There are many infections that can cause various diseases in humans. Among them, adenovirus occupies a special place. What is this microorganism, what organs does it affect, how to deal with it? Many have heard of such a pathogen.
Adenovirus - what is this microorganism?
This infection belongs to the Adenovirus family, the Mastadenovirus genus. Currently, there are about forty serotypes. Each such virus contains a DNA molecule, which is considered a distinctive feature from other respiratory representatives.
It has been established that adenovirus is a spherical microorganism with a diameter of 70-90 nm. It has a simple organization.
For the first time, pathogens were isolated from the tonsils and adenoids of a sick child in 1953. Subsequently, smear microscopy in patients with acute respiratory viral infection also revealed adenovirus. What is this mysterious infection? But it is also detected in patients with signs of atypical pneumonia with the development of conjunctivitis.
How it is transmitted
You can become infected with a viral pathogen by airborne and fecal-oral routes, through the objects of a sick person, food, water in open water or in swimming pools. Adenovirus is an infection that is carried by both a person with already existing symptoms and a virus carrier who does not have any signs of the disease.
The infection is resistant to environmental changes, does not die in air and water, and persists for a long time on drugs used for treatment in ophthalmology.
The place of introduction of the virus is the mucous membranes of the respiratory and digestive systems, the conjunctiva of the eye. Penetrating into epithelial cells and lymph nodes, it begins to multiply. There is a development of the cytopathic effect and the formation of intranuclear inclusions. Affected cells are destroyed and die, and the virus migrates further through the bloodstream, infecting other organs.
Among some adenovirus serotypes, there are oncogenic representatives that cause the formation of malignant tumors in animals.
As a result of adenovirus infection, epithelial tissue performs a barrier function to a lesser extent, which reduces immunobiological reactions in the body and can cause concomitant development of bacterial damage. Has no pathogenic effect on animals.
Protection against reinfection
Usually, patients who recover from adenovirus infection develop strong immunity, but only to a certain serotypeadenovirus. What does it mean? It turns out that subsequent exposure to a particular virus will not make a person sick.
At birth, a child acquires passive immunity, which disappears after six months.
Varieties of adenovirus diseases
There are both random and epidemic manifestations of adenoviruses, most often in the children's team. The infection is characterized by a variety of manifestations, as the virus affects the respiratory system, mucous membranes of the eye, intestines, and bladder.
Adenoviruses act differently on humans. Disease classification includes:
- acute respiratory viral infection combined with fever (usually develops in childhood);
- acute respiratory viral infection in adulthood;
- viral pneumonia;
- acute adenovirus tonsillitis (especially common in children in the summer after water procedures);
- pharyngoconjunctival fever;
- membranous conjunctivitis;
- mesadenitis;
- acute follicular conjunctivitis;
- adult epidemic keratoconjunctivitis;
- intestinal infection (enteritis, viral diarrhea, gastroenteritis).
The duration of the incubation period is from three to nine days.
Disease prevalence
Among all registered infections of the respiratory system, adenoviral lesions account for 2 to 5%. Newborns and children are most susceptible to it.
From 5 to 10% of viral diseases are adenovirus. What does this prove? First of all, these facts testify to its wide distribution, especially in childhood (up to 75%). Of these, up to 40% occurs in babies under 5 years old, and the remaining percentages apply to the age from 5 to 14 years.
Adenoviral respiratory disease
The disease begins with an increase in body temperature up to 39 ° C, headache and general malaise. Adenovirus acts differently on babies, symptoms in children appear gradually, they are characterized by lethargy, lack of appetite, low-grade body temperature.
Feverish state lasts up to ten days. Body temperature may drop and then rise again, at this time new symptoms are recorded.
From the first days of the disease, nasal congestion is observed. The next day, profuse mucous or mucopurulent discharge appears, accompanied by a dry, frequent cough.
The throat begins to hurt due to redness of the mucous membrane of the pharynx, arches and tonsils, the latter increase in size.
Signs of airway inflammation
This form is considered the most common, it is characterized by inflammatory processes in the airways. The main diseases include laryngitis, nasopharyngitis, tracheitis, bronchitis with moderate general intoxication.
Signs of pharyngoconjunctival fever
Adenovirus has a negative effect on the throat. Symptoms are due to an increase in temperature response tofor two weeks and signs of pharyngitis. Usually there is a sore throat and a rare urge to cough, the infection does not go further through the respiratory tract.
