Intestinal infections

E. coli salad
     "Cucumber" war
     What is danger of intestinal infections?
     Two Faces of Escherichia
     Make bet on prevention

The principles of treatment
     of acute intestinal infections
     Dysbiosis and probiotics
     Microflora as a physiological shield

Summer is time of revelry intestinal infections. The abundance of fruits and vegetables, often from a natural market or imported from southern countries, plus a high temperature, causing rapid multiplication of micro-organisms in foods and in water, plus also loved by many trips to the tropics - all this annoying situation to the limit.

As the summer, intestinal diseases and food poisoning rank first among infectious diseases.

I must say that in recent years, infections in general expand. This is due to both global warming and natural disasters and catastrophes, and mutation of microorganisms - it is possible that an outbreak of intestinal infection, which talked all the media at the end of May, is not caused by accidental causes. It has not yet been drawn to the epidemic, but in any case, makes you wonder. If in Japan after Fukushima, rabbits began to be born without ears, then is not there due to the current not the usual strain of E.coli?

Why do I call this strain is not quite normal? Well, firstly, because scientists think so. New strain of Escherichia coli contains a combination of genes that have not yet met. WHO experts believe that 0104:H4 - it's a mutated strain of enterohaemorrhagic bacteria E. coli, a very dangerous and deadly.

Second, this strain behaves too unusual. Typically, E. coli infects children under 5 years old, but in this case 90% of newly infected are adults, two thirds of them are women.

And, thirdly, it is not entirely clear thing about the virulence of this bacterium. Typically, intestinal infections are not contagious, that is, the agent does not extend directly from person to person, but only through food. However, Chinese researchers have characterized strain 0104 as "highly infectious". I do not know what they had in mind exactly, because it was less than a month since the beginning from the outbreak of new disease.

But let's see what's actually happening now in the EU.

First report of an outbreak of a life-threatening intestinal infection in Germany appeared on May 24. And it was immediately noted an unusual progression of the disease: the state of approximately 40 of 130 patients was heavy, and two of them were even connected to a respirator. Most cases were middle-aged women.

May 25, first death was recorded - it has been a resident of Lower Saxony. Pathogen of intestinal infection was identified - the so-called enterohaemorrhagic bacterium Escherichia coli (EHEC).

May 28, the death toll in Germany has risen to ten, and all were reported as more than 1,000 confirmed and probable cases in 15 of the 16 federal states in Germany. It was reported as suspect cases in the UK, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

It was launched the first version of the causes of disease - "cucumber." Suspicion fell on imported from Spain, salad cucumbers. Tracking allegedly contaminated batches caused suspicion in the spread of infection also in the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Luxembourg.

Three weeks passed, and on June 16, the number of cases in Germany was already 3,304. For "highly infectious" disease figure, quite frankly, is not impressive (compare at least to the dynamics of growth of influenza at the beginning of the epidemic). Especially as, according to experts, in recent days, a wave of disease has waned.

However, in Germany the number of victims has reached 38 people, human cases reported in 13 countries in EU, also in USA and Canada. Cucumber version has not been confirmed, though it hit hard on a pocket of Spanish farmers who filed suit against Hamburg Parliament Senator Cornelia Prufer-Shtoks who initiated the persecution of the Spanish cucumbers.

In place of the international "cucumber war", inner-German "soy" was come, because German experts say now that the source of infection was the bean seeds from some farm in Lower Saxony. It is true that experts do not yet know, how E. coli can get into the soy beans, but they suggest that, as in the case of cucumbers, it could be manure, used as fertilizer.

Well, perhaps we do not will clear German stables, but it is interesting to note that in Germany, newspapers did their job: the disciplined Germans en masse refuse to buy tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and other fresh vegetables and move on schnitzel with French fries. Every cloud has a silver lining - the sale of meat in Germany rose significantly.

Meanwhile, many German doctors believe that the reason for panic not at all there, and hysterical, as is the case with different kinds of epidemics of influenza, caused by the artificial. According to Heinz-Joachim Kurper, in Germany every summer is recorded about a thousand cases of infection by bacteria EHEC, but this has never caused such a stir.

Politicians, of course, continue to play their tunes, saying the propagation of the deadly epidemic, and the media singing along to them. But we should, I think, simply to learn more about what intestinal infections are dangerous, and how we can protect ourselves from them.

Where intestinal infections are from? The most common cause of intestinal diseases is non-compliance with the rules of hygiene, eating unwashed fruits and vegetables, contaminated water.

Various intestinal diseases in the early stages are quite similar symptoms, so it is difficult to independently determine which specific disease you started. However, the treatment methods in various diseases are very different. Most often today, there are salmonella, dysentery and enteric virus.

All intestinal infections are very dangerous, especially, because of dehydration. Diarrhea and vomiting are constantly increasing loss of water, and then the body is derived from minerals, mainly potassium and sodium.

All suffer from intestinal infections, but most often children under 7 years old. For children intestinal infections are the most dangerous. Children's bodies are not sufficiently protected against pathogens, and this can lead to complications such as kidney failure, liver problems and even cerebral edema.

Acute intestinal diseases can develop very quickly. Banal diarrhea can hide the most dangerous intestinal infections. First place in the number of cases and mortality, are intestinal infections caused by bacteria of the family of Enterobacteriaceae.

It should be understood that the diarrhea and vomiting that occur by ingestion of enteric viral or gastro-intestinal infection - it is a normal reaction of the body trying to cleanse itself. Trying to stop the diarrhea in the first hours after exposure, you extend stay of toxins in the body. And at the same time there is a rapid dehydration. Therefore, we must try not to stop, for example, vomiting, but compensate for the loss of body fluids.

In the children's body fluid and mineral content is higher than that of an adult. Therefore, dehydration in children leads to much more dangerous consequences.

In acute intestinal infections children need plenty of fluids, but it must be water, not milk or juice. It is good to give juices in addition, the best vegetables, because they contain lots of minerals. Without a prescription can be given only sorbents, but you can not give any medicines, especially antibiotics. The fact that many intestinal infections are not treated with antibiotics.

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