Dysentery in children is different. Depending on the severity, the disease can be tolerated relatively easily. But there are cases when after the disease all kinds of complications follow, which, if improperly treated, threaten to develop into a chronic form. What is dysentery, how to care for a sick child and what will be needed for treatment, this article will answer.
Description of the disease
Dysentery refers to intestinal infections. In the people it is also known as the "disease of dirty hands." The weakest link susceptible to dysentery is children from a year to 6-7 years old. It is at this age that the activity of babies reaches its peak. In an impulse to explore the world, fidgets can pick up and taste almost everything that comes in their way. Together with knowledge, kids get the opportunity to pick up pathogenic bacteria, which are the causative agents of many gastrointestinal diseases. One of these diseases is dysentery.
In addition to the gastrointestinal tract, the disease also affects the colon . This is an acute infectious disease, which is accompanied by intoxication of the body.
Although the disease most often affects children, adults can get it. And infants are very rarely affected by dysentery due to the strong immune defense that is transmitted from mother to child. In addition, infants are not particularly active and therefore do not risk catching the disease in the usual way.
Dysentery is a disease, usually seasonal. To get sick, it is enough to treat yourself with unwashed fruits or drink dirty water. Good prevention of the disease will be compliance with hygiene rules.
Types and causes of the disease
Depending on the pathogens, there are two types of dysentery in children.
- A bacterial disease is caused by enterobacteria such as Shigella. Hence the second definition of the disease is shigellosis. The cause of this dysentery is four types of shigella, named after the scientists who discovered them: Sonne, Flexner, Grigoriev-Shiga, Boyd.
These types of enterobacteria are characteristic of a particular area. For example, in Europe, you can become infected with the sticks of Sonne and Flexler, and in Central Asia - Grigoriev-Shiga, which provoke a disease with a more severe course.
Shigella are quite tenacious in environmental conditions. They are stored in water for longer than a week, in the ground - about three months, in food for four weeks. Enterobacteria are not afraid of low temperature and drought. They die under the influence of disinfectors, direct sunlight, high temperature (about 60 ° C), boiling water.
Shigellosis disease occurs in isolated cases. But there are epidemiological outbreaks. Ill contagious from the first day of the disease. Dysenteric bacillus leaves the patient's body along with feces and vomit. Symptoms of dysentery in children up to a year may occur in the case of care for infants by a sick person.
It is noteworthy that the disease can be repeated several times. Immunity after recovery is unstable and not long. Therefore, it is important to follow the rules of general hygiene in order to avoid re-illness.
- Amoebic dysentery, or amoebiasis, is an acute intestinal disease that is caused by a simple parasite (amoeba). The disease is characterized by the formation of ulcers in the colon. Amoebiasis is common in almost every area, but prefers hot areas.
Amoebic dysentery in children is of three types:
- An active ailment of a large vegetative form (BVF). Penetrates into the thickness of the intestinal wall and feeds on red blood cells. Another name for BVF is tissue disease. In the acute stage, the form passes into the next type of IMF disease.
- A small vegetative form of an active nature (IMF, luminal) appears due to degenerative changes in the intestine. If BVF can be detected in the biological tissues of the patient, then the small form is also manifested in the feces of the sick child.
- Inactive type (cysts) are formed by the conversion of amoebas to form due to any adverse conditions. It is noteworthy that the source of infection is both a sick person and a carrier of cysts. The inactive form, like active BVF, turns into a small type of disease. Subsequently, an inactive disease becomes active. Abscesses form in the thickness of the intestine, and eventually ulcers form. In advanced cases, amoeba enter almost all the organs of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as the brain, lungs, etc. Abscesses also appear there.
How can you get infected
Depending on the transmission factors of the infection, the disease is distinguished:
- Food.
- Contact.
- Water.
- Dairy, etc.
Contact-domestic dysentery in a child of three years is most common. The patient simultaneously becomes a source of infection for others. The wand can be picked up through dirty hands, toys, door handles and even common night pots in kindergarten.
