Pseudotuberculosis: Symptoms and Treatment

Pseudotuberculosis is a disease that affects the entire gastrointestinal tract. This is an acute infectious disease, the causative agent of which is intestinal bacteria.

The spread of pseudotuberculosis

The source of infection can be vegetables and a number of dairy products that were eaten without preliminary heat treatment. The main way of infection is food. Pseudotuberculosis rods are found in soil and water. Bear the disease of the dog, cattle, pigs. But the main spreaders of infection are rodents.

Bacteria can be in the environment and maintain the ability to multiply for a long time. In the soil they live throughout the year, in the water - about 8 months, in milk - 30 days, in bread - 150 days, in sugar - 20 days, in oil - about 5 months.

Pathogens feel normal at a temperature of +2 ... +12 ⁰ C, therefore, pseudotuberculosis is most often detected in the spring. Symptoms often resemble other diseases, so the diagnosis should only deal with an infectious disease specialist.

Ways of infection

You can get sick with pseudotuberculosis by eating vegetable salads (for example, from cabbage, carrots, beets). The peak incidence is, as a rule, in the spring months. This is due to the fact that agents of pseudotuberculosis are entered in the vegetable storehouse. The sticks get there together with the excrement of birds and rodents. And if you consider that bacteria can actively multiply at a temperature above +2 ⁰ C, then it is not surprising that this factor is called the first cause of infection of fruits and vegetables.

Much less often, infection is carried out through the water - to pick up the infection, you need to drink from open water, and a person in their right mind will not do this. Dairy products can also be infected. Therefore, before use, they must all be heat treated. If you do not want to know what are the symptoms of pseudotuberculosis, then you must remember that the causative agent of this infection dies when boiled for 10 seconds or a minute after disinfection with 2% chloramine.

Course of the disease

It is worth noting that it is not always possible to immediately diagnose pseudotuberculosis. Symptoms in children often resemble manifestations of scarlet fever. Specialists distinguish several phases of the disease.

The first of these is the process of infection. The causative agent of infection, entering the intestine, begins to penetrate into its walls. As a result, there are symptoms of inflammation - enteritis. From the walls of the intestine, the rods can penetrate the mesenteric lymph nodes and lead to the development of lymphadenitis. This occurs in the second stage of the disease.

In the last phase of microbes pseudotuberculosis and the toxins they produce fall into the blood. This is the cause of bacteremia and toxemia. At this stage, the presence of microbes in the tissues of the spleen and liver is documented. It is also possible to damage the thermal department of the small intestine and develop an erosive-ulcerative colitis. There is a picture of acute appendicitis.

It is also important to know that the incubation period can be from 3 to 18 days. Therefore, it is difficult to identify the source of the disease.

Clinical picture

In most cases, pseudotuberculosis starts alike. Symptoms in many people are similar. In patients, a feeling of chill appears, and the temperature rises to 38 ^° C or more. In addition, patients complain of pain in the joints, muscles, head. Weakness is also noted.

Simultaneously with these signs there is a feeling of nausea. Some may have vomiting. Others complain of abdominal pain, which can be permanent or cramping. They are localized on the right in the lower abdomen, around the navel, in the epigastric region or right hypochondrium.

A characteristic feature of pathologists is a liquid, viscous stool with a pungent odor and foreign inclusions. It can be 2 to 15 times a day. It happens that the large intestine also affects pseudotuberculosis. Symptoms in adults and children in this case are supplemented by the presence in the stool of impurities of mucus or even blood.

External signs

We listed the typical signs of the disease. But apart from them there are also special symptoms, characteristic only for pseudotuberculosis, symptoms. In children (photos of kids with this disease can help you diagnose yourself, but it's better to see a doctor after all), as well as in adults, one of the bright signs is the appearance of the so-called "hood", "gloves", " Socks ". Skin on the face, neck, hands and feet blush. Changes become noticeable on the 2nd-4th day of the disease. In 70-80% of patients on the body appears a rash, similar to scarlet fever.

The skin in patients is dry and hot. The face can be puffy. It is often possible to see red-coated conjunctiva in patients. Children often have palsy of the nasolabial triangle.

There are other symptoms of pseudotuberculosis. Photos of patients who are sick for the second week are very similar. They begin to cut brittlely the skin integuments throughout the body. And on the neck, face, feet and palms there is lamellar (or, as it is also called, leaf-like) peeling.

The disease can last from 2 to 15 days. First, the language of the patients is covered with a white coating, it is cleared for 5-7 days, after which it acquires a crimson shade.

