Such a disease as rotavirus gastroenteritis is more common in children than in adults with rather unpleasant manifestations. This disease is characterized by damage to the gastrointestinal tract, and this pathological inflammatory process is transmitted mainly from person to person. This can occur both from the patient and from a conditionally healthy patient, who does not even suspect that his body is in the incubation period, usually lasting several days, rotavirus, which in the near future will cause gastroenteritis. Such people do not experience any symptoms of the disease, but the infection is already present.
Most of all, when in contact with a sick patient, there is a risk of infection in children, and this is especially dangerous in the most acute period of the development of this intestinal infection. It falls on the first 3-5 days after the onset of the disease, when symptoms do not appear yet and the person considers himself healthy. After this short period, the pathological virus begins to appear along with the emerging signs of the disease, such as diarrhea and vomiting. A few days later, the amount of rotavirus causing gastroenteritis starts to decrease rapidly, and in most cases, its isolation stops within a week or ten days. In rare cases, this microorganism can go out with feces for two, three or more weeks.
If outwardly the person is healthy and has no signs, but he is in contact with the one who is suffering from rotavirus gastroenteritis, infection with feces can also come out of his body and, probably, he may need treatment in the near future. The most common mode of transmission of the disease in children is contact with other people with the help of household items such as toys, linen, equipment and so on. There is also a theory that even an aerogenic route of infection of this type is relevant, and people can get the virus through the air, inhaling dust with particles of feces. At the same time the age of the patient and the infected is not at all important, therefore rotavirus gastroenteritis can appear in everyone.
However, older people face a similar disease much less often. Most often rotavirus gastroenteritis occurs in children aged 9 months to 2 years. For newborns, such a disease is practically not dangerous, because in the first days of their life they get immunity from the mother in a transplacental way. In this case, in children up to three months, there is a risk of infection only when the mother lacks adequate immunity. Based on the studies conducted, it can be argued that infection is present in almost 100% of children under the age of 3, which is confirmed by the presence of specific antibodies in their blood.
Symptoms of rotavirus gastroenteritis
The first 1-5 days after the rotavirus infection causing gastroenteritis appears in the body, it passes the incubation period. The onset of the disease can be acute or violent and is accompanied by its following symptoms:
- Severe pain in the abdominal region. It can be spillable, and can be localized around the navel;
- Nausea, almost always resulting in severe vomiting;
- Stool disorders, expressed by diarrhea, whose frequency can reach 10-15 times a day.
In addition, in children with activation of rotavirus causing gastroenteritis, there is always weakness, lethargy and fever to 38 degrees.
Initially, rotavirus gastroenteritis in children causes abundant vomit, which contains particles of undigested food. Then they acquire a watery character and they contain impurities of mucus, expressed by floating flakes. This process occurs up to 10 times a day and can cause severe dehydration in the child.
In a period when children develop rotavirus gastroenteritis, they are regularly nauseated, which affects a significant decrease in appetite. Here, there are disorders of the stool, the feces of the children in the form of watery diarrhea, which occurs 5 to 15 times a day. The chair itself is plentiful, with a yellow, orange or greenish-yellow tinge. Also rotavirus gastroenteritis is characterized by its foamy consistency and a very sharp odor of stool. In some cases, the latter may resemble bran or be light-hazy, reminiscent of the bowel movements observed in children who have cholera.
In addition, the signs of the disease may include extraintestinal manifestations. For the most part, they include severe headaches and increased weakness, a slight chills and convulsions, dizziness and loss of consciousness. Nevertheless, this can happen only in exceptional cases and with very severe transfer of the disease by the child.
Treatment of rotavirus gastroenteritis
In order to prescribe appropriate therapy, which will lead to a speedy recovery of the child, a specialist needs to conduct a series of studies. Diagnosis of the disease is carried out with the help of clinical, laboratory and epidemiological tools, used together and allowing quicker to identify symptoms and problems.
Rotavirus gastroenteritis manifests itself as the formation of a copious, watery and foamy stool, in which there are no pathological impurities. Among the characteristic signs of the disease in children are also pains in the upper abdomen and rumbling in the intestine, as well as frequent urges to defecate. If such signs are manifested in the whole family, then the disease is easier to diagnose and choose for him treatment. Specific therapy that is suitable for the removal of such symptoms of this disease, at the moment does not exist, because with this disease the use of antiviral drugs does not yield any results.
Therefore, the main efforts of specialists in the treatment of rotavirus gastroenteritis are directed to detoxification and rehydration therapy, which fight with intoxication and help to compensate for the loss of body fluids. All therapeutic measures that help to save young patients from this pathology are carried out only in a stationary environment, since mandatory intravenous administration of solutions is required, which the baby can not drink because of the concomitant disease of vomiting. Also, rotavirus gastroenteritis requires the use of various enzyme preparations that accelerate treatment.
In all situations, therapy for this disease is performed in a comprehensive manner. In order to stop all manifestations, both external and internal rotavirus gastroenteritis, it is necessary for children to choose the right diet, which depends on the severity of the disease. In the diet of small patients, the amount of carbohydrates should be reduced, but the protein content is increased. It is crucial to reduce the symptoms of gastroenteritis caused by rotavirus infection in children. In addition, in this disease, accompanied by diarrhea, the diet of small patients requires completely to exclude dairy products that contain lactose.