How to treat tuberculosis in children?

Tuberculosis is a very common disease that can occur at any age. Once you get tuberculosis, it is very harmful to your health. Especially when children get pulmonary tuberculosis, it will not only affect their physical health, but also their daily life. Although children's tuberculosis needs to be actively treated, symptomatic treatment is required during the treatment.

How to treat tuberculosis in children?

General treatment

1. Cause analysis:

On the basis of systemic therapy, the child's body's disease resistance is fully mobilized so that the special anti-tuberculosis drugs can better play their antibacterial role.

2. Intimate suggestions:

First of all, attention should be paid to proper nutrition and rest, and foods rich in protein and vitamins should be selected, among which vitamins A and C are particularly important. Children should live in a room with good air circulation and plenty of sunlight. Children with severe tuberculosis who have symptoms of poisoning such as fever and severe weakness should stay in bed. For those with mild symptoms, appropriate indoor or outdoor activities can be carried out according to the specific situation.

Anti-tuberculosis chemotherapy

1. Cause analysis:

The principles of anti-tuberculosis drugs are early treatment, appropriate dosage, combination therapy, regular medication, adherence to the full course, and segmented treatment.

2. Intimate suggestions:

Currently commonly used anti-tuberculosis drugs can be divided into bactericidal drugs and bacteriostatic drugs. Bactericidal drugs include full bactericidal drugs such as isoniazid and semi-bactericidal drugs such as streptomycin and pyrazinamide. Antibacterial drugs such as ethambutol and ethionamide.

Chemotherapy regimen

1. Standard therapy:

It is generally used for primary pulmonary tuberculosis without obvious symptoms. Take isoniazid, rifampin, and/or ethambutol daily.

2. Two-stage therapy:

During the intensive treatment phase, 3 to 4 bactericidal drugs are used to quickly kill sensitive bacteria and actively growing and multiplying bacteria. The consolidation treatment phase involves the combined use of two anti-tuberculosis drugs, with the aim of killing persistent bacteria to consolidate the therapeutic effect.

3. Short-term therapy:

Rapidly kills intracellular and extracellular tuberculosis groups at different stages of reproduction in the body. Usually four drugs are used together for a total of 2 months, and 2 to 3 drugs are used together for a total of 4 months. If pyrazinamide is not available, treatment can last until September.

Symptoms of tuberculosis in children

Fever occurs early, with variable patterns and severity. Severe cases may cause high fever and chills, but most cases are characterized by a long-lasting low-grade fever in the afternoon.

Night sweats often occur at night after falling asleep, and the whole body can be seen sweating. In severe cases, the pillow and bedding are completely wet. This is due to the overexcitement of the sympathetic nerves caused by the action of tuberculosis toxins.

Neurological symptoms include lack of energy, irritability, crying, disturbed sleep, as well as symptoms of autonomic dysfunction such as night sweats and facial flushing.

In addition to the respiratory symptoms such as enlarged lymph nodes compressing the bronchus which can cause paroxysmal cough and even difficulty breathing, and large amounts of pleural effusion which can cause corresponding symptoms and signs, there are generally not many respiratory symptoms. There may be no or few positive signs. Its characteristic is that respiratory symptoms and signs are inconsistent with X-ray changes.