Salmonella, Essay Example

Incubation

The incubation phase of infectious diseases occurs between the initial infections and the time that the signs and symptoms of the illness become present. This provides time for the virus or bacteria to grow and expand its reach within the body. Typically,Salmonella enters the body of patients when the individual comes into contact with the bacteria. The example provided in the video is when people eat Salmonella from undercooked chicken, it can be transmitted to them. This needs to occur for the bacteria to continue to survive. It travels down to the intestines through muscular contractions. It can multiply in the villi of the gut, which offer it protection while it replicates. It invades these cells and starts to multiply. During the incubation period, an infected individual is a carrier for the disease. This period can take anywhere from two hours to several days. The immune system starts to kick in.

Prodromal

During the prodromal stage, the first symptoms appears. This is due to the recruitment of the immune system for bodily defense via macrophages. However, these symptoms are generally indicative of sickness and are not specific to the particular illness contracted. Furthermore, the individual may be completely unaware that he or she is sick. The Salmonella infection continues to grow and spread, and a low-grade fever and fatigue may be evident. At this stage, it is challenging to determine whether a Salmonella infection has in fact occurred. However, the disease is destroying more and more cells, which leads to symptoms causing the individual to be aware of the invasion in the following stage. This stage is typically several days long but can last from 7-10 days for individuals that will contract typhoid fever, several hours to 2 days for patients that will contract gastroenteritis, and chronic carriers can live in this stage for up to a year. Otherwise healthy individuals are more likely to become chronic carriers of Salmonella, which results in long-term fecal shedding. There doesn’t appear to be any severe detrimental health impacts of this activity.

Illness

The illness stage of Salmonella can involve a broad range of symptoms including vomiting, nausea, abdominal cramps, fever, chills, headache, and bloody stool. This stage can last anywhere between four and seven days, although it could take several months for the Salmonella to be completely removed from the body, indicating that bloody stool is considered normal for this duration of time. This typically starts with nausea and the need to vomit. Vomiting and diarrhea are the most common symptoms Complications due to Salmonella infection typically include dehydration and bacteremia. Dehydration results from severe diarrhea and vomiting and hospitalization may be required as a consequence. If bacteria gets into the muscles, they will begin to swell. Dehydration leads to headaches.

Decline

During the decline stage, patients who have suffered from a Salmonella infection typically take medications to help them start to feel better. Potential medications include diarrhea pills to help protect against dehydration. The Salmonella have been killed off by the macrophages and are being used by helper cells to create more of the immune cells to attack the bacteria. They target the inactive macrophages to help them more accurately target the Salmonella.This will help the symptoms will start to subside. This stage should occur several days after the presentation of definitive Salmonella symptoms, and the decline stage should take several days as well. The amount of time the decline takes varies on an individual basis. Patients with a strong immune response with possible prior infection should be able to shed the illness quickly. However, patients who have never been infected and have a weak immune system could take weeks to recover.

Convalescence

During the convalescence stage, patients who were previously plagued by symptoms related to Salmonella infection begin to recover. This phase is the continued amount of time that is needed to completely shed the disease from the body even though the symptoms have subsided. This has been well-studied in livestock. Based on the knowledge we have acquired about animals with Salmonella, it would be best to avoid exchanging bodily fluids with infected individuals or previously infected individuals until complete recovery has been achieved. It is also best to avoid eating contaminated foods, as the character failed to note in the video. Ultimately, the disease is due to a failure to continue to cook and clean food thoroughly, so it is impossible to completely eradicate the disease. It is important to pay attention to what one is eating and whether it is clean or not before doing so. It is each individual’s responsibility to ensure that the food they eat is cooked and cleaned properly. Not everyone that eats chicken gets Salmonella, so it is important to pay attention to avoid getting it in the first place. This last phase could take several months to completely eradicate the disease, so it would be helpful to avoid getting it in the first place.