Tuberculosis, like every disease, has its own symptoms - symptoms. They relate to the general condition of the child and the results that the examination showed. It is impossible to say that some one symptom of tuberculosis in children is a 100% disease.
Sometimes parents are faced with the fact that if after the Mantoux vaccination the footprint is larger than the norm, children are suspended from school or prohibited from attending a group in a kindergarten. The only “wrong” Mantoux reaction - the tuberculin test - does not mean anything.
Mantoux can increase for many reasons.
- The vaccine is wet or grated.
- They gave an injection to a child whose condition was “borderline” at the beginning or after the illness.
- In the presence of helminthic invasion.
- There is an allergic reaction to tuberculin, or the vaccine coincided with an allergy to another factor.
Symptoms of tuberculosis in children
They give suspicion of pulmonary tuberculosis, the symptoms in children are as follows (if they coincide in time of manifestation):
- General weakness. The child refuses to play, tries to relax.
- Poor appetite.
- Constant sweating, especially wet hands should be strained.
- Temperature, steadily rising in the evening to 37.5 degrees.
- The baby has constant moods , mood swings.
- Enlarged lymph nodes.
Each symptom separately cannot be defined as a symptom of tuberculosis in children, but their combination should make you see a doctor.
If, upon further examination, a detailed blood test shows a high ESR, and ultrasound of the internal organs shows an increase in them, we can talk about the disease.
Only a doctor can establish this, after analyzes and examinations, including a Mantoux test, which was done with proper control.
If the trace of the injection:
- at 2 years exceeds the size of the scar from BCG - vaccinations against tuberculosis done at birth - by 6 mm, or a positive reaction;
- in 3-5 years, a change to positive, or the spot itself with a papule formed more than 12 mm;
- and to 7 exceeds 14 mm, with an increase of 6 mm from the previous sample,
it can be assumed that this is a symptom of tuberculosis in children.
Tuberculosis infection
Most often, children become infected with Koch's bacillus - a tuberculosis bacillus - from adults suffering from the disease in an open form. It is likely to catch the infection through objects used by the infected person. Infants "absorb" the infection from a sick mother.
Tuberculosis bacillus does not always affect the lungs. It spreads through the bloodstream throughout the body, settles in the spleen, in the liver, kidneys, brain and other organs, including the skeletal system.
You can see tuberculosis in children on x-ray, symptoms. Photo - X-ray, will show a picture that accurately tells about the presence of caverns in the lungs. With the help of X-rays, a process developing in the kidneys and the skeletal system is also visible.
Sometimes a child does not notice the manifestations of the disease for a very long time. This happens if the disease begins with a sluggish form. In addition to excess fatigue, which parents explain is the overload of children during class, and weight loss, there are no other symptoms. Children complain that it hurts to walk, and they begin to look for arthritis and rheumatism. But there are cases of acute infection, when the symptom of tuberculosis in children takes the form of a seasonal viral infection, high T and cough appear, and the lymph nodes increase. All this goes on in time much longer than during the flu or ARI.
If the fever and cough last for more than a week, you should definitely call a doctor. After 2 weeks, streaks of blood may appear in the sputum released during coughing, and it will be more difficult to treat such a disease. Tuberculosis, detected at an early stage, is treatable and does not give complications.