Tag: fever

Chicken Pox in Children

A typical childhood disease in children chicken pox is very notorious for being contagious. A kid infected with chickenpox virus will develop numerous itchy blisters which are filled with fluid. These blisters burst later, which lead to crusts formation. Children get approximately five hundred such blisters which grow over a red skin spot. They show up on the face first and then spread to the trunk, scalp and the rest of the body. After a day of appearance, the fluid filled blisters become cloudy and later on, scabby.

The itchiness caused due to chicken pox is really intense and irritating. And the crust, if not treated, can leave marks for life. Within forty eight hours of getting infected, the symptoms begin to surface. It is only after ten to twenty days after contamination, that the pox appears. Symptoms include fever, abdominal pain, headache, loss of appetite and finally the pox rash. The condition can be confirmed by testing the pox blisters and by even taking blood test. The medical history of the child can be helpful in determining the severity of the condition.

The virus blameworthy for infecting a person with chicken pox is varicella-zoster or simply, varicella. The virus spreads through airborne transmission, droplet transmission and direct contact. Not only the infected carry these viruses and should be avoided, also people or kids who have taken the vaccination recently should also be avoided. Since the invention of chicken pox vaccine, there has been a decline in the chicken pox cases. Children who are under the age of ten should be highly prepared as they are more prone to getting infected by this virus. But on the contrary, when older children or adults catch chicken pox, they become sicker when compared to young kids.

A child or a person who has been infected by chicken pox virus becomes host to the virus for lifetime. But the number is kept under control by the bodys immune system. Infants, sometimes, get partial immunity from the blood of their mother, if the mother was already infected by chicken pox. Kids of mothers, who havent been infected by chicken pox, tend to get severe chickenpox. Children who have been administered with chicken pox vaccination get mild chicken pox. Skin condition of children with skin problems like eczema or sunburn can worsen. Such kids can be getting above one thousand and five hundred poxes. Children who have taken steroids can also face bad situation.

Along with the application of the prescribed lotion and intake of oral medication containing antihistamine, the itchiness can be eased by bathing the child in lukewarm water and oatmeal. The antiviral medications should be started within the first day itself. Other people living in the same household as of the patient should also take antiviral medicines recommended by a doctor. It is a must for everyone to take chicken pox vaccination as a part of immunization routine schedule. There is a hundred percent chance of not developing moderate to severe chickenpox and nearly ninety percent chance of not developing mild chicken pox. Chicken pox vaccine is the only vaccine which doesnt demand a booster. But a higher dose can be given to adolescents so as to avoid shingles or herpes zoster. But a doctor should be consulted before opting for the higher dose.

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Abscessed Teeth

An abscess in the tooth refers to an infection that was caused by a pocket of pus residing in the tissue around the tooth. Abscesses are very serious conditions, and can lead to serious matters if they arent treated immediately. When the pulp of a tooth dies due to damage or decay, bacteria will begin to grow from the dead tissue that is left. This bacteria will eventually spread from the root of the dead tooth into the tissue that is below and create a pocket of pus – the abscess.

Gum disease is also a cause for a tooth becoming abscessed. Gum diseases causes the gums to pull back and away from teeth, leaving pockets behind. When one of the pockets becomes blocked, the bacteria can grow and spread, or get backed up. When this happens, an abscess will start to form under the surface of the gums and become apparent will swelling as it gets bigger and spreads.

Once the infection has started to spread, your jawbone may start to dissolve as it makes room for the swelling in the area that has been infected. Once the bone starts to dissolve, the pressure will be greatly reduced, although the infection will still be there. Even though you will get relief, the infection will get worse – and the pain will always come back. Once more of the bone has been dissolved, there will be nothing left to support the tooth, meaning that it will become loose and end up needing to be extracted.

The symptoms of an abscessed tooth are easy to see, as they include severe pain in the affected area, red or swollen gums, a bad taste in your mouth, swelling around the area or the jaw, and possibly a high fever. Pain is excruciating with an abscess, normally affecting the area in a bad way. No matter what you do, the pain seems to intensify.

Abscesses mostly occur with back teeth, although they can happen in the front as well. Once your tooth has become abscessed, your dentist wont immediately pull it. If a tooth that has abscessed is extracted once the infection is still present, it can quickly spread. Your dentist will instead prescribe you some antibiotics that can help to destroy the bacteria.

The dentist can also perform a root canal, in an attempt to remove dead or decayed tissue. Last but not least, he can also drill a hole in the tooth to give the infection a chance to drain and try to remove any dead pulp. The most common treatment with an abscess is to use antibiotics to kill the infection, then get the tooth removed. You should never let it get that bad – as an abscess is something that can destroy your jawbone.

Appendicitis in Kids

Many children have their appendix removed even before turning the age of fourteen. And the risk starts to peak as they age. Majority of children who get an abdominal surgery is because of appendicitis. Appendicitis is actually appendix inflammation and as a result, a fingerlike tube grows on the lower right part of large intestine. Appendix is located at the closed end of the larger intestine, known as the cecum, and measures up to many inches. Although, doctors say that the appendix isnt of much help to the body, but appendixs inner wall releases antibodies, which are produced by the lymphatic tissues.

