Typhus fever is a disease of wars and revolutions

Epidemic typhus is a contagious disease that is of a cyclic nature. Relapse, which can happen several dozen years after infection, is called Brill's disease. Repeated disease is provoked by activation of a persistent pathogen in the blood.

Infecting typhus can only be from a sick person, and the carrier of infection are lice, both head and body. The microorganism that causes the disease is called rickettsia Provachek. This intracellular immobile parasite falls along with the patient's blood into the food tract of lice. Lice bite by itself can not provoke typhus, the pathogen is contained in the insects' excrement. When combing bites, a person himself enters the rickettsia into the blood, which causes the disease.

More often, typhus is noted during wars, natural disasters and other social upheavals. That is, at a time when people do not have the opportunity to observe basic sanitary and hygienic rules. Also, the spread of the disease contributes to living in crowded conditions, under unfavorable conditions.

The incubation period after infection lasts from 5 to 25 days. Characterizing typhus, the symptoms tend to become acute. The person raises a fever, he feels a strong headache, suffers from insomnia. The peak of the disease comes about on the third day, by this time the body temperature is very high (39-40 degrees) and keeps, not falling, for 7-10 days. In addition, there is hyperemia of the face, on the soft palate tissues there are spots of red color, on the wings of the nose and lips often there are herpetic eruptions. Patients at the beginning of the febrile period, as a rule, are excited, they may experience delirium, tremor of hands, tongue.

After 4 or 6 days after the onset of the disease, the most symptomatic symptom is a rose-oleo-petechial rash. Usually it looks like specks of pink-red color and is localized on the sides of the body, as well as on the folds of the hands and feet. After 5 days, the rash starts to turn pale and within a week, as a rule, disappears without a trace. Often during the period of rash, the patient's state of health deteriorates.

Typhus fever in children occurs, as a rule, is easier than in adults, and recovery is faster. Such characteristic symptoms as tachycardia, delirium, excited state are observed only in adolescents.

Complications of typhus can give, if the disease is not treated or to treatment started too late. As a rule, these are diseases caused by the activation of secondary microflora - pneumonia, encephalitis, myocarditis, etc.

The diagnosis is made by the doctor on the basis of an external examination, the study of an epidemiological anamnesis (identification of pediculosis, stay of the patient in unfavorable conditions, etc.). In addition, laboratory tests are performed to identify the pathogen.

Treatment of typhus is carried out in a hospital. The patient is prescribed antibiotics, as well as funds for maintaining the normal operation of the cardiovascular system. With excitability, insomnia is prescribed sedatives.

It is very important that the patient is constantly under supervision. The fact is that in a delusional state, patients can jump out of bed, make attempts to leave the room or even jump out of the window. Especially often such situations arise at night, so it is important that during night duty the medical staff closely monitor the condition of patients.

The prognosis for the treatment of typhus is often favorable. The death of a patient can come not from the disease itself, but from the complication that it can cause.

Preventive measures against the spread of typhus are in the timely isolation of patients and mass struggle with pediculosis.