Viral Gastroenteritis
What is Viral Gastroenteritis
Viral gastroenteritis, commonly known as stomach flu, is a highly contagious disease caused by the attack of viruses and results in the form of tenderness or inflammation of the stomach and small or large intestine. A very commonly found illness in the world that had not spared developed countries, like the United States, also.
The infections affect the body and showcase the result in the form of vomiting and diarrhea. Small babies or infants, old people, and those who have very weak immune system are more prone of catching this disease. The disease is quite recoverable, but due to lose of too much water from the body in the form of vomit and diarrhea can create dehydration and lead to serious conditions. Gastroenteritis can be caused by factors other than viruses like bacteria, named salmonella, and some intestinal parasites.
Symptoms of Viral Gastroenteritis
Some of the very important as well as very common symptoms of viral gastroenteritis are watery diarrhea and vomiting found in almost every case.
It generally takes more than 4 hours and less than 48 hours for the symptoms to come out and indicate their presence in the body.
In some cases additional symptoms of this disease are noticed. Such as:
1. Fever: Mild to very high increase in temperature is noticed in some cases.
2. Stomach pain or abdominal cramps: Frequent bowel movements or too much discharge of water in the form of excreta caused cramps in the abdominal resulting in mild or severe pain.
3. Dehydration: Too much lose of the water in the form of vomit and diarrhea lead to dehydration in the patient’s body, making condition more critical.
There are several symptoms that indicate dehydration or loss of water occurring in the patient’s body. Like:
4. Excessive thirst: The patient might feel excessive thirst and want to drink more than his routine requirement.
5. Headache: Presence of headache is noticed in young and old people.
6. Dry mouth and skin: The skin and mouth becomes dry and scratchy due to excessive loss of water from the body.
7. Yellow urine: The color of urine will change to yellow and the quantity will also get decreased.
8. Weakness and light-headedness: Dehydration will cause for weakness in the muscles and in the whole body, further resulting in causing light-headedness or faintness.
Types of Viral Gastroenteritis
Viral gastroenteritis is very contagious and is found in two forms, such as sporadic and epidemic.
Sporadic viral gastroenteritis mainly affects babies, less than two years, and its symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, upset stomach, and sometime rise in temperature or fever in the body. The affects can be very mild or can be life-threatening, due to severe dehydration in the body.
Epidemic gastroenteritis, also known as winter vomiting disease, is a systemic and febrile disease that causes fever in the body and affects respiratory tract in place of digestive tract, as in sporadic form.
Causes of Viral Gastroenteritis
It is a highly contagious disease caused due to affect of several viruses and not by bacteria.
Biologically, the problem can be described as a condition of cell damage happening in the lining of the small intestine due to attack by some viruses like rotavirus and adenovirus. Watery diarrhea is formed in the small intestine due to leakage of fluids through damaged cells. That watery diarrhea comes out in form of vomit or through liquid bowel movements, causing dehydration in the body
A list of viruses that causes viral gastroenteritis is given below:
Rotavirus: It is the most commonly found cause of gastroenteritis in small babies of age less than 5 years. It can harm infants too, who are just three months old. Incubation period of the virus is one or two days and is indicated through vomiting and watery diarrhea, along with slight fever and abdominal discomfort.
Winter period in the year, from November to April, is the main hosting time of this virus to spread over.
Caliciviruses: The virus affects people from all ages having weak immune system. The symptoms of the infection include vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and sometime headache. It might take one to three days to start exposing its symptoms in the body.
Astrovirus: It mainly affects during winter season and infects people from all ages including infants, young and old people. Symptoms and incubation period is same as in case of calciviruses infection.
Adenovirus: The virus generally affects children under 2 years of age by infecting their gastrointestinal tract. The symptoms are indicated after one week of incubation period. The virus can affect all round the year, any time, any place.
The symptoms of both viral and bacterial gastroenteritis might be same, but the treatment is different in both the cases.
Further, the disease is spread by infected person to other people. It is transmitted by eating same food eaten by the infected person, by sharing water, and by wearing same clothes of infected person. With this, some viruses like norovirus can be spread through the feces of infected person and from oysters growing in contaminated water. Places that mainly host this viral infection include public places like schools, dormitories, or restaurants.
Diagnosis of Viral Gastroenteritis
Initial detection is done through physical examination. Symptoms like vomiting and watery diarrhea indicate the presence of gastroenteritis in the body.
The infection can be due to attack of bacteria or virus. Thus, to confirm the identity of the microorganism, stool tests are recommended.
Treatment is further given on the basis of the results obtained.
Treatment of Viral Gastroenteritis
Generally, symptoms of viral gastroenteritis are mild in nature requiring no treatment. Some symptoms get resolved on itself in certain period of time. But in some cases where the condition become critical due to excessive dehydration, prompt treatment are given to control the condition.
Treatment of viral gastroenteritis do not include intake of antibiotics as in case of bacterial gastroenteritis.
Adequate percentage of fluid is required for proper functioning of body organs. And excessive dehydration causes certain problems in the body like weakness, failure of some organ functioning, or some time death of the patient. Hence, it is needed to treat dehydration very carefully. Although, mild or lower level of dehydration can be treated in home by giving liquids that contain salts and minerals. The liquids further help the body in regaining lost energy and water.
Excessive loss of water causes severe dehydration that require patient to be admitted in the hospital to give high level of treatment including giving dosage of pedialyte or other intravenous fluids. The fluids can be given through drip or orally. The fluids given help in regaining the lost amount of salts and minerals of the body.
Dehydration can also lead to loss of appetite; hence it is recommended to give small meals to the patient in a short interval of time. So the patient’s body can easily digest those meals. And, meals should be light in their composition, meaning less in fat. Light meals are easily digestible and are equivalent to any meal on the amount of energy produced.
During the treatment period, either in hospital or in home, certain guidelines should be followed to get quickly recovered from the disease. They are:
1. Take small meals or no meal, till the gastrointestinal tract starts recovering from the disease.
2. Take lot of rest. Rest helps you in regaining your energy level.
3. Drink liquids that help in controlling the urge of the vomiting.
4. Infants should be given oral liquids in small intervals to rehydrate their body from the loss the water and to keep the level of liquid in balance.
5. Bland and liquid meals should be given as proper meal to the patient. Food items like toast, broth or rice are considered as easy to digest by the human body.
6. Adults should avoid smoking and drinking completely in the recovery period.
7. Avoid intake of dairy products like tea or coffee. Because dairy products contains lot of calories and thus are difficult to digest.
Prevention of Viral Gastroenteritis
1. Infants need special care to keep them in hygienic environment. It is the duty of the care taker to keep his/her hands washed before taking the child, giving food, and before and after changing nappies.
2. Always cook and eat food in hygienic environment. Keep your home clean and hygienic and prevent it from other pests by spraying pesticides in regular interval of time.
3. One should always go in good restaurant or public places where hygiene factor is best taken care of. Wash the vegetable properly before cooking them. Keep your toilets or sanitation places very hygienic because these places are host of several very dangerous microorganisms.
