There are more than 1000 infectious diseases, one of the most common is intestinal infections.. How to avoid intestinal upset?

Salmonellosis Caused by bacteria of the genus Salmonella. Pathogens are able to persist in the external environment for a long time: in water up to 5 months, in meat and sausages from 2 to 4 months, in frozen meat - about 6 months (in carcasses of birds - more than a year), in milk - up to 20 days, kefir -.

In some products (milk, meat products), salmonella can not only persist, but also multiply without changing the appearance and taste of products. Salting and smoking have a very weak effect on them, and freezing even increases the survival time of microorganisms in products.. However, at a temperature of 56 degrees, salmonella die in 1-3 minutes, boiling kills them instantly..

Salmonellosis is found in all regions of the world. At present, the disease is common even in developed and prosperous countries and tends to increase everywhere.. This is especially true for large cities with a centralized food supply system.. Sources of infection are mainly domestic animals and birds..

Sources of contamination - food products that have not undergone sufficient processing during the preparation process. Most often, these are: minced meat, products from it, jelly, meat salads, boiled sausages, poultry meat and eggs. Incubation period, t. the time when a person is already infected, but there are no symptoms of the disease yet, with the food way of infection lasts from 6 hours to 3 days (usually 12-24 hours).

The onset is sudden, with fever, weakness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, which is later joined by stool disorder. Possibly severe disease. The disease is especially dangerous for children of the first year of life and the elderly..

Asymptomatic forms, accompanied by the carriage of microorganisms and their release into the environment, are especially dangerous for workers in the service sector, catering, food industry. Therefore, it is so important that the medical examination and the receipt of personal medical books do not have a formal character..

Prevention of salmonellosis consists in sufficient heat treatment of food, as well as compliance with sanitary and epidemiological norms and rules during its preparation and storage..

Dysentery Caused by bacteria of the genus Shigella. Boiling destroys shigella instantly, at a temperature of 60 degrees they die in 10-20 minutes.

Ultraviolet, including direct sunlight, also adversely affects them..

Human source of infection. Symptoms of the disease are in many ways similar to those of salmonellosis.. The defeat of the gastrointestinal tract is manifested by pain in the abdomen, at the beginning dull, diffused throughout the abdomen, having a permanent character.. Then they become more acute, cramping, localized in the lower abdomen, more often on the left. Pain usually increases before defecation, false urges to empty the bowels appear. The chair is scanty. Characterized by the appearance of mucus and blood in the stool.

Pseudotuberculosis This disease is widespread. Carriers are different animals, but rodents are of particular epidemiological importance, excreting the pathogen with feces and capable of contaminating water, soil and a wide variety of products.. The source of infection is most often vegetables and dairy products consumed without sufficient heat treatment.. In water and soil, the pathogen not only persists, but also multiplies. The accumulation of the pathogen in products is facilitated by their storage in vegetable stores and refrigerators.. An important route of infection is the consumption of water from open reservoirs..

The infection is usually not transmitted from a person.. The incidence of human pseudotuberculosis is observed throughout the year, although there is a clearly pronounced seasonal rise in the winter-spring period..

Incubation period 3 to 18 days. Diagnosis is complicated by the variety of clinical variants of the course.. These can be abdominal pain (abdominal form), symptoms similar to the common cold (catarrhal form), pain in the right hypochondrium, dark urine, yellowness of the skin (icteric form), severe joint pain (arthralgic form), rash (exanthema form. Usually there is an increase in temperature to 38.0 - 40.0 degrees.

Prevention is based on the control of rodents, the exclusion of the use of raw milk and water..

Another intestinal infection that often leads to death is botulism - a thunderstorm for lovers of homemade products..

Treatment of intestinal infections Important diet, therapeutic doses of vitamins. Symptomatic drugs (antipyretics, antispasmodics) will alleviate the patient's condition.

Etiotropic treatment is based on the destruction of the causative agent of the disease.. For this, both antibacterial drugs (which are not antibiotics) and antibiotics themselves are used..

Sorbents play an important role (activated carbon, cellulose preparations, smectite). Deactivation of toxins can be facilitated by preparations of pancreatic enzymes.

Particular attention should be paid to the problem of dehydration. Remember that prolonged diarrhea and vomiting is accompanied by the loss of not only water, which is important in itself, but also a significant amount of electrolytes - potassium, magnesium, sodium, chlorine and other ions.. And this can already cause serious disorders of cardiac activity, respiration and other organ systems.. Therefore, replenishment of fluid and electrolyte losses is so important.. The volume of fluid administered must be greater than that lost during vomiting or diarrhea. Do not forget about the loss of it during sweating. And with a fever, this process is also intensified.!

To replenish fluid losses, there are various pharmacy solutions for dehydration (Regidron, Hydrovit and others). The simplest solution can be prepared independently. To do this, add 5 grams of table salt, 5 grams of baking soda and 20 grams of sugar to 1 liter of boiled water.. In addition, you can advise taking potassium supplements for the entire period of ongoing diarrhea..

But in any case, if intestinal symptoms occur, it is better to consult a doctor as soon as possible..

Vadim STEPANOV, general practitioner, pulmonologist nedug. en.