Cases of meningococcal infection have been recorded in the Penza region. Doctors urged residents to seek help at the first signs of illness.
As reported in the regional center for special types of medical care, meningococcal infection is very dangerous and in some cases leads to death. Children aged 0 to 5 years are at risk.
The infectious agent is transmitted only by airborne droplets through close contact. Bacteria enter the mucous membrane of a healthy person, remain there for some time and multiply without causing signs of disease (sometimes symptoms of a runny nose are observed), without affecting well-being. During this period, the infected person is dangerous because he is a carrier of meningococcus.
“Using nutrients found in the blood, meningococci can rapidly multiply, causing blood poisoning (sepsis), and spread through the blood into the membranes of the brain or other internal organs (for example, lungs, joints, heart, subcutaneous fat, etc.) “,” noted the center’s infectious disease doctor Igor Inozemtsev.
Meningitis, meningoencephalitis, sepsis (blood poisoning) are, according to experts, generalized forms of infection. They develop when the pathogen overcomes the immune defenses on the mucous membranes of the nasopharynx and enters the blood.
With its current, bacteria spread throughout the body and penetrate various organs and tissues, the membranes of the brain.
“The reproduction and death of meningococci leads to the release of endotoxin – a toxic product of the breakdown of bacteria, which destroys the walls of blood vessels, causing hemorrhages that first look like a rash, reddish dots on the skin, the same rashes on the mucous membranes of the mouth, nasopharynx, sometimes the eyes, and then they take on the typical appearance of a hemorrhagic (from dark red to black) rash ranging in size from dots to extensive necrosis (death) of skin areas,” described the center’s anesthesiologist-resuscitator Alexei Popylkov.
The same bacterial toxin causes cerebral edema and brain str-symptoms (neurological symptoms that appear when the central or peripheral nervous system is damaged. – Ed.), hemorrhages in organs.
The center’s specialists reminded Penza residents: only a laboratory test can make an accurate diagnosis. If the doctor suspects a meningococcal infection in a patient, he will prescribe a test of blood, cerebrospinal fluid, mucous discharge and rash.
2024-01-22 12:33:43
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