Infantile infections without rash
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Whooping cough. Begins as an ordinary cold. There is a small cough and runny nose. After a week, the symptoms may subside, but then resume. During the second week there is a first suspicion of whooping cough. The child has a prolonged coughing, especially at night. He convulsively coughs 8-10 times in one breath, then follows a short breath, followed by a characteristic sound resembling a cock-crowed cry, after which a new series of cough-jolts takes place. The face of the child blushes at the same time, and the tongue is rolled into a tube. At the end of a bout of coughing, the child suffers and vomits. The diagnosis is based on the symptoms of the disease, as well as using laboratory research methods. If a child coughs heavily in the first week of the disease, it is not necessarily pertussis. This pertussis lasts three to five weeks, and in severe cases, two to three months.
Pertussis can be transmitted to children from adults through toys. Complications are pneumonia and damage to the nervous system. Patients feel better if the room is well ventilated, but the child should not be supercooled. The incubation period of whooping cough is 5-14 days. Infectious child ceases to be, if within two weeks he coughs less and less.
Mumps (epidemic parotitis). This disease, caused by the virus, affects the parotid salivary glands that are located behind the ear lobe. First, the gland fills the cavity, and then the entire face swells. As a rule, the defeat is bilateral, and the person, or rather, the child's neck looks like a pig, hence the name. The tumor is located under the ears. Can be painful, especially with pressure, swallowing and chewing. May be a malaise. The temperature rises. Inflamed not only parotid salivary glands, but submandibular, sublingual. With a mild form, the tumor goes through three to four days, but more often it lasts seven to ten days. In boys, as a complication, there may be inflammation of the testicle (orchitis). Immunity after mumps is unstable (possibly repeated infection). Bed rest is observed until the tumor has subsided. Some patients can not eat sour or spicy food (lemons, pickled cucumbers), because it irritates the inflamed glands. The incubation period is 11-23 days.
Diphtheria. One of the most dangerous infectious diseases, which was mentioned above. In any case, when the child has a sore throat, fever rises or when his symptoms are croup, immediately call a doctor.
Polio. Extremely dangerous disease, the epidemic of which in the 50s of the last century covered the whole of Europe. The disease affects children mainly in summer and early autumn. It begins with a general malaise, high fever and headache, there may be vomiting, constipation or, conversely, diarrhea, there are pain in the legs, head, back. This lasts from one to six days.
Soon after the normalization of the temperature against a background of seemingly full health in the morning, paresis or paralysis, more often of the lower extremities, is observed without disturbance of sensitivity. When you feel the muscles of the legs, there is a sharp soreness. If the pathological process seizes the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm, respiratory failure occurs. With proper and timely treatment, and most importantly, prevention, this does not happen.
Poliomyelitis is so serious and dangerous a disease that it is very important to treat it, and most importantly, its prevention - immunization. It is transmitted from patients with erased forms of the disease or from virus carriers by the fecal-oral route (i.e. Through "dirty hands", contaminated water, etc.). The incubation period is from 2 to 35 days, but more often 10-12 days.
Before the creation of artificial lung ventilation apparatus, many patients died from paralysis of the respiratory musculature. Since there is no specific treatment for poliomyelitis (a drug that kills viruses), the only protection against it is vaccination. Therefore, when the district pediatrician invites you to get vaccinated against poliomyelitis, do not refuse at all and go to the polyclinic. The only relative contraindication is the general malaise of the child with cold symptoms, not to mention more serious diseases.
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