Appendicitis can be detected by the onset of pain in the middle portion of the abdomen, the portion above the belly button. After a few hours the area will swell and there will be intense pain when touching the abdomens right side. The patient will begin to vomit and will have nausea. There will low fever and there will be problems will gas and stool passage. Some people, after the onset of these symptoms, will take laxatives or enemas mistaking appendicitis for constipation. But this is extremely dangerous, as these medicines will in turn increase the risk of the appendix bursting. So it is recommended to consult the doctor before going for any kind of medication, even any pain relievers. Besides increasing the risk, they even mask the symptoms and makes diagnosis even more hard. If the childs symptoms are very much similar to that of the appendicitis symptoms, he should be immediately taken to the doctor for further diagnosis. The doctor will first study the childs digestive illnesses history. He should also be divulged information about the symptoms, timing, bowel movements and its frequency. The stool should also be checked for mucus or blood. Children, who can communicate, can be asked to point out the location of pain in the abdomen. Toddlers who havent started talking or who hesitate to do talk will raise their knees close to the chest, hips will be flexed and the abdomen becomes tender.

Although, the actual cause of this abnormal growth of the appendix is not known, but it can result because of some kind of obstruction or infection in the intestines. The obstruction can be created due to thick mucus build-up inside the appendix. Some part of the stool can also enter inside. There will be mucus formation and the stool will harden within resulting in the swelling up of the appendix. If it is an infection, it should be treated immediately, as it can burst and there is a danger of the infection spreading to other parts of the body via bloodstream. That is the reason why even blood test is done, so as to determine whether the infection has spread or not. The urine test is done to check for problems in the urinary tract. The problem is then confirmed with the help of computed tomography or an ultrasound. Sometimes children with pneumonia have the similar symptoms, so to make matters clear even X-ray of the chest is done. Medical attention must be sought within forty eight hours of the start of the abdominal pain. Sometimes, abdomen develops mild inflammation, many weeks before the diagnosis is done.

After the diagnosis is done and appendicitis is determined, appendectomy is performed on the patient. The doctor will immediately order the intake of antibiotics before the surgery is performed. In case of confined appendicitis, it can be treated solely by antibiotics and no surgery is required. This is because the inflammation is very mild and the body itself fights with the infection. But, still as a precautionary measure, such kinds of patients must be kept in observation until their condition becomes stabilized. If the appendix ruptured then appendicle perforation is done. In this procedure, a drain is inserted inside the skin, through the abscess with the help of CT scan or ultrasound which gives the exact location. Some people develop complications later such as wound infection and accumulation of puss inside the appendix.

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How Many Acupuncture Treatments Will it Take?

Acupuncture is a well-established and increasingly accepted treatment procedure for pain, for emotional troubles, and for an ever increasing number of physical ailments. More and more traditional physicians are referring patients to acupuncture clinics for a certain set of problems that may be treated more effectively, and without the side effects of medication. Also, individuals may decide to use an acupuncture clinic as the first choice to heal a disease.

The length of a treatment varies widely from person to person, depending on the particular symptoms, the age of the patient, how long the condition has existed, and the environment of the patient. There also seem to be patients that are naturally responsive to acupuncture, when all the other factors are similar. A patient that is responsive to acupuncture may only require one or two visits, as is the case with a number of children. Adult patients that are responsive generally require one to six visits for a particular symptom or set of symptoms. In other cases, up to twenty visits may be required, depending on the severity and length of time the symptoms have persisted. But even some remarkable cases such as recovery from paralysis may come about after a very long series of treatments.

For some conditions, such as for chronic pain, daily treatments are recommended until the pain subsides. The same is true for clients using acupuncture as a means to help stop drug addiction, which require daily treatments in order to keep the cravings at a minimal level. In a few patients, the initial treatment may aggravate the symptoms. A similar possibility is that there is a marked improvement after the first treatment, which may be followed by an aggravation of symptoms at the next few treatments. These should be reported in detail to the acupuncture practitioner, who may revise the locations of needles for the treatment, depending on the particular patient.

It is always a good idea to consider an acupuncture practitioner for whatever health problem you might have. Some problems respond exceptionally well with acupuncture. Acupuncture has a very good success rate for such symptoms as headaches, head congestion, cramps (menstrual, muscular, or intestinal), pain, depression, fatigue, hemorrhoids, and children’s nervous disorders. Acupuncture treatments have frequent success in the following areas, though not quite the same success rate as in the areas above. These include diarrhea, painful menstruation, eczema, gastric problems, kidney and gall bladder malfunction, nervous disorders, palpitations, rheumatism, shingles, autonomic nervous problems, especially following surgery.

There are a number of other conditions that acupuncture can be effective for, and for these a practitioner should be consulted, as new results are coming out frequently. Currently, it is thought that acupuncture is more helpful for symptoms rather than curing such diseases as tuberculosis, infantile paralysis, and Parkinson’s disease. Acupuncture treatments are sometimes surprisingly effective after traditional medicine has been tried without success. Lets look at two simple cases. In the first, a lady suffered with pain in her ankle for three years, and no standard medical treatment helped. Careful observation of her symptoms by an experienced acupuncture practitioner cured her in three treatments. The second case was of a farmer who had a low grade fever (about 100 degrees) nearly every night for a number of months. Regular physicians could not determine a cause, nor a solution. Regular acupuncture treatment was not effective. The acupuncture practitioner then applied the treatments at the optimal time (very early AM, not during the normal clinic hours), and the fever disappeared permanently. I hope this introduction to some uses of acupuncture may help you or someone you know to better health.