Salmonellosis is a common intestinal infection. It mainly affects the organs of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), namely the small intestine and stomach. Pathogenic microbes enter the human body mainly through products of animal origin.
The disease is characterized by severe intoxication and dehydration. The largest number of cases of infection with this infectious disease are recorded in the summer. In order to prevent or minimize the likelihood of infection, it is important to know how salmonellosis is transmitted.
Causes of salmonellosis. Main routes of infection
- Food is the most common route of infection, the cause of which is insufficient heat treatment, violation of sanitary and epidemiological standards for storage and transportation of products, and failure to comply with personal hygiene rules.
- Contact and household. Children become infected with salmonellosis through contact with a sick person or with people caring for animals that are infected or are carriers of the infection. Bacteria can persist for a long time on toys, clothing, towels and other items that a sick person has come into contact with. This route of infection is the main one for infants.
- Transplacental - from mother to fetus.
You can become infected with salmonellosis even where you did not expect it at all: for example, by eating a cream cake in a cafe where there is poor sanitary control over the production and quality of products. In some products (milk, meat products), salmonella can not only survive, but also multiply. Salting and smoking have a very weak effect on them, and freezing even increases the survival time of microorganisms in products. Almost all animals are infected with salmonella to one degree or another, many of them are healthy carriers. Among birds, chicken is the leader in the likelihood that an absolutely healthy bird is a carrier of salmonellosis. Today this is one of the leading ways of spreading this disease.
The unique ability of the bacterium is that when food is contaminated, it does not in any way change its color, smell or taste. Any product where salmonella can potentially multiply is a danger to the child.
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No one is immune from salmonellosis infection. There are two ways to avoid illness: not eating foods or processing them thermally.
The child’s body is very vulnerable to various infectious diseases under the influence of negative factors. After all, in childhood, intestinal immunity only develops and still weakly protects the baby. Therefore, to prevent the disease, doctors do not recommend that children under 5 years of age have contact with pets and eat raw animal products.
The causative agent of the disease
The causative agent of salmonellosis is a bacterium called salmonella. It is a gram-negative, anaerobic, motile rod-shaped microorganism. The reservoir and main source of salmonellosis spread is poultry and livestock. Salmonellosis is a disease transmitted by the fecal-oral route.
Most often it occurs due to eating undercooked meat or raw chicken eggs. The causative agent of salmonellosis exhibits increased resistance and persists for a long time in environmental conditions. In reservoirs, salmonella persists for up to 4 months, in soil for up to 1.5 years, in sea water for up to 6 months, in dusty rooms for one and a half years.
Salmonella also persists in food products for a long time:
- in kefir 60 days;
- in milk 20 days;
- in sausages up to 4 months;
- in frozen meat up to 1 year;
- in butter 4 months;
- in eggshell 3 weeks;
- in cheese 1 year.
If you store chicken eggs in the refrigerator for a long time, longer than 1 month, then salmonella can penetrate the yolk through the shell and actively multiply there. Meat and dairy products are also a favorable environment for this bacterium. At the same time, they do not change their appearance and the taste of the product does not deteriorate. Therefore, using these criteria, it is impossible to recognize that a product contains a pathogen.
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Salmonella settles in the small intestine and actively produces toxins in this section of the gastrointestinal tract. This leads to the removal of fluid from it, disruption of vascular tone and damage to the nervous system. The bacterium produces enterotoxins, cytotoxins and endotoxins. The former disrupt the functioning of the small intestine, removing water and salts through it.
Cytotoxins have a destructive effect on the cell membrane, disrupting protein synthesis. The production of endotoxins leads to a deterioration in the general well-being of the patient. Salmonella is characterized by the following features:
- resistant to environmental factors;
- survives at very low temperatures, withstands up to minus 82 degrees;
- resistant to disinfectants;
- viability at room temperature up to 3 months;
- persists in animal feces for up to 4 years;
- is not destroyed in products by salting or smoking;
- actively reproduces in milk and meat dishes;
- produces toxins;
- can only be destroyed by long-term heat treatment.
After the Salmonella microbe enters the human body, the disease manifests itself within 6–72 hours. This means that the incubation period lasts up to 3 days. If the disease is recognized in a timely manner and treatment measures are taken, recovery can be expected within a week or 10 days.
Clinical manifestations of salmonellosis depend on the state of a person’s immunity, and, accordingly, symptoms can be pronounced or practically absent. But even a mild course of the disease does not prevent a person from being a source of infection for others.
Salmonella is often transmitted through raw chicken eggs.
Symptoms of childhood salmonellosis:
- acute onset;
- rumbling in the stomach;
- severe pain in the navel area;
- nausea;
- vomiting, sometimes with the presence of mucus and bile;
- diarrhea;
- a sharp increase in temperature;
- lethargy, weakness;
- the tongue is covered with a characteristic coating, and an unpleasant odor comes from the mouth.
