How easy is it to catch tonsillitis?

TONSILLITIS 

Definition:- Tonsillitis is an inflammatory disease of tonsil itself causes by various bacteria and viruses. Tonsillitis is most common diseases in children associated with common cold or flu. 

LOCATION OF TONSIL 

Tonsil is a pair of soft tissue mass located at the rear of the throat and each tonsil composed of tissue similar to a lymph node and covered by pink mucosa. As seen below image

WHAT IS WORK OF TONSIL IN OUR BODY?

Tonsil is part of the lymphatic system and swells in responses of any infection in our body. Tonsil is 1st line defense against illness because they produce white blood cells and help to fight against infection so tonsil is also exposed to the possibilty of being attacked by bacteria and virus. 

CAUSES 

As you know that tonsil is 1st line defense against bacterial or viral they are also susceptible to infection themselves. Most common cause of tonsillitis is a virus, but can sometime it may be bacterial. 

Most common type of virus to infect tonsil are as follow

• Adenovirus ( common cold and sore throat) 
• rhinovirus ( common cold)
• influenza ( flu)
• Acute respiratory tract infection    

Most common type of bacteria to infect tonsil are as follow

• Staphylococcus aureus
• Mycoplasma pneumonia 
• chlamydia pneumonia 
• bordetella pertussis 
•  neisseria gonorrhoeae

TYPE OF TONSILLITIS 

There are mainly three type of  tonsillitis 

1. Acute tonsillitis 
2. Reccurent tonsillitis 
3. Chronic tonsilitis 

SING AND SYMPTOMS 

There are many symptoms associated with tonsillitis such as 

1. A sore throat and pain while swallowing
2. Tonsil appear as red and swollen
3. High-grade fever with chills
4. A headache and runny nose  
5. Nausea and vomiting 
6. Bad breath 

COMPLICATION 

If untreated for a long time the infection may spread to the neighboring organ and cause more complications such as below 

• An infection of the middle ear and causes Acute otitis media 
• Quinsy ( collection of pus between tonsil and throat wall
• Obstructive sleep apnea 

TREATMENT 

There is a wide range of antibiotics available for treatment of tonsillitis. So if you have repeated attacks of tonsillitis than you should consult with your family physician.

Surgery is required when there are repeated attacks of tonsillitis.

  

There are some home remedies which help to treat tonsillitis. Gargling with hot water is the best home treatment for tonsillitis. Sucking throat lozenges may help to reduce the discomfort of the throat.  

DR. AMIN I BAYAD 

(BHMS)

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Typhoid Fever: Symptoms, treatment, causes, and prevention

TYPHOID FEVER

DEFINITION: - Typhoid fever is a systemic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi also known as s. typhi. Salmonella enterica serotype paratyphi( s. paratyphi) A, B, C cause the clinically similar condition known as paratyphoid. Typhoid and paratyphoid fever collectively referred to as enteric fever.

The contagious nature of the disease and incriminated faecally contaminated water sources in transmission was described by William Budd in 1873.

EPIDEMIOLOGY

India the typhoid fever is a major public health problem because of poor sanitation, lack of safe drinking water supply and low socioeconomic condition. That’s why in India there is lots of case of typhoid fever. The typhoid fever is usually observed throughout the year.

Age group: - mainly affect children and young adults

Gender: - more common in a male. As female are chronic carriers.

Socioeconomic factor: - Typhoid fever is a disease of poverty and associated with inadequate sanitation facilities and unsafe water supplies.

MODE OF TRANSMISSION

Typhoid fever is transmitted by the fecal-oral route, via contaminated food and water. Occasionally health care workers can acquire the disease from infected patients.

AETIOPATHOLOGY

I have lots of information regarding this section but as our motto is to explain in easy understand so I will briefly explain how bacteria enter in our bloodstream and produce typhoid fever as below,

S. Typhi is ingested with food and water (both contaminated).

Passes through the stomach and invade gut epithelium

In the small intestine invade and translocate to an intestinal lymphoid follicle

 

Some pass on to reticuloendothelial cells of liver and spleen

In the liver and spleen, they multiply

After 7 to 14 days of incubation clinical conditions such as fever appear

CLINICAL FEATURES

Prolonged fever: - initially low grade, rises progressively, and by the second week is often high and sustained. Continues fever rising in step-ladder fashion is observed

Fever including chills, headache, anorexia, cough, weakness, sore throat, dizziness, muscle pain and abdominal pain.

