Pages

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Danger Diphtheria in Children

Beware when your child complains of sore throat and pain when swallowing food or drink, especially if accompanied by fever, headache, heart beats faster, nausea and vomiting. It could be a child stricken with pain caused by diphtheria toxin-producing bacteria.

Overview of Disease Diphtheria.
Diphtheria is a contagious disease that is very dangerous in children.
Disease is easily spread and attack especially in the upper respiratory tract. Transmission usually occurs through splashing saliva of people who carry germs to others who are healthy. In addition, the disease can also spread by contaminated objects or foods.

Diphtheria is caused by the bacteria Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a bacterium that does not move and do not form spores. The main symptoms of diphtheria is the membrane formed by a thin layer of grayish-white color that arise, especially in the nasal mucosa, mouth until the throat.

Symptoms of  Diphtheria
Symptoms of this disease began to occur within 1-4 days after infection.
The first sign of diphtheria is a sore throat, fever and symptoms that resemble the common cold. Bacteria will proliferate in the body and release toxins or poisons that can spread throughout the body. Bekteri even this can make people become very weak.

Whenever diphtheria is getting worse, the throat becomes swollen, causing the patient became short of breath. Even more dangerous anymore, can also close the road completely respiratory. Diphtheria can also cause inflammation of the heart wrapping so that patients can die suddenly. These symptoms are caused by a toxin produced by diphtheria bacteria.

If not promptly treated, toxins produced by these germs can cause an inflammatory reaction in the upper respiratory tract tissues so that the tissue cells may die.
Malicious attacks are on the incubation period of 1 to 5 days. In this phase, the nasopharynx can cause infections that cause breathing difficulties and death. The main cause is inflammation of the membranes of the upper respiratory tract, plus a thorough damage to all organs.

When diphtheria attacked the throat, the initial symptoms are tenggotokan people develop inflammation, loss of appetite and fever. Within 2-3 days, a layer of white or gray can be found on the ceiling of the throat and may bleed. And if there is bleeding, the layer turns into a gray-green or black. People with diphtheria are usually no fever, but it can be neck pain and shortness of breath.

Prevention and Treatment.
When a child is experiencing early symptoms of suffering from diphtheria, the doctor will take a diagnosis based on symptoms and the discovery of the membrane. Not infrequently also conducted an examination of mucus in tenggoroka. As for the view that cardiac abnormalities caused by the disease, the examination can be done with the electrocardiogram (ECG).

Every child can be infected by diphtheria.
However, susceptibility to infection depends on whether he was ever infected with diphtheria, and also on the immunity. Babies born to mothers who are immune will get passive immunity, but it will not be more than 6 months and at the age of 1 year immunologically depleted altogether. Every child who recover from diphtheria disease does not always have a lasting immunity. At best, actively acquired immunity by immunization.

Effective prevention.
The most effective prevention is immunization. This is done simultaneously with tetanus and pertussis (DPT) as much as 3 times since the baby was 2 months with an interval of 1-2 months of inoculation. This immunization will provide active immunity against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus at the same time.

Moreover, the diphtheria can be prevented by always maintaining hygiene, either themselves or the environment. Infectious disease is most contagious in a poor neighborhood with low sanitation levels. Not only that, it is important to maintain a healthy diet.

Treatment is focused to neutralize diphtheria toxin or diphtheria toxin to kill germs and Corynebacterium diphtheriae, causes diphtheria. With prompt treatment, the severe complications can be avoided. However, the situation could be worse when the younger child's age, suffering from diphtheria disease is quite long, malnutrition and the provision of antitoxin is too late.

No comments:

Post a Comment