Can you get the same bout of gasto twice?!
Question: If a case of Gasto develops in the family and say for instance you were the first one to get it, can you catch it again off one of your children, does anybody know the answer ? The same goes for the common cold , can you recatch that same infection twice?.
Answers: If a case of Gasto develops in the family and say for instance you were the first one to get it, can you catch it again off one of your children, does anybody know the answer ? The same goes for the common cold , can you recatch that same infection twice?.
First a brief on viruses and bacteria.
If it's a virus then no, you can't catch the same thing again, at least not immediately. You can catch a virus again after it has mutated (they do that) or if you are exposed to a different strain that your immune system doesn't recognize. It can take years for a virus to mutate. Very few viruses mutate quickly. