What are the symptoms of salmonella infection

If a person is infected with Salmonella, the harm to the patient is relatively large. It often causes gastroenteritis and typhoid fever, and in more serious cases it can cause sepsis. For example, patients often have symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and high fever. Sometimes it can also cause bronchopneumonia, pleurisy, pericarditis, and local suppuration and infection.

1. Enteritis type (food poisoning)

It is the most common form of Salmonella infection, with an incubation period of 8 to 24 hours. The onset is acute, often accompanied by chills and fever, but the temperature is generally not very high. At the same time, symptoms such as abdominal cramps, bloating, nausea, and vomiting appear. Diarrhea ensues, occurring several to a dozen times a day or more, and may be watery, dark yellow or greenish, and sometimes have a foul odor.

2. Typhoid

Non-typhoidal Salmonella bacteria can cause clinical manifestations similar to typhoid fever, among which suis choleraesuis is the most common. The symptoms are generally milder than those of typhoid fever, with long-term fever accompanied by gastrointestinal symptoms, or gastroenteritis as a precursor. Rashes are rare, but diarrhea is more common. Splenomegaly and total white blood cell count are low, but complications such as intestinal perforation and intestinal bleeding are rare. The course of the disease is usually only 1 to 3 weeks, and relevant Salmonella can be obtained through blood and stool cultures. The chance of recurrence is higher than that of typhoid fever.

3. Septicemia

This type is characterized by long-term fever, with body temperature reaching over 40°C, presenting as irregular fever (remittent fever or intermittent fever), accompanied by repeated chills, sweating, headache, nausea, anorexia, and weight loss. Some patients have symptoms of gastroenteritis, and splenomegaly is occasionally seen. About 1/4 of patients develop local infection lesions during the course of the disease, which are most common in bones and joints, and can affect multiple joints, prolong healing, and form fistulas. The meninges of newborns and infants are easily invaded, and the mortality rate can be as high as over 80%. Other diseases include bronchopneumonia, lung abscess, pleurisy, empyema, pericarditis, endocarditis, pyelonephritis, etc.

4. Local suppurative infection

It can occur in any part of the body, but is more likely to occur in sutures, fractures, tissue and organ transplants, atherosclerotic plaques, tumors, and other areas that have previous lesions or are not very active. This type of disease has no gastroenteritis or systemic symptoms, only abscess formation, which tends to become chronic, and requires pathogen testing for a clear diagnosis.