Other symptoms

But intoxication and external manifestations are not all signs of a disease such as pseudotuberculosis. Symptoms (treatment, appointed on time, will help get rid of negative manifestations of the disease) are quite diverse. So, patients complain of pain (arthralgia) in wrist, ankle, knee and interphalangeal joints.

Also, doctors often find that the patients have enlarged liver and spleen. Sometimes this leads to icteric sclera and skin. In addition, changes are observed in the cardiovascular system. They are detected in the form of systolic murmur, muffled heart tones. In severe cases, arrhythmia occurs.

At the peak of intoxication, there is sometimes a decrease in the amount of urine released. This is accompanied by pain in the lumbar region. It is impossible to exclude the development of such a disease as diffuse glomerulonephritis. True, with pseudotuberculosis it occurs very rarely.

Other forms

It should be noted that it is not always easy for patients to diagnose this disease in patients. After all, it can not take place in a classical form. It happens that the symptoms inherent in the disease pseudotuberculosis are lubricated. In children (treatment, incidentally, in this case, it can be misdirected, so it is better to pass all the tests), the catarrhal form of the disease resembles the usual ORZ. And the erased symptoms can resemble the usual food poisoning.

As a rule, patients feel better for 5-7 days. But all manifestations of the disease pass only after 1.5 months. Throughout this period, the skin continues to peel off. Plus, in 20% of cases there are relapses, so in some patients the disease can last for 3 months.

The threatening danger

The most common diagnosis of pseudotuberculosis in children. Symptoms and treatment (photos of small patients give an idea of the external manifestations of the disease) are determined in the hospital. After all, for the diagnosis, there is little external examination.

The situation is complicated by the fact that at the first stages the disease can not always be detected. It is diagnosed, as a rule, already when the body begins to mass kill microbes and produce toxins.

It is important to know how pseudotuberculosis (symptoms) can manifest in children. The testimonies indicate that untimely diagnosis and untimely treatment lead to the defeat of all organs and systems. Doctors specify that in the tissues dystrophic changes begin, granulomas and microabscesses appear.

On the mucous membranes (in the mouth, pharynx, intestine) ulcers are formed that bleed. If untreated, they can lead to necrotic changes in the affected tissue.

Diagnostics

Having evaluated general clinical manifestations, the doctor should prescribe tests. For the diagnosis of "pseudotuberculosis", a bacteriological and serological study is necessary . To obtain a complete picture of the disease, patients take blood, feces, urine. It is also necessary to check cerebrospinal and lymphatic fluids.

To identify the causative agents of pseudotuberculosis in the test material, the ELISA method (enzyme immunoassay) is used. They also resort to express diagnostics. For this purpose, a study is conducted called the indirect hemagglutination reaction with immunoglobulin diagnostics. Only after a full examination can we say that a person has pseudotuberculosis. Symptoms in children are often similar to manifestations of other diseases. Therefore, in parallel, differential diagnosis is performed to exclude scarlet fever, rubella, sore throat, viral hepatitis, appendicitis, gastroenteritis or polyarthritis.

Tactics of treatment

If suspected of pseudotuberculosis the patient is hospitalized in a hospital. They conduct a full-fledged examination and establish an accurate diagnosis. Antibiotics, chemotherapy and sulfonamides are used in the treatment. The necessary duration of therapy is determined by the doctor. It depends on the course of the disease. In the generalized form, 12-14 days of therapy are necessary, with 10 enough localized.

For treatment, antibiotic "Levomycetin" is most often used. To eliminate the symptoms of intoxication, intravenous administration of glucose solution with ascorbic acid is prescribed. Ringer-Locke solution can also be added. In severe lesions, corticosteroids are used.

Medications are prescribed depending on what exactly gives pseudotuberculosis symptoms in children. Photo babies at different stages of the disease can understand how it should proceed. It is mandatory to prescribe the vitamins of group C and B to stimulate the work of immunity.

In addition, desensitizing agents are prescribed. They can use such drugs as "Diazolin", "Suprastin" and other analogues.

Preventing infections

Unfortunately, at present there is no vaccine against such a disease as pseudotuberculosis. Symptoms of this infection should be known to everyone in order to suspect her in time and see a doctor.

Medicine is not yet able to protect patients from pseudotuberculosis infection. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to preventive measures. They must be carried out at the state level. It is necessary to monitor vegetable stores, carry out preventive control of rodents, observe all the rules for storing and transporting vegetables. In addition, constant quality control of the supplied water must be carried out.

To prevent the disease, it is advisable to use only thermally processed foods and drink boiled water.