BackA silent brucellosis epidemic
In modern society, natural products are valued much more highly than synthetic ones. Agree, it is much more pleasant to drink milk knowing that it is "from a cow" than a product with a shelf life of about a year, which is made of soya... Meat, which was handed over by relatives from the village, is much tastier to eat than meat bought from an unknown place.... And what better holiday could there be than to go to the countryside, butcher a sheep and cook the freshest meat dish over a fire? - are nothing compared to the store-bought ones. If you agree with any of these opinions, then you need to know about the danger that awaits us in all these products! The name of this danger is BRUCELLOSIS.
Brucellosis is an infectious disease affecting the musculoskeletal apparatus, nervous, cardiovascular and urogenital systems, characterised by a very high potential for chronicity. In this chronic form lies the severity of the disease - a person can be bothered by anything, all kinds of treatment will be carried out, but the effect of it will be only temporary. With all this, the patient will not have any signs of infectious disease. Let's talk more about this disease.
Brucellosis is a zoonotic infection, i.e. it is transmitted to humans from a sick animal and does not spread further from person to person. Sick small and large cattle and pigs serve as a source. Meat and thermally unprocessed dairy products: milk, cheese and bryndza (in which the bacteria can persist from 15 to 60 days!) serve as a link in transmission to humans. Brucellae live in meat for up to 20 days. Therefore, infection occurs more often through the alimentary (food) route. However, it can also be transmitted by inhalation of dust, wool and manure particles that are contaminated with the pathogen.
After entering the body, brucellae are ingested by the defence cells but are not destroyed. As a result, with the bloodstream, the bacteria enter the regional lymph nodes, where they begin to multiply. And then they begin to spread throughout the body.
Now let's define the symptoms. At the moment when the infection is in the lymph nodes - there will be no manifestations of the disease, only their increase in volume is possible. When brucellae begin to spread through the bloodstream, then a person has a fever - an increase in temperature, weakness and chills. At this point, the immunological restructuring of the organism takes place, which determines the clinical picture in the future. If the organism is strong (which is very rare in today's environment), recovery occurs. And if the immune system does not cope adequately with the infection, the disease progresses to subacute and chronic forms. Bacteria accumulate in metastatic foci, from which periodically spread throughout the body with the development of reactive-allergic changes. After leaving the foci, this area of tissue can either fully recover, or irreversible scarring changes are formed in it.
In the chronic form, almost all organ systems are affected.
Cardiovascular system: decrease in arterial and venous pressure, in severe cases inflammation of cardiac tissue develops - endocarditis, pericarditis and myocarditis. This leads to impaired heart function. Vascular tone is disturbed, trophic ulcers may occur.
Respiratory system: inflammation of the upper respiratory tract, bronchitis and pneumonia occur.
The liver and spleen become enlarged, and there may be aching pains in the right subcostal area.
The nervous system is most severely affected. Headaches, irritability, emotional instability, irritability, temper, excessive fatigue, sleep disturbance occur. In severe cases, it is possible to develop inflammation of the brain membranes (meningitis) and mental disorders. Peripheral nervous system damage is manifested by radiculitis, neuritis, decreased visual and hearing acuity.
Musculoskeletal system: periodic pain in the joints, which disappears without any reason, then also suddenly reappears. Later, inflammation of large joints - knee, hip, elbow - develops. Movement is restricted due to oedema. In the absence of treatment, the process worsens, and inflammation passes to intra-articular surfaces - arthrosis, spondyloarthrosis, ankylosis develops. These are irreversible changes in the joint, which lead to disability. The patient is bothered by intense muscle pain, as myositis develops.
Genitourinary system: in men, orchitis (inflammation of the testicles) and epididymitis (inflammation of the testicular appendages) occur, often causing infertility. In women, the uterus and its appendages are affected (oophoritis, endometritis, salpingitis), the menstrual cycle is disturbed and pregnancy may be terminated.
There is evidence that suggests involvement of endocrine organs - thyroid and adrenal glands - in the disease.
It is worth remembering that this symptomatology does not appear immediately, but develops gradually. In addition, all these organ systems are not affected at the same time, the course of the disease is characterised by a "turn", i.e. the alternate involvement of different parts of our body in the inflammatory process. As you have understood, after noticing one of these symptoms, patients do not go to an infectious disease specialist, but rush to see a neurologist, cardiologist, urologist, primary care physician or rheumatologist
To summarise, it is much easier to cure brucellosis at an early stage than to try to treat complications later. In addition, the effect of treatment depends on how quickly the disease is detected. Thus, if you have any of the above symptoms, if you eat home-produced meat or dairy products, if you have been in the countryside for some time and then feel sick, you should be tested for brucellosis!
OLYMP CDL offers brucellosis diagnosis using modern, highly sensitive analysers using the ELISA method. The use of this method helps not only to detect the disease, but also to clarify the stage of the disease, to distinguish between patients who have been infected for the first time or have been re-infected (IgA, IgG determination). According to data from the Russian Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. The use of this method alone in brucellosis foci increased the efficiency of diagnosis 11.9 times compared to the agglutination reaction, 6 times compared to the Heddleson-Wright reaction, and 1.2 times compared to the Coombs reaction.
Another advantage of the OLYMP СDL is the storage of examination results in the database, which are available to the patient on the Internet in his/her personal office. Thus, when brucellosis is detected, the possibility of losing tests required throughout the treatment is excluded, the comparison of which shows the dynamics of recovery.
Attention!
You can be tested for BRUCELLOSIS in any treatment room of OLYMP СDL.