Tuberculosis is a fairly serious infectious disease, transmitted by airborne droplets from a sick person to a healthy one. The risk factors for infection are: eating disorders or systematic malnutrition, lack of vitamins, poor living conditions and constant overwork. The disease has a wave-like character of the current, it then subsides, then again becomes aggravated.
The main method of determining the disease is the turn of tuberculin samples. The very Mantoux that all children put at school. The increased size of the "button", as a rule, is an occasion to check the child for tuberculosis.
The first signs of tuberculosis in children
Symptoms associated with the onset of the disease are of low specificity. But they can also push you to the idea that something is wrong with the child.
So, let's enumerate them:
- increased fatigue;
- irritability;
- decreased appetite;
- sleep disorders;
- loss of vitality and mobility;
- pallor of the skin;
- frequent headaches;
- cessation of weight gain or weight loss;
- a periodic slight increase in body temperature (within 37.1-37.5 ° C);
- a moderate increase in lymph nodes.
How is chronic tuberculosis manifested in children?
Six to twelve months after the tuberculin test, chronic tuberculosis intoxication occurs in school-age children. It is characterized by the following symptoms:
- lag in physical development;
- gradual weight loss;
- increased sweating;
- a slight increase in temperature, for a long time;
- malaise, weakness and, at the same time, euphoric mood;
- against the background of general pallor, pink cheeks stand out;
- shiny, glass eyes;
- when probing the abdomen, the increase in the liver is determined.
But all these symptoms do not prove the presence of MBT (microbacterium tuberculosis) in the body. To make an accurate diagnosis, the phthisiatrician will additionally prescribe a laboratory blood test and a lung X-ray. In our time, this diagnosis of tuberculosis in children allows you to make an unmistakable diagnosis.
Treatment of tuberculosis in children
The disease is serious, but it is treated, and our days are quite successful. The most important thing is not to miss the time. Therefore, as soon as you learn that your child is ill, immediately go to the hospital, the appropriate treatment should appoint a doctor.
Usually they cope with the disease with the help of chemotherapy. For children, a chemical such as isoniazid is most often used. It acts most delicately, causing a minimum of side effects.
Treatment is carried out in two stages. The first is intensive therapy, it lasts four months. During this time, the colonies are being destroyed, and the active multiplication of Koch's rods, the causative agents of the disease, is suppressed. In the next phase, maintenance therapy is used to prevent secondary infection. This stage of treatment can last a year or more. At this time, the damaged tissue is regenerated, and the body is restored.
Prevention of tuberculosis in children
To prevent disease, children are vaccinated against tuberculosis. It is called BCG. The first vaccination is carried out in the maternity hospital, for this use live, but weakened microbes. Revaccination is produced in 12-14 years.
For prevention is also suitable obscheukreplyayuschy complex measures. Watch for proper nutrition, temper, more out in the fresh air and do preventive vaccinations.
For timely diagnosis, do not skip the Mantoux test, and subsequently do a fluorogram every year.