Prevention of Dysentery

Dysentery is an intestinal inflammation, especially in the colon, that can lead to sever diarrhea with mucus or blood in the feces. Patients typically experience mild to severe abdominal pain or stomach cramps. In some cases, untreated dysentery can be life-treating, especially if the infected person can not replace lost fluids fast enough.

Tips for how to prevent dysentery:

Below are some very important tips that will make you conscious about dysentery and you can learn how to prevent dysentery.

1. Maintain good personal hygiene: Washing your hands regularly is a vital habits that will help you avoid many diseases and infections. Please, wash your hand before eating, and preparing food. Wash you hand after using toilets, looking after a dysentery patient, changing diapers for children, handing pet animals, gardening or touching soil.

2. Be careful of safe sex: Sexual in intercourse that involves oral or anal contact can cause amoebic dysentery. You have to wash your hand with soap and warm water, as this will help you to prevent an infection to some extent. It is ideal that you refrain from sexual activities that involve anal contact, as this will make dysentery prevention easier.

3. Try to drink sterilized water: You have to sure that the water you use while drinking, brushing your teeth, and washing vegetables and fruits is free from any dysentery causing germs. This can be achieved through proper water treatment, which is an important dysentery prevention technique.

• Never drink untreated tap water before cleansing it.
• Boil water 10-15 minutes.
• Use water purifying tablets 15 minutes before drinking untreated water. 
• Use water filters that have been specially designed for 'Cyst Removal' 

Once the water have been treated to remove any kind of dysentery causing germs, store it in a clean place and keep it well covered.

4. Try to practice proper sewage disposal:  Dysentery causing organisms are spread through the faces of individual who are infected. This microorganisms are excreted along with the faces and contaminate the soil and water, making them potential sources of infection. For this reason, it is important to properly dispose the faces without letting it mingle with other elements. Care should be taken to ensure that the sewage does not contaminate surface or ground water, or any other water body that people use for consumption.  Untreated sewage should not be used as fertilizers as this too can contaminate crops, fruits, and vegetables that reach humans and trigger an  infection.

5. Try to eat safe food: Your food habits can also cause amoebic dysentery . Following the below measures can help you avoid contracting the infection.

• Avoid eating raw or undercooked food items 
• Wash vegetables and fruits with safe and clean water, before eating 
• Choose ice creams or drinking made of safe water
• Never use unpasteurized milk or dairy products 
• Avoid eating food from street vendors for the prevention of dysentery.

6. Take precautions when you travel: When you travel to tropical counties with poor sanitary conditions, take extra care and follow these simple measures to keep dysentery symptoms at bay.

• Don't eat or drink food items sold by street vendors 
• Drink only boiled water or bottled water 
• Do not have salads if you are not sure about their quality. 
• Do not drink from public water because it may be made from local water, you do not know about that. 
• Don't drink milk or eat cheese or dairy products that have not been pasteurised  ( a process that involves heating to destroy unwanted micro-organisms. 
• Don't eat fresh fruit or vegetables that can not be peeled before eating. 
• Do not have ice in your drinks because it may be made from the local water, that may not be pure.

It is equally important to take responsibility for the good health of others around you too. You can do this by following some simple dysentery prevention measures.

• If you are a healthcare worker taking caring care of a dysentery patient, ensure that you wash your hand thoroughly with soap after tending to a patient.
• Child care employees should use gloves when changing diapers for children and should wash their hands after tending to every child
• Never defecate near water bodies and ensure that your sewage system is well established 
• Don't attend any public gathering or report at work if you have dysentery, in order to minimize the chances of spreading infection.

As there is no immunization that can protect patient against amoebic dysentery, it is important that you adopt dysentery prevention measures for preventing the disease - within your house and in your community. On occasion, dysentery causes manage to get past the prevention measures taken. In such cases, opting for timely amoebic dysentery treatment is recommended.