Virology: diseases — симптомы, диагностика и лечение

Viral hepatitis B and C are chronic infections that affect the liver and remain asymptomatic for years. This is their main danger: a person feels healthy until cirrhosis or liver cancer develops. However, the situation with their treatment has changed radically over the past decade. Hepatitis C today can be cured in the vast majority of cases with a course of tablets lasting 8-12 weeks. Hepatitis B cannot yet be completely cured, but it can be reliably controlled, and most importantly, there is a vaccine against it.

ARVI is not one disease, but a whole group of acute respiratory tract infections that are caused by more than two hundred different viruses: rhinoviruses, adenoviruses, parainfluenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus, seasonal coronaviruses. The most important thing to say right away is that antibiotics do not work on viruses. They do not “act weakly” and do not “act for prevention” - they do not act at all. An antibiotic destroys the cell wall of a bacterium or blocks the synthesis of its proteins, but the virus has neither a wall nor its own metabolism: it multiplies inside human cells, using them as a factory. The virus simply does not have a target for the antibiotic to hit. Therefore, a pill started on the second day of a runny nose does not shorten the illness by an hour - it only adds the risk of diarrhea, allergies and the growth of resistant bacteria.

Influenza is also a viral respiratory infection, but there is a reason to distinguish it from the general group of acute respiratory viral infections: it is more severe and much more often causes complications from which people actually die. It is often possible to distinguish the flu from a cold by the onset of the illness. The usual ARVI creeps up: first the throat gets sore, then the nose gets stuffy, the temperature is moderate. The flu strikes suddenly - a person can often name the hour when he felt unwell: chills, temperature 38.5–40 ° C, tearing pain in muscles and joints, headache with pain in the eyeballs, and all this with an almost dry nose. A runny nose and cough come later. The second practical point: antiviral drugs for influenza exist and work, but only if you start them within the first 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. Later, the virus has already multiplied, and the meaning of therapy is lost.

Infectious mononucleosis is most often caused by the Epstein-Barr virus, a member of the herpes virus family. Its popular name - kissing disease - accurately reflects the main route of transmission: the virus is contained in saliva, and infection occurs through kissing, sharing utensils, bottles, spoons, and toothbrushes. Therefore, the classic patient is a teenager or young adult, and outbreaks often occur in dormitories and schools. There are two pitfalls in this disease that every sick person should be aware of. First: for mononucleosis, ampicillin and amoxicillin should not be prescribed - in almost all patients they cause a profuse itchy rash, which is then mistakenly attributed to a lifelong allergy to penicillins. Second: the majority of people have an enlarged spleen, and any blow to the stomach or sudden load can lead to its rupture. This is why sports are banned for several weeks, and this is not reinsurance.

Chickenpox is a highly contagious infection caused by the varicella-zoster virus, a member of the herpes virus family. In childhood, it is usually mild, and hence the belief was born that it is necessary to get over the disease and the sooner, the better. The first part of this statement is outdated: today they vaccinate against chickenpox, and this is more reliable than relying on luck. The second part, on the contrary, is true: in adults, the disease is much more severe - with high fever, profuse rash and a noticeably higher risk of pneumonia and damage to the nervous system. A separate and most serious situation is infection during pregnancy: depending on the period, this threatens developmental defects in the fetus or severe infection in the newborn. One more thing that is worth knowing in advance: the virus does not disappear after recovery, but remains in the nerve ganglia for life, and decades later it can manifest itself as shingles.

Genital warts are growths on the skin and mucous membranes of the genital organs caused by the human papillomavirus. This is the most common sexually transmitted viral infection. It is important to immediately separate two points: condylomas themselves are caused by types of the virus of low oncogenic risk and do not turn into cancer, but at the same time a person can be a carrier of oncogenic types that are associated with cervical and penile cancer.

Genital herpes is a viral infection that causes painful blisters and sores to appear on the genitals. Its main feature is that the virus, once it enters the body, remains in the nerve nodes for life and is periodically activated. This sounds alarming, but in practice the disease is well controlled: modern therapy can reduce the frequency of exacerbations by several times and significantly reduce the risk of transmission to a partner.