They become infected with food dysentery by eating unwashed fruits and vegetables, or products that have expired. Also, the bacteria multiplies and with poor-quality heat treatment of food.
Enterobacteria living in raw water causes an aqueous form of the disease. This type of dysentery can be infected by swimming in contaminated water bodies.
The milky form of the disease occurs due to the consumption of raw cow or goat milk.
Also, a sick person is a source of infection. Especially often infection occurs during the incubation period, when dysentery has not yet manifested, but enterobacteria is already rapidly developing in the patient's body.
Shigellosis carriers are also flies.
Symptoms of the disease
Signs of dysentery in a child depend on the type and severity of the disease. With infection of amoebiasis, the incubation period is quite long (from a week to three months). At the beginning of the disease, the child complains of a severe headache, and pain in the left abdomen. The temperature during this period is normal or subfebrile. At the end of the incubation period, diarrhea appears with blood and mucous secretions. Each visit to the toilet is accompanied by acute pain in the abdomen.
Amoebiasis is characterized by a decrease or complete lack of appetite, rapid weight loss and dry skin. The disease can last about one and a half months and even go into a chronic form. Diarrhea alternates with constipation.
With shigellosis, another symptom is observed. The main signs of dysentery in a child are:
- Elevated temperature (38 to 40 degrees).
- Rising fever.
- Headache.
- Nausea and vomiting.
- The child refuses to eat, or he has a reduced appetite.
- On the third or fourth day, pain in the abdomen occurs.
- False urge to defecate.
- Liquid feces, often mixed with mucus.
- Diarrhea.
- Cramps.
- General weakness of the body.
- Crying and whims.
Diagnosis of the disease
Only a gastroenterologist, infectious disease specialist and bacteriologist can make an accurate diagnosis. The main diagnosis of the disease is the analysis of feces for microbiology. Using this study, you can identify 80% of the causative agents of the disease and determine the type of dysentery.
Serological diagnosis is carried out no earlier than the fifth day of the disease. It is a complement to the microbiological method.
The following forms of diagnosing the disease exist:
- Coprological analysis is a clinical study that makes it possible to identify mucus, blood streaks, red blood cells, neutrophils and deformed particles of the epithelium.
- Sigmoidoscopy is a diagnosis that allows you to control the healing process. The method does not apply to children.
- Diagnosis of an allergy test is an additional method that makes it possible to determine possible allergic reactions. It is carried out by scraping and analyzing skin particles and determining the possibility or absence of an allergy to dysenterin (Tsuverkalov's method).
With amoebiasis, in case of damage to the intestinal wall, a specialist can prescribe a sigmoidoscopy.
Analysis of the patient's biological fluids - urine, blood, saliva, is also appropriate.
After determining the diagnosis, the doctor determines how to treat dysentery in children.
Forms of dysentery
The disease can occur in the following stages:
- Easy degree. Dysentery occurs in a child up to a year old and is characterized by fever and frequent fluid bowel movements. Partial damage to the gastrointestinal tract and signs of intoxication soon develop. Recovery of the baby occurs two weeks after the first symptoms.
The onset of the moderate stage is characterized by acute development of symptoms accompanied by fever, chills and general intoxication of the stomach. Poisoning takes place in five days, and healing - in a month.
Severe degree is accompanied by disturbances in cardiovascular activity and complete intoxication of the body. The disease can last about three months and is fraught with complications.
Disease treatment
Only an infectious disease specialist can determine the diagnosis. After analyzing the results of the diagnosis, the specialist prescribes the treatment of dysentery for children, which depends on the severity of the disease.
Outpatient medicine is allowed with a mild illness.
Treatment of children is comprehensive and includes:
- The regimen of the day (mainly bed).
- The use of medicines.
- Diet.
Allocate antibacterial and symptomatic drug treatment.
Antibacterial medicines are used in case of moderate and severe forms of the disease. To this end, antibiotics are often prescribed for dysentery in children. Common medicines are Gentamicin, Polymyxin M, Ampicillin, Furazolidone, Nifuroxazide, etc. All medicines are determined by your doctor and are used strictly as directed.
