What is the cause of a child crying, having no appetite, or even fever, diarrhea, watery or egg-like stools?
It is possible that I have a rotavirus infection.
What exactly is rotavirus?
What should parents do if they are sick?
01
What kind of virus is rotavirus?
Rotavirus is a sphere of icosahedrons with a shape similar to a wheel, so it is called rotavirus. Rotavirus is composed of ds-RNA core with 11 gene fragments and its outer three layers of concentric capsid proteins, which are ds-RNA viruses, belonging to the reovirus family, which can be divided into seven serotypes of A-G according to its capsid proteome-specific antigen VP6 (i.e., viral protein 6).
Infections in children are mostly caused by type A.
The illustration is original from the designer of Chiyu Senri A crotch
02
What are the symptoms of a child with rotavirus infection?
Rotavirus is the main pathogen of severe diarrhea in infants and young children, more severe than gastroenteritis caused by other pathogens. Clinically, it is mostly manifested as fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and the disease varies from severity to severity, and the severe ones are accompanied by different degrees of dehydration, acid-base imbalance, electrolyte disorders, myocardial damage, liver dysfunction and other extraintestinal manifestations. Babies with typical infections have an incubation period of 1-3 days, sudden fever, vomiting, explosive watery diarrhea.
Dehydration can occur without proper fluid replenishment. Gastrointestinal symptoms usually disappear after 3-7 days and can also last for 2-3 weeks. Although most cases can be fully recovered, it is important to note that rotavirus gastroenteritis can also occur and lead to death, mainly in children younger than 1 year of age.
03
How is rotavirus transmitted?
Rotavirus infection occurs throughout the year, but is common in the cold autumn and winter seasons and is endemic. Asymptomatic virus carriers and children are the most direct source of infection. Fecal-oral transmission is the main route of transmission and can also be transmitted through the respiratory tract in the form of aerosols.
If your baby has a fever or diarrhea, what tests do you need to do to know if you are infected with rotavirus? It is very simple, parents only need to take the baby to the pediatric department of the regular hospital, and leave a small amount of the baby's feces for rotavirus-related testing. If your baby tests positive for rotavirus in the stool, then rotavirus infection can be confirmed.
04
How should my baby be treated after a rotavirus infection?
At present, there is no specific treatment for rotavirus infection, and as with other juvenile diarrhea, the basic treatment is symptomatic treatment such as rehydration to prevent dehydration and zinc supplementation. For mild and moderate dehydration, oral rehydration salts or sucrose water can be used, while for babies with severe dehydration and frequent vomiting and inability to eat, intravenous fluids should be used, and acidosis and electrolyte abnormalities should be actively corrected while rehydrating.
In addition, it is also possible to use anti-diarrhea protective drugs such as montmorillonite powder, and drugs that regulate the intestinal flora such as bifidobacteria. Zinc deficiency will lead to small intestinal mucosal hyperplasia and keratosis, the body's immune function and antiviral ability to decrease, so the use of zinc gluconate in the treatment of children with rotavirus diarrhea can improve the overall efficacy.
In terms of dietary care, Chinese medicine believes that children's internal organs are delicate and their ability to accept and rot is weak, so special attention should be paid to dietary regulation. Especially for diarrhea caused by injury to food, the burden of diet should be appropriately reduced, and a small number of times feeding should be avoided. Although a proper light diet is required, it is also necessary to pay attention to nutrition and energy adequacy. Daily porridge, noodles, minced meat, can be eaten. When the baby's symptoms gradually improve, the diet should also gradually recover, from less to more, from thin to thick. If the baby who is still drinking milk can reduce the amount of milk per feeding and increase the number of feedings, the baby who eats milk powder can properly dilute the milk powder. If diarrhea persists, lactose-free milk powder or lactase can be used.
Parents usually need to pay attention to the baby's mental state, observe whether the skin is dry, the elasticity is reduced, whether the eye socket is sunken, whether the lips are dry and whether the amount of urine is reduced and other dehydration symptoms appear. Help your baby change diapers and wipe stools to pay attention to hand hygiene, wash your hands frequently, and avoid fecal-oral transmission.
The number of times the baby's stool increases, pay attention to the cleanliness of the skin of the buttocks, keep it dry, and avoid the occurrence of dermatitis and eczema.
Diseases need to be prevented before they occur, and the currently available rotavirus vaccine is an oral live attenuated vaccine that can multiply in the human intestine. At present, the rotavirus vaccines listed in China include sheep-derived oral RV vaccine produced by Lanzhou Biology and pentavalent oral vaccine produced by Merck.
Descriptive retrospective analysis of most observational studies from high- and middle-income countries shows a significant reduction in the incidence of vaccination and the formation of partial herd immunity in unvaccinated older children and adults. Although vaccination does not completely prevent the disease, it can reduce the severity of gastroenteritis, reduce the shedding of the virus, and reduce the infectivity of children.
Parents need to pay attention to the daily hygiene of individuals and babies, eat appropriately lightly, pay attention to whether the baby has symptoms of dehydration, go to regular hospitals for examination and treatment in time, and actively vaccinate on time to avoid diseases.
End of full text
Contributed by: Liang Yi
Review: Ma Xiaohan
Typography: Wolfie
bibliography
[1] WHO Opinion Paper on Rotavirus Vaccine. Disease Surveillance, Volume 28, Issue 7, July 31, 2013.
A retrospective study on the pathogenesis characteristics of pediatric rotavirus enteritis and the distribution of traditional Chinese medicine syndromes. Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Xie Zhenhua
Research progress of pediatric rotavirus enteritis. TANG Jingjing,HAN Xinmin. Journal of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Vol. 15, No. 4, April 2013