As a rule, the primary infection of children with a tubercle bacillus occurs in the first years of life. The organism of a healthy person restrains the focus of dormant infection by the immune system.
The Latin term "tuberculosis" in translation means "a small hillock", which is due to the fact that skin tuberculosis in children and adults manifests itself as a kind of protrusions on the skin. The causative agent of tuberculosis in children and adolescents is a stick of Koch (a tubercle bacillus). It is characterized by increased resistance to the external environment. This bacterium can persist for a long time even in dried sputum and soil. Many disinfectants do not work for it. The main mechanism of infection with this disease is the airborne droplet pathway. There is a chance to pick up a stick of Koch and through products containing the pathogen, and because of contact with objects on the surface of which the tubercle bacillus has settled.
Forms of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that affects the eyes, intestines, skin, genitourinary system and bone tissue. The most common form of tuberculosis is pulmonary tuberculosis, which is also found in children and has some peculiarities. So, the disease proceeds mainly in severe form, provokes complications. This is due to the inability of the unformed infantile immune system to resist the focus of infection. The characteristics of tuberculosis in children include co-morbid diseases: tuberculous meningitis and sepsis, miliary tuberculosis, etc. Immunity of adolescents is already able to localize the infection only in the lungs. Aggravating factors - malnutrition, avitaminosis, physical weakness. Pulmonary tuberculosis in young children has the following forms:
- cavernous;
- infiltrative;
- focal and others.
There are also forms of tuberculosis that flows outside the lungs. So, children have tuberculosis of bones, kidneys, lymph nodes, joints, digestive organs, eyes and skin.
This disease is characterized by open and closed forms. It is people with an open form of tuberculosis that pose a threat to the health of others, so they need to comply with a number of rules, primarily sanitary and hygienic.
Symptoms and Diagnosis
It is not easy to detect the manifestations of tuberculosis in children, because the symptoms are not specific. The child quickly tires, sweats more than usual, it is shivering, the temperature can rise. Cough can be mild or strong with blood and sputum. Often such symptoms are perceived by parents as a common cold. But if it lasts three or more weeks, then the doctor should be contacted without delay.
In the hospital, the child will be examined, questioned about the presence of pain, an x-ray examination is made, sputum tests are analyzed and a Mantoux test is performed. If the diagnosis is confirmed, then the treatment of tuberculosis in children begins immediately.
Treatment and prevention
Only a hospital and only qualified help! There is no question of self-medication! Modern methods of drug therapy work quite effectively.
A huge role in the treatment is given to the observance of sanitary standards: regular wet cleaning, ventilation, balanced full-fledged nutrition, lack of excessive physical activity, living in remote locations from industrial centers. Untypical tuberculosis, diagnosed late, is treated with surgical methods. In the cavity of the pleura, air is blown and the part of the lung or the entire organ is removed.
There are two areas of prevention of this disease. If the child is not sick, then the prevention is the vaccination against tuberculosis for children, which is carried out by the introduction of the BCG vaccine. If the child has been in contact with a person with tuberculosis, he is prescribed a course of isoniazid (5 milligrams per kilogram of weight) for six months.