Specialists of the Ministry of Health warn the population about the rise in the number of cases of enteroviral infections and about the risk of these illnesses for health.

The enteroviral infections are caused by a wide range of intestinal viruses that can live for up to four months in rivers, lakes and wells and for up to two weeks in food products and on things used in the house.

In a communiqué, the Ministry of Health says that the sick persons and those that are in re-convalescence can pass on the infection. Among the transmission factors are the infected food products, the water, the dirty hands, the domestic objects and mucilaginous eliminations.

The symptoms of the illness include fever, headaches, rigidity of the occipitals muscles, nasopharyngeal eliminations, enterocolitis, etc. The most serious complication of the enteroviral infection is the serous meningitis.

A number of 185 cases of meningitis have been reported this year, as against 131 cases in 2007. The cases involving children aged under 14 and adolescents made up 92% of the total number of cases.

Specialists warn the population and recommend avoiding bathing in unauthorized places. Every summer, the State Sanitary-Epidemiological Service carries out inspections at recreational areas and takes samples of water to examine them in the laboratory. In most of the cases, the water does not meet the quality standards. The specialists also find enteric bacteriophages that are an indirect indicator of the viral pollution.//REPORTER.MD



Publication date: 11 July 2008   

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