Symptoms of salmonellosis.
Salmonellosis is an acute infectious disease characterized by a lesion of the gastrointestinal tract and caused by a bacterial infection (salmonella). It affects salmonellosis most often wall of the stomach, thick or small intestine, and sometimes even the entire gastrointestinal tract.
Most often, the source of the disease is wild and domestic animals (cats, dogs, pigs, cattle, rodents, birds). A person becomes infected by eating eggs, meat of animals infected with salmonella.
Symptoms of salmonellosis appear in the patient after 2-3 hours (maximum after 24 hours) after infection. If the lesion affects mainly the stomach, it lasts 3-4 days and is accompanied by a slight rise in temperature, cramping pains in the abdomen, vomiting.
If, in addition to the stomach, another small intestine is affected, a liquid stool with brown or greenish watery feces with an admixture of mucus and a sharp fetid odor is added to the symptoms described above. The duration of the disease reaches 4-7 days, the temperature is higher.
If the lesion affects the stomach, the thick and small intestine, then from the first days of the disease there are pains in the lower abdomen of the cramping character. Such a disease usually lasts a long time, it can last several months. Stools with this scanty, consist of a turbid green mucus, may contain impurities of blood.
Salmonella infection can be very difficult, complicated by hepatitis (inflammation of the liver), acute kidney failure, pneumonia, meningitis.
Nutrition for acute manifestations of salmonellosis.
If the salmonella is severe, the patients are hospitalized and washed with their stomach. If the disease is of mild or moderate severity, fractional frequent drinking of special solutions is prescribed, if heavy - intravenous saline solutions are injected drip.
Such a solution usually consists of glucose, potassium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride (table salt) dissolved in drinking water. The solution is drunk in small portions or injected through a gastric tube. Enter the volume of fluid corresponding to fluid loss with diarrhea and vomiting. Adult patients with salmonellosis of medium gravity are prescribed from 2 to 4 liters of fluid.
Gentle nutrition with salmonellosis.
When the most acute manifestations pass, the patient is prescribed a sparing diet (diet No. 4). Because of the irritation of the walls of the intestine and stomach, a violation of the function of the digestive glands, it is necessary to introduce crushed, digestible food, sparing the gastrointestinal tract.
In acute inflammatory bowel diseases, fruit (bananas, apples), vegetables (potatoes, carrots) and sour-milk products are widely used for therapeutic nutrition. These products contribute to the rapid passage of toxicosis (poisoning of the body with toxins and products of tissue decay, secreted by pathogens), a shorter course of the disease, normalization of the stool. Their beneficial effect on the course of the disease is explained by the following reasons:
- in vegetables and fruits there is a lot of pectin - a colloid, capable of swelling and binding water;
- pectin deposits on its surface pathogenic bacteria and food residues;
- from pectin in an acidic medium, calcium is detached, which has an anti-inflammatory effect on the walls of the intestine;
- in fruits and vegetables contains a lot of organic acids, killing pathogenic microorganisms.
The most useful are apples and carrots, which have an anti-inflammatory effect. With their spongy mass, they mechanically cleanse the intestines and absorb all harmful substances on their way. It is recommended puree from grated on a fine grater of fresh apples and carrots.
Patients with salmonellosis should not eat radish, sauerkraut, cucumbers, beets, beans. Some fruits (grapes, plums, pears, oranges, tangerines) are not recommended because of the inter-lining shells and poor digestibility of the peel.
Patients can be given lemons, watermelons, blueberries. Recommended compotes, jelly from various berries, semolina, buckwheat, rice porridge on the water (oatmeal is not recommended, as it strengthens the motor activity of the intestine). It is necessary to limit sweets that promote fermentation in the intestines. In food should be a sufficient amount of protein in the form of cottage cheese, low-fat fish and meat. Milk, fat meat, fish are excluded. White breadcrumbs are allowed. All products must be crushed and boiled well.
Duration of the diet is determined by the patient's condition. In any case, for some time after recovery, it makes sense to adhere to proper nutrition.