Since frequent bowel movements cause dehydration, adjunctive therapy is oral (heavy drinking) or parenteral (intravenous injection of solutions). In this case, the required amount of fluid is determined by the doctor.
In the case of a pronounced pain symptom, antispasmodics (Papaverine, No-Shpa) can be used. Also, drugs that increase the fermentation of Festal, Pancreatin, etc. are appropriate. To restore the biocenosis, probiotics are used (Lactobacterin, Bifiform, etc.). To support the general condition of the body, vitamin complexes are prescribed.
A chronic disease is healed in the same way as acute dysentery. A sign of complete cure is a normalization of the condition and negative results of clinical tests.
Treatment of dysentery in children at home
Outpatient healing of a child consists in bed rest, adherence to the regime, diet and frequent drinking.
It is necessary to water the child with various decoctions (rice, raisins, dried fruit compote). For oral rehydration, it is also appropriate to use sweet tea with lemon, a decoction of apples, herbal preparations - chamomile, linden, oregano. The child should be drunk in small portions every 10-15 minutes. A single dose of fluid can vary from a tablespoon to several sips.
As for the diet, in the treatment of dysentery in children, you need to focus on the age of the child. The first three days the diet should consist of fermented milk mixtures, liquid cereals, vegetable mucous soup. They also use jelly, mashed potatoes (apple, potato), and steam dishes. Exclusion from the diet is fried, spicy, smoked food, fatty broths. The diet must be followed for two to three months after a full recovery.
Complications after an illness
Infectious diseases often end in harming the baby’s body. Both shigellosis and amoebiasis are fraught with many negative consequences:
- The occurrence of dysbiosis.
- Pressure in the peritoneum provokes prolapse of the rectum.
- Peritonitis.
- Intestinal bleeding and abscess.
- A complication of dysentery in children provokes thinning of the intestinal wall, which can result in blood intoxication.
- Dehydration.
- Pneumonia.
- Diseases of the internal organs - kidney, liver.
- Intestinal ulcer.
- Decreased immunity, and as a result - other infectious diseases.
Against the background of complete or partial depletion of the body, hypotrophy and anemia can develop.
Disease prevention
Preventive measures depend on the type of dysentery. For example, in order not to get sick with shigellosis, it is necessary to strictly observe hygiene and sanitary standards. From an early age, children should learn to wash their hands with soap before eating and after going to the toilet. It is necessary to rid the child of bad habits - biting his nails, taking his hands in his mouth, etc. An adult should become an example for the baby to follow, then the correct behavior will form faster.
Prevention of dysentery in children consists in thorough washing of fruits and vegetables. Fruits are best washed with boiled water. You should also properly store food and throw away spoiled food.
It is not recommended to drink raw tap water.
When you go out in the countryside, you need to swim only in proven clean water. In no case should you swallow water while diving.
To prevent amoebiasis, you need to get rid of flies that are carriers of the disease. When using water, it should be filtered or boiled. It is recommended to store the liquid in closed containers.
In case of illness of the child, it is necessary to isolate him from the rest of the children in the family. It is also appropriate to inform the educational institution that the baby attends.
Conclusion
Dysentery is one of the dangerous infectious diseases that is easier to prevent than to treat. The main methods for detecting the disease is timely clinical analysis and determination of the diagnosis.
Dysentery in a child (2 years) is somewhat more severe than the disease of older children. Infants are least affected by the disease, but treating infants requires special attention.
Due to dysentery, various negative consequences can develop (dysbiosis, dehydration, peritonitis, etc.).
As a prevention, you need to adhere to a whole range of sanitary and hygienic measures. It includes personal hygiene, technological discipline at food enterprises, food storage conditions, washing fruits and vegetables.
After contact with a sick child, wash your hands. Compliance with cleanliness, frequent wet cleaning, getting rid of harmful insects (flies, cockroaches, ants), timely removal of garbage - these are mandatory conditions for avoiding the disease. Especially these events are appropriate in the summer and in hot regions. By following these recommendations, you can avoid many infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, including dysentery.