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Runny nose in some common infectious diseases
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
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Runny nose in typhus. Sometimes with this infectious disease, nosebleeds occur, caused by damage to the mucous membrane of the nasal septum by the pathogen of this disease - Rickettsia prowazekii - with the occurrence of perforation of the cartilage. The consequences of a runny nose are "dry" perforation of the nasal septum, atrophic rhinitis and anosmia.
Runny nose with smallpox. Thanks to universal vaccination against smallpox, this disease, and accordingly, runny nose, is an extremely rare phenomenon in developed countries. In cases where runny nose occurs as one of the manifestations of smallpox, ulcers are observed in the area of the nasal mucosa and profuse nosebleeds, after which adhesions, cicatricial overgrowth of the nasal passages and vestibule of the nose, impaired nasal breathing and anosmia persist.
A runny nose with glanders is characterized by abundant mucopurulent discharge from the nose, ulcerations in the area of the mucous membrane of the nasal septum and nasal conchae, and a tendency to spread to the pharynx.
Runny nose with cerebrospinal meningitis usually goes unnoticed. It is diagnosed only after its complication - meningitis - has developed. Usually, local changes in the nose precede the manifestations of meningitis and are practically no different from the signs of banal rhinitis. Retrospective diagnosis of runny nose with cerebrospinal meningitis is of great epidemiological importance, since most people who have had this disease are carriers of meningococcus.
Runny nose in neuroviral diseases, for example, in poliomyelitis, epidemic encephalitis, is no different from banal rhinitis of a mild form and usually attracts attention only after the appearance of signs of encephalopathy. This situation largely indicates that the entry gate for neuroviruses is the mucous membrane of the nose, and also that many children who have immunity to viral neuroinfection have probably suffered from rhinitis in the past.
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