Dysentery in a child: epidemiology, symptoms, treatment

Dysentery is an infectious disease that affects the large intestine. Cases of infection occur regardless of the season. However, in autumn and summer, they increase. This is due to a significant change in the nature of nutrition.

Dysentery in a child : epidemiology

The source of this infection can be both sick and carriers. They have been contagious since the first day. A sick person in large quantities excretes the pathogen together with the fecal masses. With contaminated hands, he infects surrounding objects. A healthy person touches them. As a result, the infection easily falls first to his hands, and then to the mouth. Less often, infection occurs through water. Even with clinical recovery, a person can remain a carrier of infection for a long time.

Signs of dysentery in children

Manifestations of the disease are very diverse. Symptoms depend on the individual characteristics of each human body. To a lesser extent, the type of pathogen affects the signs. The incubation period lasts on average 2-3 days. In some cases, symptoms of general malaise are common for the onset of dysentery: headache, weakness, fever, weakness, sometimes vomiting. Then they are joined and the phenomena from the intestine. But mostly it's the other way around. Begins dysentery in a child with an intestinal disorder: the abdomen is cramping painfully, the stool becomes liquid and frequent, in time it appears mucus and blood veins. It can also retain a fecal character, but it acquires a green color. In severe cases, the number of defecations reaches 15-20 and even 30-40 times a day. The odor and stool character of the stool is not preserved. Now they consist only of mucus, in which an admixture of pus is subsequently detected with the naked eye. Stiffening during defecation is very painful. The abdomen looks entangled when viewed. In his lower divisions soreness is noted. With a mild form, the symptoms of intoxication are barely expressed or completely absent. If the dysentery is severe, the patient's eyes fall, the sagging face is distorted by suffering, the sight becomes dull. A sharp violation of metabolism further exacerbates intoxication.

Dysentery in the child : complications

They are rarely directly related to the disease itself, if it does not occur very severely. But secondary infection causes a lot of complications, especially in very young children. Their development is facilitated by poor living conditions, beriberi, dystrophy. A frequent complication is bronchopneumonia. Often stomatitis, gingivitis, purulent and catarrhal otitis, cystitis. Sometimes there are jades. Complications cause the occurrence of relapses and exacerbations. Secondary toxicosis often develops.

Dysentery: treatment in children

You need to start it with a strict diet. Of food, you must completely exclude those foods that are rich in plant fiber, as they irritate the intestines. Dishes should be well boiled and served in a garbled form. The transition to the usual diet is possible only after a full recovery takes at least a month. With a mild course of the disease from the first hours you need to take the powder "Regidron". In severe cases, plasma-substituting saline solutions are administered intravenously. Antimicrobials are not always used. They are used only for severe disease. If the dysentery of a child is delayed, prescribe funds that increase its immunity. For an early correction of the digestive process, enzyme preparations are used.