What symptom of tuberculosis in children is considered the beginning of the disease?

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Tuberculosis, like every disease, has its own signs - symptoms. They relate to the general condition of the child and the results that the examinations showed. It is impossible to say that any single symptom of tuberculosis in children is a 100% disease.

Sometimes parents are faced with the fact that if, after Mantoux vaccination, the trace is more than normal, children are suspended from school or prohibited from attending a group in the kindergarten. The only "wrong" Mantoux reaction - the tuberculin test - does not mean anything yet.

Mantoux can increase for many reasons.

• The vaccine was wet or rubbed.
• Injected a child whose condition was "borderline", at the beginning or after the illness.
• In the presence of helminthic invasion.
• There is an allergic reaction to tuberculin, or the vaccination coincided with an allergy to another factor.

Symptoms of tuberculosis in children

They give a suspicion of pulmonary tuberculosis, the symptoms in children are (if they coincide in time of manifestation):

• General weakness. The child refuses to play, tries to rest.
• Bad appetite.
• Permanent sweating, especially wet palms should strain.
• Temperature steadily rising to 37.5 degrees in the evening.
• The baby has constant whims, mood swings.
• Enlarged lymph nodes.

Each symptom alone cannot be defined as a symptom of tuberculosis in children, but their combination should make you see a doctor.

If, upon further examination, a detailed blood test shows a high ESR, and ultrasound of the internal organs - their increase, we can talk about the disease.

Only a doctor can establish this, after tests and examinations, including a Mantoux test, which was done with proper control.

If the trace of the injection:

• at 2 years old, exceeds the size of the scar from BCG - vaccination against tuberculosis given at birth - by 6 mm, or a positive reaction;
• at 3-5 years change to positive, or the speck itself with a papule formed more than 12 mm;
• and to 7 exceeds 14 mm, with an increase from the previous sample by 6 mm,

then we can assume that this is a symptom of tuberculosis in children.

Tuberculosis infection

Most often, children become infected with Koch's wand -tuberculosis bacillus - from adults suffering from the disease in an open form. It is likely to catch the infection through objects used by the infected. Babies "absorb" infection from a sick mother.

The tuberculous bacillus does not always infect the lungs. It spreads throughout the body through the bloodstream, settles in the spleen, liver, kidneys, brain and other organs, including the skeletal system.

You can see tuberculosis in children on x-rays, symptoms. Photo - an x-ray, will show a picture that will accurately tell about the presence of cavities in the lungs. With the help of x-rays, the process developing in the kidneys and skeletal system is also visible.

Sometimes a child does not notice the manifestations of the disease for a very long time. This happens if the disease begins with a sluggish form. Apart from excessive fatigue, which parents attribute to children being overworked during classes, and weight loss, there are no other symptoms. Children complain that it hurts to walk, and they begin to look for arthritis and rheumatism. But there are cases of acute infection, when the symptom of tuberculosis in children takes the form of a seasonal viral infection, high T and cough appear, lymph nodes increase. All this lasts much longer in time than during the flu or acute respiratory infections.

If the fever and cough persist for more than a week, you should definitely call a doctor. After 2 weeks, blood streaks may appear in the sputum released when coughing, and it will be more difficult to treat such a disease. Tuberculosis detected at an early stage is susceptible todoes not give treatment and complications.