1.What is upper respiratory tract infection?
Acute upper respiratory tract infection is commonly called “cold” and refers to infectious diseases of the nose, throat, tonsils and larynx. If a local inflammation is particularly prominent, named according to the inflammation. For example: acute rhinitis, acute pharyngitis and acute tonsillitis, etc. Most of the pathogens of upper respiratory tract infections are viruses, such as rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus and coxsackievirus, etc. Bacterial infections are mostly secondary to viral infections, in addition to mycoplasma infections. The virus itself has strong adaptability and can be widely attached to walls, clothing and hands, and when the resistance of healthy people decreases, the pathogen invades the body and causes disease.
2.What are the clinical manifestations of the upper cold?
In adults, the symptoms of cold are mainly fever, nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing, coughing, weakness and loss of appetite. Many children do not have obvious symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sneezing and coughing, but only fever, which can be sudden and high, with a body temperature of about 38-40℃ for 1-2 days or more than 10 days, and very few children will have convulsions. In the neonatal period, the body temperature may not rise. Some children may also have abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea and other gastrointestinal symptoms, i.e. gastrointestinal flu, which is often mistaken for gastroenteritis. Smaller infants may open their mouths to breathe or refuse to breastfeed due to nasal congestion.
3.How to deal with cough after a cold?
Early cough is dry, and later cough can produce yellowish-white sputum. Two concepts should be mentioned here: 1) Coughing is not a bad thing, and you should not just ask the doctor to stop it. Coughing can make sputum and other respiratory secretions come out of the body. If you don’t let your child cough after a cold, the respiratory secretions will not be expelled and will easily develop into a lower respiratory tract infection. 2) Coughing is not necessarily a cold, other diseases also manifest as cough, such as whooping cough, tracheal foreign body, allergic cough and acute laryngitis. Therefore, parents should always take their children to the hospital when they encounter such cases.
4. Fever often accompanies upper respiratory infections, what is the effect of fever on children and how to deal with it?
Fever is the most common symptom of upper respiratory tract infection, most parents are prone to excessive fear and anxiety about their children’s fever, when the child has a fever, you can often see some parents go to the hospital three or four times a day, urging the doctor to give the child multiple antipyretic injections, and even unreasonable application of hormonal drugs to reduce fever, foreign countries call this phenomenon “fever phobia This phenomenon is called “fever phobia” abroad. Therefore, parents must have a correct understanding of fever.
Parents must realize that fever is one of the body’s anti-infection mechanisms, and that various indicators of immune function (i.e. human resistance) in the body are better when fever is present than when the body temperature is normal, so fever is beneficial to disease recovery. However, high fever often has adverse effects on the body, such as excessive energy consumption, loss of appetite, fatigue, general malaise, and the risk of febrile convulsions in children under 5 years of age, especially from 6 months to 3 years.
When a child has a fever, it is important to weigh the pros and cons before deciding whether or not to reduce the heat treatment. 2 months to 5 years old children with fever do not need antipyretics if they play as usual and are alert and active. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that in general, antipyretic therapy should be used only for young children with high fever, i.e., anal temperature ≥ 39°C. However, do not demand a complete reduction of body temperature to normal; fever is, after all, the body’s response to infection, and a moderate fever facilitates recovery from disease. However, infants and children who often have febrile seizures, once the high fever, you should take antipyretic drugs, sedative drugs or place cold towels on the head, but also alcohol baths, to achieve timely cooling and prevent convulsions.
5.What are the complications of epiglottitis?
After treatment, most children can be cured. A small number of children can have complications. Complications can be roughly divided into three categories: 1) Infection spreads from the nose and pharynx to nearby organs, and the more common ones include acute conjunctivitis, sinusitis, otitis media, abscess of the posterior pharyngeal wall, etc.; 2) The pathogen spreads to the whole body through blood circulation, especially when bacterial infection is complicated by sepsis, which can lead to septic foci in various parts of the body, such as subcutaneous abscess, septic meningitis, septic arthritis, etc.; 3) Due to rheumatic fever, nephritis, myocarditis and other connective tissue diseases can occur due to the effect of infection and metaplasia on the organism. Therefore, it must be treated early, actively and thoroughly to prevent the emergence of complications.
6.How to take care of patients with upper sensation at home?
(1) Generally, herbal cold medicines such as Banlangen Punch can be taken orally; for feverish colds, drugs for clearing heat and relieving symptoms can be added; antibiotics should be applied if secondary bacterial infection occurs.
(2) nasal congestion can be used 0.5% ephedrine or furosemide nasal dots, pharyngeal redness, sore throat can be sprayed double material throat wind san and nebulized inhalation.
3）Eat a light and liquid diet, drink more light drinks and soups. Those with high fever should be given cold compresses on the head, warm water baths, and if necessary, use drugs to cool down the temperature to prevent hyperthermia convulsions. Keep the air in the room fresh and cool, pay attention to timely wipe sweat and prevent wind blowing. Do not wear too thick clothes and covers to affect heat dissipation.
7.What is the difference between upper influenza and influenza?
