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Child Care – How To Protect Child From Common Fever? | Protect Child From Common Fever | Tips From Avoid Child Fever

The immune system of children under the age years of 5 does not respond well to polysaccharides. Polysaccharides are long chains of sugars. Many bacteria coat themselves with polysaccharide. The outer coating is called a capsule. These capsules prevent the white blood cells in our bodies from engulfing and destroying the bacteria. Exactly why children do not respond to these bacterial capsules is not fully understood as yet.

The outcome of a primary streptococcal infection depends on the strain of bacteria involved and frequently on the individual susceptibility of the patient. Scientists are now in the process to develop a test that will allow a quick diagnosis of streptococcal strains with potential to cause serious disease. Researchers are evaluating patient samples from India, where children in particular have a high frequency of exposure to streptococcal infections. The research project, known as ASSIST, includes partners from Europe and India and is being coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Braunschweig.

Scientists at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, have developed and tested the first vaccine capable of protecting children from ages two to five against typhoid fever. The proper diagnostic methods are often lacking, resulting in inadequate treatment by antibiotics, says Chhatwal, who was born in India and has first-hand knowledge of the situation there. There are grounds for optimism, however. Less than ten percent of the streptococcal strains are capable of triggering serious complications.

If we had an effective test to quickly diagnose whether a patient is infected with a dangerous strain, then we could concentrate on these cases,” notes Chhatwal and points out that because the number of these cases is much lower than the total number of infected cases it would be much easier to introduce proper antibiotic treatments in poor countries.Previous studies have demonstrated that if a person makes antibodies to Vi polysaccharide they are usually protected from getting typhoid fever. There are currently two different vaccines used to prevent typhoid fever. Unfortunately, they don’t work very well in children. The newest vaccine contains the Vi polysaccharide bound to a protein. This vaccine is very good at inducing antibody production to the Vi polysaccharide in children.