07/31/2024
It's Wellness Wednesday!!!
This week, let's Look at the difference between Viral and Bacterial Illnesses…
How are they different?
Both are too tiny to see and spread easily.
They both can cause similar symptoms but are different in almost all other ways.
Bacteria are single cells that can live all on their own, inside or outside the body and on surfaces. Most bacteria aren't harmful and everyone has many harmless and even helpful bacteria living on your skin and inside your body which don't harm you! In some cases they can cause infection.
Viruses are even smaller and cause infections by entering and then multiplying inside the body's healthy cells.
Difference between bacterial and viral infections?
👩🏻⚕️As a provider, we use our clinical knowledge and expertise to assess and diagnose patients daily. Viral and bacterial infections can cause similar symptoms so a doctor may need to test your urine, stool or blood, or a swab from your nose or throat to see what sort of infection you have.
Treatment is always based on all of the history, assessment findings, and testing….
Bacterial infection examples: Sinusitis, whooping cough, strep throat, ear infection and urinary tract infection (UTI), etc.
🩹Bacterial Symptoms- Persistent fever which does not respond to meds or treatment along with additional symptoms- signs of localized infection- swelling, warmer skin to that area, redness, ulceration, Urinary symptom, persistent fatigue, Persistent cough, increased productive cough with mucous, shortness of breath or breathing changes.
Viral infection examples: common cold and flu, most acute coughs and most bronchitis, RSV, multiple Stomach bugs types, etc.
🤮Viral symptoms- Symptoms usually only last for a few days and improve on their own. High fever (esp fever which goes up and down and rebounds), fatigue, body aches, chills, taste changes, rash, N/V/D.
How do we treat them?
Bacterial Infections:
Based on the assessment, diagnostics, and history- Your provider may order antibiotics if symptoms are present for bacterial infection. Culture & Sensitivity tests also help to pair the antibiotic to the specific bacteria. The right antibiotic will kill bacteria or stop them multiplying and essentially make the patient feel better.
Antibiotic resistance is a rapidly expanding problem around the world. It is partly caused by overuse of antibiotics in humans, animals and the environment. This is one of the reasons why your doctor will only prescribe antibiotics when they are confident that the benefits of treatment are greater than the risks and that it is most likely bacterial in origin. We want to save antibiotics until we are certain we need them. That way as you age, you will not become resistant to them when you need them the most.
🩺Treating a viral infection
Antibiotics aren't effective against viral infections. If you have a viral infection, your doctor may recommend one or more of the following treatments:
🩹❤️🩹💦Symptomatic management is key!
Lots of Home-Rest so your immune system can fight the virus
Hydration with warm drinks, lemonade, hot tea, or chicken soup to soothe your throat and stay hydrated
Antipyretics such as tylenol for fever and Nsaids such as motrin.
If necessary- Depending on the virus- using antiviral medicines
Preventing the viral infection in the first place- hand hygiene, cleaning surfaces regularly, certain vaccinations
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You can email me questions or topics to : AmyFnp@RWIWellness.com
Website- www.RWIWellnessIV.com