Symptoms of membranous conjunctivitis
Adults and children in adolescence are most often affected. The disease is caused by unilateral or bilateral development of conjunctivitis with the formation of a film on the mucous membrane of the lower eyelid. There is also a pronounced swelling and redness of the tissues surrounding the eye, pain, expansion of the vascular bed in the conjunctiva and fever. With this disease, the respiratory system is not affected by adenovirus infection.
Signs of tonsillopharyngitis
The disease develops in preschool age. A characteristic feature of tonsillopharyngitis is inflammatory changes in the tissues that form the pharynx and palatine tonsils. Adenovirus, the photo of which is provided below, is the cause of angina.
Varieties of the intestinal form
The manifestation of adenovirus infection in the intestine is associated with the development of moderate viral diarrhea and gastroenteritis. The virus causes nausea, vomiting, loose stools that do not have impurities, and a slight increase in body temperature. In addition to intestinal disorders, infection of the respiratory system is possible, for example, nasopharyngitis or laryngotracheitis.
Mesadenitis
Another form of disease that causes abdominal pain and fever. Concomitant bacterial infection is not excluded, which requires antimicrobial therapy.
How to detectexciter
There are special methods by which adenoviruses are determined. Microbiology uses feces, secretions from the nasal passages, pharynx, and conjunctiva of the eye as a test material. To establish the pathogen, inoculation is used, which is carried out in a culture of human epithelial cells.
In laboratory diagnostics, immunofluorescent microscopy detects antigens for adenoviruses. Microbiology in its arsenal has a number of methods that allow you to determine this infection. These include methods:
- RSK - serodiagnosis of viral infections due to the reaction to complement-fixing antibodies IgG and IgM.
- RTGA - is considered a hemagglutination inhibition reaction to identify viruses or antibodies in the blood plasma of a sick person. The method works by suppressing viral antigens with antibodies from immune serum, after which the ability of viruses to agglutinate erythrocyte cells is lost.
- PH-method is based on the reduction of cytopathogenic effects as a result of the combination of the virus and specific AT.
You can detect viral antigen using express diagnostics. It usually includes the following studies:
- enzymatic immunoassay, or ELISA - a laboratory method for the immunological determination of the qualitative or quantitative characteristics of viruses, based on a specific reaction between an antigen and an antibody;
- immunofluorescence reaction, or RIF, which allows you to detect antibodies toadenovirus infection (with this method, microscopy of smears previously stained with a dye is used);
- radioimmune analysis, or RIA makes it possible to measure any concentration of viruses in the liquid.
How to deal with infection
After establishing an accurate diagnosis, the doctor and the patient are faced with the question of how to treat adenovirus. It is believed that specific medicines do not currently exist.
Depending on the degree of the disease, therapy can be carried out at home according to the recommendations of a doctor or in a hospital setting. Do not require hospitalization mild and moderate forms of infection that occur without complications. Severe cases or complications should be treated in a hospital under medical supervision.
To overcome adenovirus, the treatment of mild forms is reduced to bed rest. At a body temperature above 38 ° C, paracetamol is prescribed at a dose of 0.2 to 0.4 g 2 or 3 times a day, which corresponds to 10 or 15 mg per 1 kg of body weight per day. With adenovirus infection do not take acetylsalicylic acid.
Depending on the form of the disease, symptomatic treatment is carried out with antitussive, expectorant drugs, treatment with "Stoptussin", "Glaucin", "Glauvent", "Muk altin" is possible.
Deoxyribonuclease aerosol is used in the form of inhalation. They are used 2 or 3 times a day for 15 minutes. With rhinitis, special drops are instilled into the nose.
To raise immunity, vitamin complexes with the obligatory content of ascorbic acid are used,tocopherol, rutin, thiamine and riboflavin.
If an adenovirus has struck the eyes, the treatment is carried out with drops of the deoxyribonuclease enzyme in the form of a 0, 1 or 0.2% solution every 2 hours, 3 drops. The doctor may prescribe topical treatment of conjunctivitis with glucocorticoid ointments, interferon preparations, antiviral eye ointments with oxolin or tebrofen.
Infection protection measures
In order to prevent adenovirus infection and reduce the incidence of acute respiratory viral infections, vaccination is used with live vaccines, which include weakened viral cells of the predominant serotype.
Usually use these drugs with adenovirus type 7 or 4. To protect against intestinal digestion, they are covered with a special capsule.
There are other vaccines in live and inactivated forms, but they are practically not used due to the oncogenic activity of adenoviruses.
