The hot season is coming——Prevent intestinal infectious diseases

In midsummer, the temperature is high, the humidity is high, bacteria multiply quickly, food is prone to spoilage, and the risk of intestinal infectious diseases increases. Quanzhou CDC reminds citizens to pay attention to food safety, keep a close eye on "diseases entering through the mouth", and be careful to prevent diseases from invading.

What are intestinal infectious diseases?

Intestinal infectious diseases are mostly transmitted through the "fecal-oral" route. They are a general term for a class of infectious diseases of the digestive tract caused by infection with pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Common intestinal infectious diseases include cholera, typhoid, paratyphoid, bacterial dysentery, hepatitis A, and hepatitis E. The main causes of the disease are eating or drinking contaminated food or water and contacting contaminated objects. They are generally transmitted through insect vectors such as flies and cockroaches. May to October each year is the peak season for intestinal infectious diseases.

What are the symptoms of intestinal infectious diseases?

Most intestinal infectious diseases will cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. Some are accompanied by fever, headache, limb pain, and systemic poisoning symptoms. If not treated in time and not cured, it may cause malnutrition, anemia, decreased body resistance, and severe cases may lead to dehydration. In very rare cases, it may even be life-threatening.

How to prevent intestinal infectious diseases?

To prevent intestinal infectious diseases, the key is to control the "disease from the mouth" and do a good job of "three controls and one elimination" (i.e. managing food hygiene, drinking water hygiene, feces hygiene, and eliminating flies).

1. Develop the habit of washing hands frequently, especially before meals, after defecation, after contact with nasopharyngeal secretions, before and after caring for patients, before and after changing diapers for children, after taking out the trash or touching the trash, and before processing food.

2. Drink boiled water instead of raw water. Use clean water to rinse your mouth, brush your teeth, and wash utensils, fruits, vegetables, and other foods. Containers for drinking water should be emptied, cleaned, and disinfected frequently.

3. When processing food, keep raw and cooked food separate. When making homemade hot stewed food, use a dedicated cooked food chopping board, knife and dedicated container to avoid cross infection. Try to eat less food that is easy to carry pathogens, such as snails, shells, crabs and other aquatic products. In particular, do not eat seafood at mobile roadside stalls. Do not eat aquatic products raw or half-cooked. Various sauce products or cooked meat products should be reheated before eating. Try not to eat cold dishes.

4. Leftovers should be stored in the refrigerator, and the storage time should not be too long. The low temperature environment of the refrigerator can only delay the growth of bacteria, but cannot sterilize them. Therefore, the food stored in it needs to be steamed and heated thoroughly before eating. The food stored in the refrigerator should be separated from raw and cooked food, and should be wrapped with plastic wrap to prevent cross contamination of food in the refrigerator.

5. Raw vegetables and fruits may be contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, parasite eggs, and toxic and harmful chemicals. Therefore, even if you eat fruits and vegetables raw, you must wash them thoroughly or peel them before eating.

6. Minimize contact with patients with intestinal infectious diseases, and pay attention to cleaning and disinfecting tableware, cups, toilets, bedding, etc. used by patients to prevent the spread of the disease.

7. Do not urinate or defecate anywhere. Excrement and garbage should be placed in designated areas. In particular, vomitus and excrement of patients with intestinal infectious diseases should not be dumped without disinfection. Some intestinal infectious diseases can be spread through flies, cockroaches and other media, so citizens should pay attention to indoor cleanliness and hygiene, dump garbage in time, dredge sewage ditches, and do a good job of killing flies, rats and cockroaches. 8. Adjust the diet structure, balance the diet, have a reasonable nutrition, and improve the body's immunity. At the same time, exercise scientifically to enhance the ability to resist diseases, and pay attention to the combination of work and rest.

What should I do if I have diarrhea symptoms?

1. Fasting and abstinence from water are not recommended. It is advisable to eat light, easily digestible liquid or semi-liquid food, and gradually transition to a normal diet after the symptoms improve.

2. If the diarrhea is not serious, the symptoms can generally be improved within 2 to 3 days by adjusting the diet, symptomatic treatment and paying attention to rest. For those with severe diarrhea, especially those with more serious symptoms such as dehydration and high fever, as well as children and the elderly with low immunity, they should go to the intestinal outpatient clinic of a medical institution in time after diarrhea.

3. Patients visiting the intestinal clinic can use a clean small box or plastic bag to collect fresh stool samples and send them to medical institutions for testing so that doctors can provide targeted treatment.