There have been many cases! This virus is fierce and there is no specific medicine.

Today, the reporter learned from Chengdu Second People’s Hospital and Chengdu Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine that recently, many children with repeated high fever and listlessness have been admitted to pediatric outpatient and emergency departments, and most of them are accompanied by cough, vomiting, diarrhea and even convulsions. What caused this situation is adenovirus, which is known as the "poison king" of children’s virus infection. Although it is also a self-limiting disease, it can seriously cause great harm to children’s health, so we cannot help but be vigilant.

So, what is adenovirus? How to prevent and deal with the "terrible" adenovirus infection? Today, the reporter interviewed experts from the Second Municipal Hospital and the Municipal Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine.

There are many anxious parents in the pediatric clinic.

01

Note that adenovirus can cause severe infection.

Gou Yongying, a pediatric attending physician in the Second Hospital of the City, said that adenovirus is a common DNA virus, which is distributed all over the world and can cause diseases all year round. It is an important pathogen leading to febrile diseases in children. At present, it has been found that at least 60 adenovirus subtypes can cause diseases to humans, among which adenovirus types 3 and 7 are more likely to cause severe infections.

She said that after adenovirus invades the body, it most often causes upper respiratory tract infection (commonly known as "cold"), pneumonia and bronchitis, gastroenteritis, conjunctivitis (commonly known as "red eye"), urinary tract infection, reproductive tract infection and intracranial infection. Xiang Long, director of the Pediatrics Department of the Municipal Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, told reporters that adenovirus infection is also a self-limited disease, which can be recovered through self-repair of the body, but this does not mean that children can not receive treatment. "If you do not seek medical treatment in time to limit the development of the virus, it can lead to severe infection."

02

Adenovirus is spread like this

To prevent adenovirus infection, we must master its mode of transmission. Gou Yongying, a pediatric attending physician in the Second Hospital of the City, told the reporter that adenovirus is highly contagious. It spreads from patients or recessive infected people to others through droplets, fecal route (contact with feces with adenovirus) and contact with pollutants, which is easy to cause outbreaks in a closed, crowded and humid environment. People infected with adenovirus usually have a incubation period of 2-21 days (average 3-8 days), and the infection is the strongest from the end of the incubation period to the acute stage, and the infected person may still excrete the virus within a few weeks after the clinical symptoms disappear.

In addition, it should be noted that adenovirus has a very strong viability, can survive on the surface of objects for more than 7 days, and is insensitive to common disinfectants such as alcohol and ether, and needs high temperature, formaldehyde and chlorine-containing disinfectants to inactivate it.

03

What are the manifestations after adenovirus infection?

People are generally susceptible to adenovirus, and their clinical manifestations may be slightly different according to different subtypes. Experts say that adenovirus most often causes upper respiratory tract infection, characterized by sudden high fever, accompanied by runny nose, cough, expectoration, throat discomfort and other symptoms. Some children also have jealousy, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, headache, muscle pain and rash. Some children can quickly develop bronchitis, pneumonia or even severe pneumonia, which is characterized by persistent high fever, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, pale complexion, listlessness and poor appetite. This year, more children have gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, accompanied by symptoms of systemic infection and poisoning such as fever, fatigue and dehydration. After examination, it was found that adenovirus 40, 41 and 42 were mainly infected.

Gou Yongying said that most people infected with adenovirus have mild or no obvious symptoms, but people with low immune function and chronic basic diseases, such as young children, heart patients and patients with chronic respiratory diseases, are more serious and more likely to have serious complications and even sequelae.

The course of adenovirus infection is long, and the course of mild patients is 1-14 days (average 5-7 days), and the condition is mostly self-limited, and the accompanying symptoms disappear after the body temperature is normal. Severe patients can have high fever for more than one week, with obvious systemic symptoms, accompanied by multiple organ system involvement, and severe cases may be life-threatening. Therefore, if the patient has obvious symptoms, recurrent high fever, dyspnea, abnormal mental state or even convulsions, poor appetite, scanty urine, rash, or basic diseases, he needs to seek medical attention immediately.

04

What happened to the child?

Need to be alert to adenovirus infection?

Gou Yongying said-

Children suddenly have a high fever above 39℃ for ≥3 days, and their body temperature is not easy to drop to normal, or they will have a fever soon after dropping to normal, accompanied by poor spirit, crying and noisy, clingy, poor appetite, jealousy, and digestive tract symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, or respiratory symptoms such as cough and runny nose, so we should be highly alert to adenovirus infection. If there is an adenovirus epidemic in this area, and the child has been to closed public places such as schools, swimming pools, amusement parks, shopping malls, etc. before getting sick, it is likely that he is infected with adenovirus, so the adenovirus nucleic acid or antigen can be detected by nasopharyngeal swab to further clarify.

She said that at present, there is no specific drug for the virus. Clinical treatment is mainly based on symptomatic support and treatment for complications, and some need to be supplemented by immunomodulation therapy. "But parents don’t have to be nervous. Today’s treatment methods are enough to protect their children."

So, how to prevent adenovirus? Experts provide the following ways:

1. Wash your hands frequently, keep indoor ventilation, avoid touching your mouth, eyes and nose with unclean hands, and avoid close contact with patients.

2. Regularly clean and disinfect children’s toys and daily necessities, and disinfect the surface of objects with chlorine-containing disinfectants.

3. Avoid going to crowded, closed environments, and pay attention to wearing masks when going out.

4. Keeping a healthy lifestyle, eating a balanced diet, exercising properly and enhancing immunity can effectively reduce body infection.

Original title: "There have been many cases! This virus is fierce and there is no specific medicine.

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