Specialists consulted by Telam indicated which symptoms that, if they occur in girls or boys, should lead to a medical consultation, in the context of the global alert for cases of severe acute hepatitis of unknown origin in the pediatric population, of which Argentina is investigating eight unrelated suspected cases each.
“Not all diarrhea is cause for alarm. As in any disease, you have to look at the general picture. If the boy has a high fever, his general condition is bad or he shows signs of dehydration such as a very dry mouth or you touch his skin and it is marked there is to carry out the consultation,” he told Telam the pediatric infectologist Analia De Cristofano.
And he continued: “Of course there are other more specific signs such as dark urine, light stools or yellow skin, which are clear guidelines for consultation.”
In that sense, Griselda BerberianHead of Clinic in the ambulatory area of the Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases Service at Garrahan Hospital, maintained that “it is not necessary for all children with a simple gastrointestinal condition to go to a shift; patients whose parents do not see them well have to do so, they have vomiting persistent, blood in the stool, or any change beyond simple diarrhea.
The doctor pointed out that “hepatitis symptoms begin as nonspecific gastrointestinal symptoms, with or without diarrhea, and the most characteristic is an increase in the yellowish coloration of the conjunctiva or the skin (jaundice), a change in the coloration of the urine (such as that of cola drinks) and white fecal matter; in the face of these symptoms, of course, you have to go to a guard”.
Berberian described that “at this time in the Garrahan guard what there are most are respiratory symptoms; some gastrointestinal condition always appears but we do not have an increase in cases in that sense.”
On Thursday, the National Ministry of Health reported that there are “eight suspected cases in our country that are under study and epidemiological investigation by the jurisdictions and have not yet been classified as serious hepatitis of unknown origin.”
main symptoms
high fever
signs of dehydration
overall decay
pale stools
dark urine
yellowish skin color
Fuente: Telam
