Hemophilus infection

An acute infectious disease of a bacterial nature caused by a stick of influenza (Haemophilus influenzae) has been termed hemophilic infection. The disease is characterized by the development of purulent foci in the organs, the defeat of the respiratory and nervous system. The bacterium is a coccobacillus with a diameter of up to 1 μm. According to the cultural properties, 7 biotypes of bacilli are distinguished, some of which have a capsule. To date, 6 capsule types are known to have influenza, which have a designation from A to F. In human pathology, haemophilic rod type b is of great importance.

A hemophilic infection is transmitted exclusively from a person, the path of infection is airborne. In 90% of healthy people, the hemophilic rod is secreted from the nasopharynx, and in 5% of cases there is a causative agent of type b.

In the overwhelming majority of cases, hemophilic infection is detected in children aged from six months to five years. Infection is much less common in newborns and children older than five years. Recently, hemophilic infection is increasingly registered in adults. The peak incidence falls on February and spring months.
The entrance gate is the nasopharyngeal mucosa. The causative agent is able to persist for a long time asymptomatically. When immunity is weakened, the latent form of infection can go into the manifest. Haemophilus infection spreads On surrounding tissues, thus causing the development of bronchitis, otitis, sinusitis, pneumonia. Purified cellulites and arthritis, and in some cases also lesions of internal organs, are also characteristic of the desyminated infection. And the systemic disease occurs only in the case when the pathogen has a capsule. Capsules that do not have a capsule cause only inflammation of the mucous membranes.

Symptoms of the disease

It is not possible to establish the duration of the incubation period for this disease, since the manifest form of the disease is often a consequence of the latent disease. A common cause of generalized infection in children is a haemophilic rod type b.

Hemophilia infection, as a rule, is acute. In a half of cases, purulent meningitis develops in the desensitized form of the disease, in 20% of cases - pneumonia, and other focal lesions occur less frequently. The disease is characterized by the following clinical manifestations:

- Acute pneumonia;
- purulent meningitis;
- inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue;
- septicemia;
- purulent arthritis;
- epiglottitis;
- Otitis, sinusitis, pericarditis, other manifestations.

Hemophilus infection is the most common cause of purulent meningitis in children from one year to 4 years. Usually, meningitis begins with the symptoms of respiratory disease. Later, there are signs characteristic of bacterial meningitis . The disease is always severe, in 10% of cases it ends lethal. Sometimes meningitis is accompanied by purulent cellulite and arthritis. Hemophilic pneumonia occurs both croupierous and focal, in many cases is complicated by purulent pleurisy. Pneumonia can occur in combination with inflammation of the middle ear and purulent pericarditis.
Sepsis develops more often in children under one year, occurs with lightning speed with the development of septic shock. Cellulite is also typical for children under one year and begins with symptoms of ARI. In older children, cellulite is often localized on the limbs. Epiglottitis (inflammation of the epiglottis) is considered a serious form of infection and is accompanied by bacteremia in 90% of cases. Purulent arthritis is the result of a hematogenous drift of a bacterium into the joints and is often accompanied by osteomyelitis.

Diagnosis and treatment
The hemophilic rod is isolated from the cerebrospinal fluid, phlegm and pus of the patient. With the help of the counter-electrophoresis reaction, it is sometimes possible to detect a bacterium in the cerebrospinal fluid or urine.
To treat the disease use antibiotics tetracycline, ampicillin and levomitsetin. Nevertheless, the treatment of infection presents certain difficulties, since the bacillus is highly resistant to many antibacterial drugs. Given the complexity of diagnosis and treatment of the disease, vaccination against Hib infection is becoming increasingly important . Inoculation from a hemophilic infection in 95-100% of cases allows to avoid infection. Immunization contributes to a significant reduction in the incidence of, and especially important, infant mortality from severe manifestations of infection.