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Symptoms of salmonellosis in adults
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
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Salmonellosis has an incubation period that lasts from 6 hours to 3 days (usually 12-24 hours); in hospital outbreaks it is extended to 3-8 days. After this period, typical symptoms of salmonellosis appear.
Symptoms of salmonellosis make it possible to classify this disease
- Gastrointestinal (localized) form:
- gastritis variant:
- gastroenteric variant;
- gastroenterocolitic variant.
- Generalized form:
- typhoid-like variant;
- septic variant.
- Bacterial excretion:
- sharp;
- chronic;
- transient.
Symptoms of gastritis salmonellosis are characterized by acute onset, repeated vomiting and pain in the epigastrium. Intoxication syndrome is weakly expressed. Short duration of the disease.
The gastroenteric variant of salmonellosis is the most common. Salmonellosis begins acutely, typical symptoms of salmonellosis appear: fever, headache, chills, muscle aches, cramping abdominal pain. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea join in. The stools are initially fecal in nature, but quickly become watery, foamy, foul-smelling, sometimes with a greenish tint and look like "swamp mud". Paleness of the skin is noted, in more severe cases - cyanosis. The tongue is dry, coated. The abdomen is bloated, painful on palpation in all areas, more so in the epigastrium and in the right iliac region, rumbling under the arm. Heart sounds are muffled, tachycardia, blood pressure is reduced. Urine output is reduced. Convulsions are possible.
In the gastroenterocolitic variant, the symptoms of salmonellosis are the same, but already on the 2nd-3rd day of the disease, the volume of feces decreases. An admixture of mucus, sometimes blood, appears in them. When palpating the abdomen, spasm and soreness of the sigmoid colon are noted. Tenesmus is possible.
Generalized form of salmonellosis is usually preceded by gastrointestinal disorders. In the typhoid-like variant, the temperature curve becomes constant or undulating. Headache, weakness, and insomnia increase. The skin is pale, and by the 6th-7th day of the disease, a roseola rash appears on the abdominal skin. Slight bradycardia is observed. Dry, scattered rales are heard over the lungs. The abdomen is swollen. By the end of the first week of the disease, an enlarged liver and spleen are noted. The duration of fever is 1-3 weeks. Relapses are rare. In the first days of the disease, the symptoms of septic and typhoid-like variants are similar. Later, the condition of patients worsens. Fluctuations in body temperature become irregular, with large daily differences, repeated chills and profuse sweating, tachycardia, and myalgia. Formation of purulent foci in the lungs, heart, kidneys, liver and other organs is noted. The disease is long-lasting and can end fatally.
After the disease, some patients become carriers of the bacteria. In acute bacterial excretion, the excretion of salmonella ends within 3 months; if it continues for more than 3 months, it is considered chronic. In transient bacterial excretion, single or double sowing of salmonella from feces, symptoms of salmonellosis are absent.
[ Mortality and causes of death
The mortality rate is 0.2-0.6%. The cause of death may be one of the above complications of salmonellosis.