Is gastroenteritis contagious?

Modern young people usually do not pay attention to their eating habits and often overeat, or some people go on a diet desperately to lose weight. Long-term irregular diet can easily cause gastroenteritis, which is a very common gastrointestinal disease. The main symptoms of gastroenteritis are diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and other symptoms. Is gastroenteritis contagious? The following explains whether gastroenteritis is contagious.

Can gastroenteritis be contagious to others? In our previous concept, gastroenteritis is mostly caused by improper or unclean diet and is not contagious. However, clinical case statistics have shown that after some gastroenteritis patients become ill, people around them also develop gastroenteritis symptoms to varying degrees. Therefore, after analysis, experts have come to the following conclusions.

Gastroenteritis is mostly caused by viral or bacterial infection, so the disease may be transmitted to close people through feces and vomit. For gastroenteritis of unknown cause, the chance of transmission is even greater, so patients and their families must pay attention to hygiene and cleanliness.

In addition, some patients with gastroenteritis have Helicobacter pylori in their bodies, which can be easily transmitted through sharing meals, kissing, feces, etc., so it may be transmitted to family members and make them sick.

However, since it is currently difficult to diagnose gastroenteritis caused by Helicobacter pylori infection in clinical practice, it is not recognized or taken seriously.

Gastroenteritis is not without the possibility of contagion. Feces, Helicobacter pylori and even psychological factors may be causes of transmission. Therefore, no matter what, patients and their families should pay attention to hygiene and cleanliness and actively treat the disease.

How to check for gastroenteritis?

1. Helicobacter pylori: Helicobacter pylori is one of the main pathogenic factors of upper gastrointestinal diseases. It plays a vital role in the onset of chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer. Helicobacter pylori (HP) test is positive in almost 100% of chronic gastritis, more than 90% of duodenal ulcers and more than 70% of gastric ulcers. Therefore, it is necessary to do Helicobacter pylori testing.

2. Electronic colonoscopy: For patients with enteritis, common examinations are necessary to clearly understand the lesions. The soft endoscope is inserted into the intestines to clearly display the ulcers, erosions, congestion, etc. on the three-dimensional video. The location of the lesions, the degree of erosion, and congestion can be clearly seen.

3. Gastrointestinal color ultrasound examination: Three-dimensional gastrointestinal color ultrasound examination is a new gastrointestinal disease examination method that uses a nano-gastrointestinal ultrasound system to achieve non-traumatic, painless, and non-invasive in vitro. With three-dimensional imaging technology, it can make the image clearer and more realistic. It can distinguish whether the gastrointestinal mucosa has erosion, edema, and lumps.

People with gastroenteritis should never eat anything randomly, and must not eat anything too greasy. Symptoms of gastroenteritis usually disappear within 2 days. Eat home-cooked food and avoid processed food bought from outside. It is not recommended to eat large meals during illness because the stomach is not yet able to properly digest solid food. You should eat porridge or congee and drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration caused by diarrhea.

Warm reminder: Patients should eat more residue-free foods. To avoid dry stools, they should also eat agar, bananas, honey and other intestinal moisturizing foods. Avoid eating overly sour and overly sweet foods that may irritate the ulcer surface, such as chili peppers, raw onions, raw garlic, concentrated juice, coffee, wine, strong tea, etc.