Pneumococcal infection is a complex of diseases of bacterial etiology. It is manifested by purulent-inflammatory processes in the lungs, respiratory and nervous system. This terrible and dangerous disease occurs in people of all ages with a weakened immune system. Every year people die from the insidious pneumococcus around the world, as this special microbe also causes sinusitis, meningitis, otitis media and sepsis.
It is difficult to cure the disease, because this microbe, compared to other harmful microorganisms, has a very dense shell that is difficult to destroy by our immune cells. For this reason, pneumococcal vaccination is essential. It is introduced into the body of a child at an early age, so that the protective antibodies (macrophages) of the body can recognize microbes and split them into fragments, thereby destroying pneumococcus.
The vaccine, as it were, trains the immune system to fight dangerous microorganisms. In newborns inthe body already has these antibodies that are passed from the mother, but they only last a couple of months, then you need to administer the vaccine to protect the child.
How you can catch the disease: transmission routes
Pneumococcal infection is found everywhere: from Russia to America. The risk of infection is everywhere. Babies can become infected in the hospital, since most people are just carriers of the germ. It can be located both on the skin and in the nasopharynx. Unvaccinated children can get sick in kindergartens or schools, in crowded places.
In fact, this is the same respiratory infection that is transmitted in a similar way - by airborne droplets. It is enough for a he althy person to be close to a sick person who is sneezing or coughing. Microbes instantly penetrate the mucous membrane and begin to attack our cells. But pneumococcus can also wait a long time for the right moment when a person gets sick, gets cold, or experiences stress.
As soon as the immune system fails, pneumococcal infection takes its toll. Penetrating into the circulatory system, the microbe often causes blood poisoning (sepsis), and also spreads to other tissues and organs, provoking inflammation of the lungs, meninges, middle ear.
How to identify the disease?
It is difficult for an ordinary person without a medical education to distinguish between a common cold and pneumococcus, becausethey are similar in clinical manifestations. You can suspect a bacterial infection by yellow-green discharge from the sinuses and a cough with purulent sputum. For accurate diagnosis, it will be necessary to do a culture of the discharge and determine the sensitivity to antibiotics for prescribing therapy.
Pneumococcal infection is treated only with antibiotics, these drugs completely inhibit and suppress the vital activity of the microbe, and also relieve the inflammatory process. However, pneumococcus is resistant to many drugs and difficult to treat. To protect a person from infection, a pneumococcal vaccine is administered.
Today, the vaccines "Prevenar" and "Pneumo-23" are used. The second vaccination is given to children older than two years of age. The effect of this vaccine is approximately 5 years. "Prevenar" can be done to children older than 2 months. It has a longer lasting effect.
