The described disease affects mainly wild, but sometimes poultry, which are the source of infection. After contact with them people are ill. In spite of the fact that therapy does not present difficulties, it is necessary to diagnose and start to treat ornithosis in time - the symptoms in a person quickly progress and provoke damage to the vital systems of the body.
Pathogen of ornithosis
This acute infection is caused by a motionless gram-negative bacterium of the Chlamydia family. They multiply exclusively in living cells, are very resistant to freezing. It is worth noting that microorganisms can exist outside the body of the carrier for up to 3 weeks.
How is ornithosis transmitted?
Typically, the disease affects people whose professional activities are related to direct work with birds, for example, on chicken, duck farms. The risk of infection is also great, when decorative home parrots or canaries are infected.
Isolation of sick birds contains microscopic bacteria, and inhalation of dust leads to their penetration into the mucous membranes of the lungs, bronchi, the spread of the virus through the human body.
Signs of ornithosis in humans
After infection, chlamydia are very quickly introduced into the alveoli, small bronchi and bronchioles, provoke the onset of the inflammatory process. In the absence of timely therapy, microorganisms enter the bloodstream and lead to significant intoxication, violations of the functions of most organs, glands and systems.
Ornithosis in humans is manifested as follows:
- mild weakness in the first 2 weeks after infection;
- increase in body temperature to high levels, 39 degrees;
- headache;
- sensation of aches in the body, weakness, fatigue;
- palpable rhinitis;
- aches in the limbs, back and waist;
- sore throat;
- dryness in the nasopharynx, thirst;
- a sharp decrease in appetite, anorexia;
- pain in the chest 3-4 days after the first clinical manifestations;
- dry cough;
- discomfort with deep breaths;
- the discharge of thick purulent sputum during expectoration;
- fever;
- fast fatigue even with non-essential loads;
- heaviness in the liver region;
- stitching pain in the kidney area;
- vegetative-vascular disorders.
All these symptoms are characteristic of the acute form of ornithosis, which often develops into a chronic type. This type of disease is accompanied by an increase in temperature to subfebrile values or slightly higher, as well as signs of bronchitis.
It should be noted that the acute variety of chlamydial infection is typical and atypical. In the first case, the consequences of the absence of treatment are pneumonia, severe lesions of lung tissue and bronchial tubes, enlargement of the liver and spleen in size, impairment of their functions and aggravation of the body's intoxication. Atypical acute ornithosis provokes meningitis , meningopneumonia. In this case, the lungs may not suffer at all.
In rare situations, pathogenic microorganisms penetrate the body not through the respiratory tract, but through the digestive system. This pathology is supplemented by the following symptoms:
- constipation and subsequent disorders of the stool in the form of diarrhea;
- nausea;
- sore throat, especially during meals;
- sleep disorders;
- chills;
- intense pain in the head;
- bradycardia;
- lowering blood pressure;
- severe sweating;
- asthenia.
Further progression of ornithosis causes severe complications. Among them, the most dangerous are:
- hepatitis;
- purulent otitis media;
- neuralgia;
- acute heart failure ;
- myocarditis;
- thrombophlebitis;
- phlebeurysm.