Bornholm Disease - Bornholm Disease Symptom, Causes, Treatment

What is Bornholm Disease?

Bornholm Disease ia a viral infection by any of six known types of the coxsackieviruses, which cause inflammation of muscles, mainly those between the ribs. It is spread from person to person, usually by coughing or sneezing.

Bornholm disease (named after a Danish island, and also called pleurodynia) occurs in epidemics and mostly affects children and adolescents. Epidemic pleurodynia also is called Bornholm disease, Sylvest's disease, devil's grip and epidemic benign dry pleurisy. It usually is caused by one of the group B coxsackieviruses and is less often caused by a group A coxsackievirus or an echovirus.

Symptom of Bornholm Disease

Symptom of Bornholm Disease include the sudden onset of severe pains in the chest and upper abdomen that are worsened by deep breathing; fever, headache and other flu-like symptoms; and tenderness of the muscles between the lower ribs. Symptoms usually last about one to two days in children and about two to six days in adults. Sometimes the pain and fever return after one to two days of symptoms being absent. Rarely several recurrences of pain and fever occur over a period of three weeks or more

Diagnosis of Bornholm Disease

Diagnosis is usually easy in an epidemic, although other causes of acute chest and abdominal pain must be excluded. Your doctor may press on muscles in your chest to see if the pressure triggers a spasm of pain. Often, your doctor can diagnose the problem without any special tests, especially if there is an outbreak of the illness in your area. The infection occasionally spreads to cause inflammation in other organs, including the pleura (membrane surrounding the lungs), lungs, heart, liver, brain and testes.

Treatment of Bornholm Disease

There is no specific cure. The best treatment of Bornholm Disease is complete bed rest, and fever and pain can be reduced by paracetamol for children or aspirin for adults. Recovery in uncomplicated cases is usually complete within a week. Here is the list of some of the preventon tips or tips for treating Bornholm Disease :

• People of any age can be affected although it often affects people under the age of 30.
• Painkillers and drugs to reduce fever can be used. Heat therapy with a hot water bottle over the painful area may help.
• Intravenous immune globulin may be used to treat newborns and those with a weakened immune system.
• Good hygiene and regular hand-washing can reduce the risk of contracting the infection.

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