Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article, I'll show you how to avoid overlooking an infection in an elderly person.
People over 65 have many characteristics that predispose to infection.
Our immunity is not only evil white blood cells that attack microbes. The very first part of immunity is the skin and mucous membranes. It is they who do not let the infection inside our body. We have already discussed the topic in detail about mucus in the intestines. This is exactly what it is.
So in the elderly, the barrier function of the skin and mucous membranes does not work well. It is easy for an infection to break through the defenses and climb inside the body.
Not only does the infection penetrate into the elderly person, but it also feels good inside his cells. That is, it quickly crawls even deeper. Into the very depths.
Intracellular disgrace
Usually, when some virus attacks our body, it needs to attach to the surface of the cell, then get inside and inside the cell to make this unfortunate cell work for it.
This process takes some time. If leukocytes notice such an infected cell, then they will not mercilessly strangle it as a traitor. So she will not have time to make new viruses.
For old people, this process fails. Their cells are also old and sluggish. They share less frequently than young ones. If the immune system of an elderly person chokes all suspicious cells, then very soon they will not remain at all. Therefore, nature does not allow the immune system to offend the cells of old people too much.
Dastardly viruses take advantage of this. They strive to get into the cells of old people as quickly as possible and hide there. After that, viruses can multiply, and it becomes difficult for the immune system to prevent such an outrage.
Vaccines work poorly
The elderly develop immunity worse under the influence of vaccines. Imagine that a routine vaccine boosts the immune system in a young person. She kind of gives this immunity a slap on the head. After that, the young immunity begins to run like a scalded one and quickly performs all its protective duties.
With an old man, such a number does not work. You can't stir up an old man with a crack and you can't make him run. This requires a different approach. Old people have their own vaccines, their vaccine supplements, their own vaccination regimens, large doses of vaccines. All this is needed in order to make the rusty senile immunity move.
Nursing home
Old people are weak and prone to infection. But when they gather in a separate compact settlement, the microbes will finally become impudent.
Old people exchange germs. And if some harmful grandfather has not approached the infection, then she can always spread to some more accommodating and vulnerable grandmother.
Plus, older people consume tons of antibiotics. And they sometimes act on microbes as garden fertilizers on weeds. That is, it only gets worse.
That is why not only old people live in nursing homes and hospitals, but also a whole army of eaten up spoiled microbes.
Attack signs
Sometimes an infection attacks an elderly person, but we do not notice it.
The infection enters the old man as if it were to his home - without knocking and without noise. If a young man developed pneumonia, his side would hurt, his temperature would rise, chills and cough with phlegm would appear. And for an old man, everything can be limited to slight shortness of breath and a temperature of 37.2 degrees.
Such an old man may suddenly lose his appetite or begin to fall out of the blue, or his head will become worse. It may seem to outsiders that this is old age, but the point is pneumonia.
Temperature
If the grandfather is strong enough, then his temperature will jump like a young one. But this is not always the case. In weak old people, a temperature above 38 degrees can already be a very serious sign.
The bad news is that the most terrible situations like blood poisoning, on the contrary, are accompanied by a decrease in temperature and even hypothermia.
Have fragile old people, about which we have already spoken, this happens in 30 - 50% of cases.
Therefore, with senile fragility, there are signs of infection:
- the temperature is once above 37.8 degrees;
- a constant temperature of 37.2 or higher;
- a temperature rise of 1.1 degrees above normal.
Is the last point clear? Well, that is, each of us its normal temperature, and with age it will decrease. And with fragile old people it is better to know their usual temperature. Because if it has increased by 1.1 degrees or more, then something bad is happening inside the old man.
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