Gastroenteritis Definition Cause Symptoms Treatment Prevention And Vaccination

Definition:
Gastroenteritis is a medical condition characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that involves both the stomach and the small intestine.

Causes:

Gastroenteritis has many causes. Viruses and bacteria are the most common.Gastroenteritis caused by viruses may last 1-2 days. On the other hand, bacterial cases can last a week or more.

Bacteria: These are the most common bacterial causes:

• Escherichia coli - Traveler’s diarrhea, food poisoning, dysentery, colitis, or uremic syndrome.
• Salmonella - Typhoid fever; handling poultry or reptiles such as turtles that carry the germs.
• Campylobacter - Undercooked meat, unpasteurized milk.
• Shigella - Dysentery

Viruses: Viral outbreaks (30-40% of cases in children) can spread rapidly through close contact among children in day care and schools. Poor handwashing habits can spread viruses. Common viral causes include the following:

• Adenoviruses
• Rotaviruses
• Caliciviruses
• Astroviruses
• Norovirus 

Parasites and protozoans: These tiny organisms are less frequently responsible for intestinal irritation.May pick up one of these by drinking contaminated water. Swimming pools are common places to come in contact with these parasites. Common parasites include these:

• Giardia - The most frequent cause of waterborne diarrhea causing giardiasis.
• Cryptosporidium - Affects mostly people with weakened immune systems, causes watery diarrhea

Other common causes: Chemical toxins most often found in seafood, food allergies, heavy metals, antibiotics, and other medications also may be responsible for bouts of gastroenteritis that are not infectious to others.

Medications:

• Aspirin
• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines (such as Motrin or Advil)
• Antibiotics
• Caffeine
• Steroids - Excessive use or a sudden change in frequency or dosage
• Laxatives

Symptoms:

• Abdominal gas, bloating or belching
• Abdominal pain or cramps
• Blood-streaked stools
• Flu-like symptoms (fatigue, fever, sore throat, headache, cough, aches and pains)
• Nausea, which may be described as feelings of wooziness, queasiness, retching, sea-sickness, car-sickness, or an upset stomach
• Vomiting including multiple episodes
• Watery diarrhea including multiple episodes
• Weakness

Treatment:

Treatment generally involves a multifaceted plan that addresses the cause; minimizes the discomfort of nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea; and decreases the risk of dehydration.

• Not eating solid foods to rest the stomach and intestines until symptoms have passed.

• Drinking plenty of fluids (water or rehydrating fluid, such as Pedialyte) to ensure adequate hydration.

• In some cases, medications are used to treat gastroenteritis. Antibiotics may be prescribed when gastroenteritis is caused by a bacterial infection, such as in bacterial food poisoning due to Shigella,Salmonella, or Campylobacter infection.

Treatment of severe gastroenteritis that does not resolve or leads to dehydration may require hospitalization and rehydration with intravenous fluids.

Prevention:

• A supply of easily accessible uncontaminated water and good sanitation practices are important for reducing rates of infection and clinically significant gastroenteritis.

• Personal measures (such as hand washing) have been found to decrease incidence and prevalence rates of gastroenteritis in both the developing and developed world by as much as 30%. Alcohol-based gels may also be effective.

• Breastfeeding is important, especially in places with poor hygiene, as is improvement of hygiene generally.

• Breast milk reduces both the frequency of infections and their duration.

• Avoiding contaminated food or drink should also be effective.

Vaccination:

Due to both its effectiveness and safety, in 2009 the World Health Organization recommended that the rotavirus vaccine be offered to all children globally Two commercial rotavirus vaccines exist and several more are in development. In Africa and Asia these vaccines reduced severe disease among infants and countries that have put in place national immunization programs have seen a decline in the rates and severity of disease.This vaccine may also prevent illness in non-vaccinated children by reducing the number of circulating infections.Since 2000, the implementation of a rotavirus vaccination program in the United States has substantially decreased the number of cases of diarrhea by as much as 80 percent. The first dose of vaccine should be given to infants between 6 and 15 weeks of age.The oral cholera vaccine has been found to be 50–60% effective over 2 years.