There are some physical sing present in typhoid fever such as coated tongue, tender abdomen, hepatomegaly and/or splenomegaly may be found.

In some patient at the end of 1^st week small maculopapular, blanching and erythematous rush typically on trunk and chest may be seen.

Constipation may present in some patient

DIAGNOSIS

Typhoid should be considered in any patient with prolonged unexplained fever with an appearance of a rose spot.

Complete blood count

Widal test is the best serological test to diagnose typhoid fever

COMPLICATION

The commonest complication is as follow

Intestinal perforation

Gastrointestinal hemorrhage

Typhoid encephalopathy

PROGNOSIS

When untreated the fever persists for 2 weeks or more and defervescence occurs slowly over the following 2 to 3 weeks. Death occurs in between 10% to 30%  of an untreated patient following complication.

PREVENTION

We can prevent typhoid fever by improving sanitation, ensuring the safety of food and water supplies, identification and treatment of chronic carries of s.typhi, and use of typhoid vaccines to reduce the susceptibility of the host to infection.

Vaccination is recommended for use in travelers to endemic areas, for household contact of typhoid carries, and laboratory workers.

There are two type of vaccine available for typhoid fever

1 Parenteral Vi polysaccharide vaccine.

2 Oral Vaccine ( S. Typhi strain Ty21a is live attenuated oral vaccine)

TREAMENT

General Management

Supportive measures such as adequate rest, tepid bath and sponging, appropriate nutrition and diet, all are important in the management of typhoid fever.

Anti-microbial therapy

There are many medicines to treat typhoid fever but without consultation with your family physician, you cannot use any antibiotics. If you have high-grade fever since 7 to 10 days without any relief in symptoms please consult your family physician for proper treatment

Dr. Amin I Bayad

(BHMS)

   

  

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The cause and treatment of Fever

The Cause

In previous blog we discussed about FEVEF and how to detect and there symptoms in detail if you missed the blog here is link https://draminanjar.blogspot.com/2018/07/fever-simple-understanding.html

So today topic is cause 

Cause of fever is very big topic that if we discuss the one cause it can take two to three blogs to full discus about it so in this blog I take some of important causes in short and simplest way to understand

Fever can be caused by a number of factors:

·        an infection, such as throat infection, flu, chickenpox , or pneumonia

·        rheumatoid arthritis

·        some medications

·        overexposure of skin to sunlight, or sunburn

·        heat stroke, resulting either by exposure to high temperatures or prolonged strenuous exercise

·        dehydration

·        silicosis, a type of lung disease caused by long-term exposure to silica dust

·        amphetamine abuse

·        alcohol withdrawal

   

so this a cause of fever in this most common type of infection is bacterial infecrion and virus infaction. As for example viral flu cold cough ……

the

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FEVER A SIMPLE UNDERSTANDING

FEVER

Definition:- Although a fever could be considered any body temperature above the normal 98.6 F (37 C), medically, a person is not considered to have a significant fever until the temperature is above 100.4 F (38.0 C). Most fever is beneficial, causes no problems, and helps the body fight off infections.

fever

So when the body temperature increase in body that’s the sing of something wrong is happening in our body. 

You can say that fever is result of immune response to foreign invader I;e  bacteria, viruses, fungi, drugs and toxins.

What are the sing and symotoms of fever ?

A fever can cause a person to feel very uncomfortable. Signs and symptoms of a fever include the following:

• Temperature greater than 100.4 F (38 C) in adults and children
• Shivering, shaking, and chills
• Aching muscles and joints or other body aches
• Headache
• Intermittent sweats  
• Rapid heart rate  
• Skin flushing or hot skin
• Feeling faint, dizzy, or lightheaded
• Eye pain or sore eyes
• weakness
• Loss of appetite
• With very high temperatures (>104 F/40 C), convulsions, hallucination, or confusion is possible. Always seek medical attention for a high fever or if these symptoms occur

How to take temperature ?

Digital thermometers can be used to measure rectal, oral, or axillary (under the armpit) temperatures.

So this is small and simple understanding of fever in next blog you can see Couse and how to treat fever?

Dr. Amin I Bayad

(BHMS)

     

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