In this article, we look at the symptoms and treatment of rotavirus infection. What is this pathology and how is it dangerous? Rotavirus infection after entering the human body provokes the development of an infectious process characterized by increased contagiousness, acute course and a very short incubation period. Rotavirus infection is caused by the virus of the same name, which spreads by airborne droplets.
This disease develops most often in children, but an adult can also get it. This is due to a weakening of the immune system, which cannot cope with a viral attack on its own. In adults, such a pathology occurs much less frequently than in children, and the course of the disease is not so difficult for them, since in adulthood the level of gastric acidity is much higher, and this suppresses the main part of the infection. Symptoms of rotavirus infection are standard: a variety of digestive disorders, but sometimes the disease is completely asymptomatic.
Etiology and epidemiology
The causative agent of this disease is rotavirus, which is a pathogenic organism of a microscopic size. It is covered with a three-layer shell and has a clear round shape. The virus consists of several membranes and a core, which contains double-stranded RNA and some proteins.
Rotaviruses are very resistant to environmental factors. These microorganisms do not die even when exposed to extremely low temperatures, treatment with chlorine, formaldehyde, and also with ultrasound. The only disinfectant for rotavirus infection is ethanol, which is used, as a rule, in a hospital. This infection also loses its pathogenic properties with prolonged boiling or exposure to alkali and acid.
Symptoms of rotavirus infection in children are brighter than in adults. Medicine knows the nine main types of rotavirus that are dangerous to humans. Pathogens penetrate from an infected person into the external environment with saliva and feces. Moreover, healthy people who are carriers of the virus can also become sources of infection. The main mechanism of transmission of rotavirus is fecal-oral, which can be realized by water, contact and household through dirty hands, food, water, household items, toys, etc. In some cases, infection is carried out by airborne droplets, but this happens somewhat less often. The causative agent is transmitted by coughing, sneezing and being in close proximity to a sick person who is considered contagious to those around them for the first 3-5 days after infection, and after that during the entire acute period of the disease.
Symptoms of rotavirus intestinal infection are rather unpleasant. It is characterized by an autumn-winter period of incidence. In this case, there can be isolated cases of the occurrence of an ailment, as well as epidemic outbreaks that coincide very often with flu epidemics. Rotavirus is spread all over the world, however, the largest number of cases of diseases is observed in countries with poorly developed level of medicine, as well as low hygiene culture among the population. In such areas, deaths often occur among patients under 7 years of age. Symptoms of rotavirus infection in children will be described below.
This pathogen sometimes causes nosocomial infections, which is especially characteristic of children's hospitals, neonatal pathology departments, and also in neonatal medical facilities. The factors that contribute to intrauterine infection with rotavirus are the cool season, the long period of stay in the hospital, the crowds in the room and poor sanitary conditions. The carrier of this infection is often also medical personnel who provide patient care. Every parent should know about the symptoms and treatment of rotavirus infection in children.
Pathogenesis of the disease
Rotavirus penetrates the human body, passes into the small intestine and begins active reproduction in enterocytes, which are cells of the surface epithelium. Microorganisms exert their pathogenic effect, leading to the destruction of intestinal epithelial cells, as a result of which the breakdown, absorption and biosynthesis of some enzymes are disrupted. After this, intermediate metabolic products from the small intestine enter the colon, where the osmotic pressure rises sharply and the main symptom of rotavirus infection occurs - acute diarrhea.
Morphological signs of development
- Hyperemia and severe swelling in the small intestine.
- The formation of smooth areas on the surface of the small intestine.
- Dystrophy of enterocytes, as well as mucous membranes.
- Shortening the villi of the intestine.
- Detection of the virus in the intestinal cells.
Symptoms of rotavirus infection
The incubation period in this case is the time interval from the moment of infection with the infection to the onset of the initial clinical symptoms. With rotavirus disease, this period is very short and is usually one or two days. The acute period of the disease lasts approximately four days, and convalescence lasts a week. Thus, the duration of this pathological condition is about two weeks.
Symptoms of rotavirus infection are:
- fever;
- obsessive bouts of vomiting;
- multiple loose stools with a pungent sour smell;
- independent spastic pain in the abdomen or accompanying bowel movements;
- severe bloating and flatulence;
- severe malaise and lethargy;
- complete lack of appetite;
- pallor of the skin;
- dry mouth
- white coating on the tongue,
- some signs of rhinitis, such as nasal congestion;
- sore throat;
- sore tonsils;
- dry unproductive cough;
- mild conjunctivitis;
- enlarged cervical lymph nodes.
Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the nasopharynx, tonsils and larynx is observed in most patients. Typically, such signs that extend to the respiratory system are mild or moderate. In addition, patients often experience mild redness of the mucous membrane of the palate and tonsils. The back wall of the pharynx becomes loose, swollen and granular. Symptoms of rotavirus infection in children are more pronounced, they can develop tracheitis, rhinopharyngitis, pharyngitis or otitis media at an early age.
Dehydration
In cases of severe course of the pathology, dehydration symptoms appear, which is an extremely dangerous condition, dangerous to the patient's life. It is characterized by the following clinical signs.
- severe weakness and thirst;
- blood clotting;
- lowering blood pressure;
- tachycardia;
- dry skin and mucous membranes;
- weight loss;
- prolonged urinary retention;
- a small amount of urine;
- the color of urine is dark yellow or brown.
Symptoms and treatment of rotavirus intestinal infection are related.
Disease complications
A complicated form usually occurs in infants, as well as in people with poor health, the group of which includes mainly elderly people. The main complication of the course of the disease in this category of people is acute dehydration, which entails many negative consequences, since the body's functions begin to slow down, the blood thickens significantly, as a result of which oxygen is poorly supplied to organs and tissues, including the brain. Dangerous symptoms of rotavirus infection in a 2-year-old child can be blurred consciousness up to fainting, as well as inhibition of psychomotor reactions.
Features of the disease in children
Almost every child experienced rotavirus infection in the first year of life or before the age of three. During this period of time, maternal antibodies in the child’s body cease to fulfill their functions and protect it from the effects of various pathological viruses and bacteria, and the child begins the process of becoming his own immune defense, which, due to its immaturity, is not always able to repel such invasions. In most cases, infection of children occurs in preschool institutions.
Consider the symptoms of rotavirus infection in infants and the features of the course of the disease in the first year of life. Symptoms observed in infants include:
- signs of severe intoxication;
- respiratory syndromes;
- indomitable vomiting;
- diarrhea
- severe bowel disorder;
- dehydration, which occurs in a matter of hours after the occurrence of diarrhea and vomiting.
The disease develops, as a rule, very acutely. Against the background of an absolutely healthy state, the child’s temperature rises sharply, there is a strong weakness and loss of strength, and appetite disappears. Symptoms of acute gastroenteritis, as a rule, are preceded by signs of catarrhal inflammation of the upper respiratory organs, which are manifested in the form of nasal congestion, sore throat, hyperemia of the posterior wall of the nasopharynx. As a result of this, a child’s condition is often mistaken for a common flu or a cold. After a while, an attack of vomiting occurs, diarrhea begins, which is first characterized by a yellow color and a liquid consistency, and in the future it can become gray and become clay-like.
Children with rotavirus infection usually feel very bad. They act up, cry, experience symptoms of nausea and vomiting. After meals, vomiting can be repeated many times, and its mass contains a large amount of undigested food. Body temperature rises, while achieving very high rates - up to 39-40 degrees. Moreover, a certain difficulty is the reduction of this temperature with oral antipyretic drugs, because with an irritated gag reflex, the child can not drink the medicine. In this case, the drug should be administered rectally to the child. In children during this period, acute fever and abdominal pain are usually observed, accompanied by bloating and loose stools. Symptoms of rotavirus infection in adults are somewhat smoothed out. More on this below.
Varieties of pathology
In medical practice, several forms of this pathological process in children are distinguished:
- Mild, when the general condition of the child is considered satisfactory, the temperature rises to insignificant indicators, and the chair has a mushy consistency and occurs no more than three times a day.
- The average form, when the temperature rises to 38 degrees, there are characteristic symptoms of a cold, as well as flatulence and stool, which becomes watery and is observed in a child up to 8-10 times a day.
- Severe form. It occurs very rarely and is characterized by the appearance of severe intoxication, fever. The child develops dehydration, manifested in the form of rare urination and dry skin. In addition, repeated vomiting occurs, acute abdominal pain and signs of a cold. The chair in this case has a watery and foamy consistency and is noted in an amount of more than 10 times a day. With the development of this form of the pathological process, the patient should be urgently hospitalized.
