Signs your child has typhus fever

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Vu Quoc Anh - Pediatrician - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology - Vinmec Danang International General Hospital. The doctor has nearly 10 years of experience as a resident and treating physician.
Scarlet fever is a very common illness in children under 3 years of age. This is an infectious disease that spreads easily into epidemics and can have dangerous complications if not detected early and treated promptly. So what are the signs to recognize that a child has typhus and when to take the child to the hospital, please refer to the article below.

1. What is typhus in children?

Typhus is a very common disease in children, especially children aged 6-36 months. This is a period when children have low resistance because the amount of natural antibodies that the mother transmits to the baby during the fetal period and through breast milk has decreased while the child's immune system is not yet complete.
A child can have typhus at least once, even many times depending on the child's health status and the cause of the illness. Most of the causes of typhus in children are benign viruses, with good care, the disease can go away on its own after 5-7 days.

2. Symptoms and early recognition signs

Typhus usually has an incubation period of about 7 days, so the disease will manifest itself after a period of 7-14 days. For mild cases, there may be no obvious symptoms. But in general, the early signs of the disease are as follows:
Headache: The first sign is that the child has a headache, warming up. For babies at this stage, they will show a lot of crying. Fever: The most common symptom of the disease is a sudden high fever, the temperature can reach 39.4 degrees Celsius, accompanied by symptoms of sore throat, runny nose, cough. In the neck, lymph nodes are visible. Fever can last from 3 to 5 days.

Chills: Accompanied by fever is a feeling of chills that makes children very uncomfortable. Rash: In most cases, the rash will appear after the fever. Your baby's skin will appear red or swollen. Some spots may have a white ring around it. The rash in children will spread slowly starting from the chest, back, abdomen to the neck and arms. They may not spread to the legs and face, and usually go away after a few hours or days without causing any discomfort to the child.

Accompanying the above signs may appear a few other symptoms such as:
Dry cough Nausea, vomiting Mild diarrhea, easy dehydration Fatigue, babies will cry a lot. Anorexia, anorexia, in infants may breastfeed less. Swollen eyelids Because typhus in children is easily confused with signs of dengue fever, so when children have unusual health symptoms, it is best for parents to take their children to see them. doctor for timely diagnosis and treatment.

3. When to take your child to the doctor

As for the health of babies and young children, any doubt on the part of a parent can lead a child to see a doctor. In addition, when parents see the child has the following signs, they should take the child to the doctor immediately:
The child has a high fever above 39 degrees Celsius The duration of the typhus fever lasts more than 7 days (usually children have a fever for 3-5 days). ). The rash shows no positive change after 3 days. If the child shows signs of fatigue, shortness of breath, bloody stools, purulent ear discharge, convulsions, etc., the child must be taken to the doctor immediately. The case if the immune system is compromised and the child has been exposed to a person with typhus.

4. Prevention of typhus in children

To keep children healthy, develop well and avoid typhus, parents need to do:
Isolating children at home when they are sick because this disease is very contagious in environments such as schools, kindergartens, Kindergarten. Limiting children's contact with places with pathogens or suspected pathogens because there is currently no vaccine to prevent this disease. Daily cleaning for children. Diverse nutrition, supplement with vitamin C to strengthen resistance. Encourage children to drink filtered water, ginger juice, lemon soda, meat broth and mineral water to avoid dehydration and dehydration. As soon as they see abnormal signs in the child, parents should take the child to the doctor immediately to avoid dangerous complications caused by the disease.

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