by similar symptoms, including seizures or loss of consciousness. Persistent nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may also appear. Such symptoms need to be monitored very carefully, because the body of the baby is still very weak, and the violation of the water-salt balance occurs very quickly. If it is violated, urgent hospitalization is recommended, because some drugs are forbidden to be used in the first years of the baby's life.