Features of the course of the disease in adults
Rotavirus infection in adults proceeds in more relaxed forms than in children, and does not show symptoms of severe intoxication. In people with actively functioning immunity and increased acidity of the stomach, the symptoms of the disease may be completely absent. Some people who become infected with rotavirus may not even be aware of this, taking the clinical manifestations of this disease as a commonplace digestive disorder. Symptoms of rotavirus infection in adults without temperature are most often observed.
Manifestations of the disease in adults
They are:
- mild malaise;
- a slight increase in temperature, in most cases, to subfebrile indicators;
- nausea;
- epigastric pain, flatulence;
- rhinitis, nasal congestion;
- mild coughing;
- loose stools.
Symptoms of rotavirus infection without fever are very insidious. People whose pathology proceeds in a latent form are also contagious to others. If the disease is observed in one of the family members, then, as a rule, the others become ill within a few days. In the case of illness of the elderly, as well as people with weakened immune systems, the pathological process usually proceeds more severely.
Rotavirus disease is quite dangerous for women during pregnancy, since the dehydration process of the mother's body becomes fatal to the fetus, and bowel contraction and severe flatulence often cause spasm of the muscular muscles of the uterus, which can cause premature birth or miscarriage.
The consequences of rotavirus infection
The main negative consequences of the transferred pathology include:
- Joining secondary bacterial infections.
- Dehydration, which can be fatal.
- Impaired functioning of some internal organs, such as the heart and kidneys.
In the absence of adequate therapy, the pathological bacterial microflora of the intestine is activated, which causes severe complications and aggravates the course of the disease. We examined the symptoms of rotavirus infection in adults and children. How to identify an ailment?
Diagnosis of Rotavirus
Diagnosis of this pathology is based on the consideration of patient complaints, as well as the symptoms of the disease. In some cases, specialists are forced to resort to laboratory tests.
Tests for determining rotavirus infection:
- coprogram;
- PCR;
- enzyme immunoassay studies;
- electron microscopy;
- immunochromatography;
- gel electrophoresis;
- passive hemagglutination reaction;
- immunofluorescence.
In the general analysis of blood with the development of severe forms of rotavirus infection, an increase in the number of leukocytes, as well as the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, is noted. In the analysis of urine - erythrocyturia, cylinders, leukocyturia, proteinuria.
The stool in patients with rotavirus, as a rule, is plentiful and foamy, may contain pieces of undigested food, as well as a sharp acidic smell. Signs of an inflammatory process in this case: the content in the feces of leukocytes and a large amount of mucus.
The method of immunochromatography allows you to determine the presence of certain substances in the biological material of the patient. For the implementation of this study, special indicator strips, sticks and test systems are needed. For the diagnosis of rotaviruses, the so-called company-test is often used, which allows you to identify the causative agent of this disease in the feces of the patient. The advantage of this research method is that its time is only 10-15 minutes, and the reliability is 99%.
This disease should be differentiated with conventional food poisoning. Both pathologies have a similar clinical picture, but there are some differences. Rotavirus is characterized by signs of catarrh of the upper respiratory tract, which, as a rule, is not observed during poisoning.
How to treat symptoms of rotavirus infection?
Rotavirus infection treatment
Therapy of this pathology is aimed at normalizing the water-electrolyte balance in the body, its detoxification, elimination of symptoms and restoration of the functions of the cardiovascular system and kidneys. Hospitalized in a hospital patients with severe symptoms of dehydration, as well as children who have severe forms of the disease. As already noted, symptoms and treatment of rotavirus infection in adults are interrelated.
The main means of treating this disease is water-salt solutions (Regidron), which must be taken in small portions (in the volume of a teaspoon) with an interval of 5-10 minutes. This tactic of taking medications is due to the fact that if a vomiting reflex occurs in a patient, vomiting may begin, as a result of which the therapy will be ineffective. Therefore, it is extremely important to take drugs in small quantities.
Sorbent drugs are needed to relieve intoxication of the body, as well as some enzymes for the implementation of the digestive process. Nutrition for the disease should exclude dairy products, fatty and carbohydrate-rich foods that do not irritate the digestive tract.
Now we know what the symptoms and treatment of rotavirus infection are.