Children under two years of age are most susceptible to infection, since they put dirty hands and various objects in their mouths when teething, and hygiene skills at this age are still poorly developed.
Preventive measures
Prevention of salmonellosis is based on compliance with sanitary and hygienic standards. Owners of livestock and poultry should carefully monitor the storage conditions of their products and the timeliness of their heat treatment. Remember the importance of washing your hands before eating and after returning home.
When preparing homemade dishes, you need to monitor the temperature. Products with expiring dates should be disposed of promptly. Adults should conduct preventive conversations with children of preschool and primary school age.
Specific measures to prevent salmonellosis - in the form of vaccination - are not used due to low effectiveness. The pathogen is heterogeneous, and acquired immunity has low resistance.
Symptoms of salmonellosis in children under one year of age:
- lethargy, loud and sharp sounds cause anxiety in the baby;
- refusal to eat;
- frequent bowel movements;
- on the 3rd day of illness the temperature rises;
- the stool becomes liquid, watery, and green in color;
- A dry mouth and extreme thirst are a symptom of the onset of dehydration.
Salmonellosis in children under one year of age can last several weeks or even months. After the illness, the baby may have abdominal pain, irregular bowel movements, and increased allergies for 2 months.
Salmonellosis in children 2 years of age and older occurs in the form of gastritis and gastroenteritis.
Questions and answers
How to avoid getting infected from an infected relative with whom you live in the same apartment?
The main precaution will be consistent adherence to personal hygiene rules. Each family member must use an individual set of utensils during the period of outpatient treatment of a relative. The toilet and bathroom need daily cleaning.
Is it possible to find out about the presence of the bacteria that causes salmonellosis in food?
Only laboratory staff can confirm the presence of pathogenic microflora in food products after conducting appropriate research. Customers of popular retail chains should choose products with a valid expiration date and individually packaged in sealed containers or bags.
Treatment of salmonellosis in children
The first signs of salmonellosis are a reason for the mother to call an ambulance. Treatment of childhood salmonellosis involves preventing parents from becoming dehydrated. Any child's first aid kit should always include oral rehydration products. It is important to give the child a sufficient amount of liquid - this can be water, compote, or fruit juice.
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Medicines
Complex therapy is prepared by an infectious disease specialist; salmonellosis is treated with various means. The basis of therapy is antibacterial drugs that lead to the death of pathogenic microorganisms.
The remaining medications support the child, helping him cope with unpleasant symptoms, reducing the severity of signs of the disease.
Key points during treatment:
- oral rehydration with prepared saline solutions;
- actively feeding the child: if the child refuses to drink, it is necessary to feed him with a teaspoon or from a syringe every 5 minutes;
- the first day - fasting, then - a special diet;
- preparations containing probiotics;
- antipyretics at high temperatures;
- Bed rest is indicated for mild cases of the disease for 1 week, for severe cases - up to 3 weeks.
The basis for hospitalization is the severity of the child’s condition. In mild cases of the disease, salmonellosis is treated at home. With strict control over the amount of fluid you drink and following a diet, the disease usually goes away on its own.
Quite often, mothers and fathers mistake the symptoms of salmonellosis in 6-year-old children for banal poisoning. Therefore, it makes sense to get tested for salmonellosis even when treating at home. This will allow you to accurately find the cause of the disease and make the correct diagnosis.
It has been scientifically proven that taking antibiotics for salmonellosis prolongs the course of the disease. Today, there are international recommendations for the use of antibiotics in the treatment of salmonellosis. They are needed for children with weakened immune systems, children under 2 months of age and when salmonella penetrates beyond the intestines.
40% of all salmonella are multidrug-resistant bacteria, which means they are practically unaffected by antibiotics. Scientists around the world urge not to treat salmonellosis with only intestinal manifestations with antibiotics. Nevertheless, our country’s protocol provides for treatment of children of any age and with any severity of the disease with antibiotics for salmonellosis.
Diagnostics
Diagnostic measures involve collection and microscopy of vomit and feces after bacterial culture. Laboratory tests can detect the presence of pathogenic bacteria in the patient’s biological materials. If a generalized form of salmonellosis is suspected, a blood test is performed.
Laboratory tests allow doctors to determine the degree of dehydration of the patient’s body, blood viscosity, and electrolyte balance. These data are necessary to formulate an effective strategy for the treatment of salmonellosis. In case of complicated infection, consultation with a cardiologist, nephrologist, urologist and doctors of other specializations may be required.
Antibiotics
More often, doctors resort to broad-spectrum medications. Although antibiotics are toxic, they help provide assistance to the patient before identifying the causative agent of the infection.
If the causative agent of the infection is identified, then they resort to the help of narrowly targeted means, they are less toxins, but more effective.
Since salmonellosis is considered a dangerous disease, the choice of antibiotics is made by a doctor. Otherwise, the therapy will not be highly effective and may lead to death.
