Salmonellosis: Symptoms, Prevention, and Effective Treatments

It is the infection of the digestive tract by the bacteria.

Causes

There are several types of bacteria within the Salmonella group that can produce different pictures:

• produces typhoid fever;
• causes the most commonly known gastroenteritis.

Symptoms

In some cases it does not give symptoms and the individual is called a salmonella carrier. Other times there are intestinal symptoms (gastroenteritis), enteric fever (typhoid fever), blood infection (bacteremia) and focal infections such as osteomyelitis (bone infection), meningitis or abscesses.

Of all the clinical presentations, the most frequent is Salmonella gastroenteritis. It is the one we are going to talk about.

Gastroenteritis caused by this bacterium is characterized by the fact that the child has diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever that begins between 6 and 72 hours after infection. It can be serious and require hospital treatment. In some children the infection can spread to the bloodstream and cause bacteremia.

The contagion occurs when ingesting contaminated food of animal origin: eggs, meat, poultry and unpasteurized milk. High temperatures completely kill the germ, so fried or properly cooked foods cannot cause salmonellosis.

If the person who handles the food does not have proper hygiene and does not wash their hands before touching the food, it can contaminate them once cooked.

The diagnosis is made by stool cultures or blood cultures in the case of bacteremia.

Treatment

If the gastroenteritis is not complicated, antibiotics are not administered, only proper hydration is recommended. Administration of antibiotics does not shorten the process of gastroenteritis.

Only babies under 3 months of age and immunosuppressed children are treated.

The child must be properly hydrated throughout the infectious process and medicines to lower fever.