Influenza, or influenza, is an acute respiratory infection caused by the influenza virus. It is highly contagious and can make many people sick at the same time. The incidence of influenza is especially high in factories, mines, institutions and schools where people are concentrated, and has caused several global pandemics in history. The onset of influenza can be unprovoked, with sudden onset and rapid onset. At the beginning, systemic symptoms such as headache, elevated body temperature, chills, fatigue and generalized aches and pains appear, while local symptoms of the upper respiratory tract such as nasal congestion, runny nose and sore throat are not significant at the early stage and become more obvious when the systemic symptoms and fever subside.
Cold and influenza are fundamentally different: cold is common and can develop all year round, more common in winter and spring, while influenza is easy to develop in the season of alternating spring and cold. Flu has obvious triggers and the onset of localized symptoms in the upper respiratory tract, while influenza has few triggers and is mainly epidemic in onset, with systemic symptoms being heavy and localized symptoms being light. In addition, the prognosis of cold is better with fewer complications, while influenza has more complications and poorer prognosis when not handled properly.
The correct distinction between cold and influenza is aimed at more scientific prevention and treatment. The common cold does not need isolation treatment and group prevention, pay attention to personal hygiene, proper rest, dress warmly, drink more water and give symptomatic treatment. Influenza should pay attention to isolation treatment and group prevention, and elderly people, children or patients with chronic diseases who are in poor health should be hospitalized for observation and treatment to reduce complications and their hazards.
8.How to treat upper influenza?
The general cold lighter people five to seven days can not cure themselves, even if the cold is more serious patients most of the drug treatment or in the role of their own resistance can be cured in one to two weeks.
1) Pay attention to rest. 2) Drink more boiled water. 3）Treat the symptoms. 4）Control the infection. 4) Control the infection. 5) Drug therapy. It can be divided into allopathic treatment and symptomatic treatment. In the allopathic treatment of viral infection, traditional Chinese medicine is mostly used, such as Shuanghuanglian, antiviral oral solution, etc. If necessary, interferon, gammaglobulin and other drugs to improve the immunity of the body can be added. Unless there is a combination of bacterial infections, antibiotic treatment is generally not necessary to avoid causing dysbiosis and more serious infections. Antibacterial drugs to control bacterial infections that have occurred, symptomatic treatment includes physical cooling (cold towels on the forehead, alcohol baths, etc.) and various cooling drugs (Tylenol, Benadryl, etc.), the use of sedative drugs (Valium, Luminal, etc.) when the convulsions. They do not have a direct role for the pathogenic bacteria, but for the relief of symptoms, to prevent the impact of high fever, convulsions on the child, has its irreplaceable role. Attention should be paid to the timely application.
9.When should children with colds go to the hospital?
Most of the colds are caused by viral infections, which usually heal themselves in 7-10 days. However, the following conditions should be seen in the hospital: 1) pale face, panic and chest tightness. The flu can be combined with myocarditis, so when the above symptoms appear, pay attention to whether it is combined with myocarditis and go to the hospital promptly. 2) abdominal pain. When fever is accompanied by abdominal pain, go to the hospital promptly and observe whether there is appendicitis. 3) Appearance of rash. Many outbreaks of infectious diseases, such as measles, have early clinical manifestations like epiglottitis, so children with colds should go to the hospital promptly if a rash appears to clarify the cause of the rash. 4) High fever that does not go away. 5) Long-term cough.
10.How to prevent the upper sensation?
The general measures to prevent colds are
First: in cold climate, make sure to add clothes in time and pay attention to keeping warm. If you sweat a lot after exercise, you should take a hot bath in time and change some warm clothes at the same time.
Second: ensure indoor air circulation. The indoor air can be disinfected by vinegar fumigation method, 10ml per cubic meter of space plus 1-2 times of water, boil and fumigate on the stove fire until all vaporized. Once a day for several days. Although the weather is cold in winter, you should also pay attention to the indoor window ventilation. Try not to take children to crowded public places and do not let them play with patients suffering from respiratory infections. If someone in the family has a cold, contact between the patient and the child should be reduced.
Third: You should pay attention to exercise in general. This is the best way to prevent respiratory infections. For children, outdoor walking, kicking a ball, rocking a wooden horse, riding a small bicycle, etc. are all exercise programs.
Fourth: add or remove clothes appropriately. When the climate changes, children’s clothes should be worn diligently, do not just add or subtract, especially in the winter when the temperature does not wear too much at once, generally more than adults to wear one is enough. If your child sweats during activity, dry it with a towel in time. For children who sweat a lot after going to sleep, put a small towel on the front and back of the chest to prevent sweat from wetting the underwear. Reducing sweating and wiping sweat in time is an important measure to prevent children from getting cold.
Fifth: In the autumn and winter season when the change of season can be appropriate to take some immune enhancers and anti-viral drugs, which can improve their resistance and enhance the body’s ability to resist disease.
Sixth: balanced intake of nutrition. Young children have a high metabolic growth, the daily protein requirement per kilogram of body weight is higher than that of adults, therefore, young children should consume enough high protein, eat more eggs, lean meat and dairy products. In addition to adequate nutrients, but also to develop good eating habits, so that meals on time, not picky, not partial food.