Viral Infections—Gastroenteritis

Also called: Stomach flu

Have you ever had the “stomach flu?” What you probably had was gastroenteritis – not a type of flu at all. Gastroenteritis is an inflammation of the lining of the intestines caused by a virus, bacteria or parasites. Viral gastroenteritis is the second most common illness in the U.S. The cause is often a norovirus infection. It spreads through contaminated food or water, and contact with an infected person. The best prevention is frequent hand washing.

Symptoms of gastroenteritis include diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, headache, fever and chills. Most people recover with no treatment.

The most common problem with gastroenteritis is dehydration. This happens if you do not drink enough fluids to replace what you lose through vomiting and diarrhea. Dehydration is most common in babies, young children, the elderly and people with weak immune systems.

NIH: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

• Bacterial gastroenteritis (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Bland diet (Medical Encyclopedia)
• CMV – gastroenteritis/colitis (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Stool Gram stain (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Viral gastroenteritis (Medical Encyclopedia)
• When you have nausea and vomiting (Medical Encyclopedia)
• When you or your child has diarrhea (Medical Encyclopedia)

Viruses are very tiny germs. They are made of genetic material inside of a protein coating. Viruses cause familiar infectious diseases such as the common cold, flu and warts. They also cause severe illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, smallpox, and Ebola.

Viruses are like hijackers. They invade living, normal cells and use those cells to multiply and produce other viruses like themselves. This can kill, damage, or change the cells and make you sick. Different viruses attack certain cells in your body such as your liver, respiratory system, or blood.

When you get a virus, you may not always get sick from it. Your immune system may be able to fight it off.

For most viral infections, treatments can only help with symptoms while you wait for your immune system to fight off the virus. Antibiotics do not work for viral infections. There are antiviral medicines to treat some viral infections. Vaccines can help prevent you from getting many viral diseases.

• ECHO virus (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Enterovirus D68 (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Hand-foot-mouth disease (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Herpangina (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Molluscum contagiosum (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Parainfluenza (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Roseola (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Zika virus disease (Medical Encyclopedia)