The difference between enteritis and dysentery

Dysentery is an intestinal infectious disease caused by Shigella dysenteriae. It usually manifests as abdominal pain and frequent and irregular bowel movements. Dysentery can occur throughout the year, but is especially common in the spring when bacteria are transmitted. It is mostly caused by bacterial infection. Diarrhea is an immediate physical reaction to eating something wrong, and usually it heals quickly. So what is the difference between enteritis and dysentery?

Since pathogen culture cannot be performed on enteritis and dysentery in medical institutions, there is no strict distinction between them. Clinically, the differential diagnosis can only be based on clinical symptoms and stool examination results. Guidance: Enteritis can be caused by many pathogens such as bacteria and viruses, while dysentery will present with typical symptoms such as fever, tenesmus, mucus, pus and blood in the stool. Stool examination generally shows more than 2+ white blood cells and red blood cells or phagocytes, and it should be diagnosed as dysentery. However, the treatment methods are not much different, mainly anti-inflammation, prevention and treatment of dehydration, symptomatic supportive treatment, etc.

Both enteritis and bacillary dysentery have symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, and mucus, pus and blood in the stool. In addition, both chronic bacillary dysentery and ulcer disease have a history of recurrent attacks. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the two clinically based on symptoms alone. Therefore, when diagnosing this disease clinically, it is necessary to perform bacterial culture of the stool repeatedly to exclude various specific colitis such as bacillary dysentery before the disease can be confirmed. There are several types of gastrointestinal infections in summer, including bacillary dysentery and amoebic dysentery, but the latter rarely occurs.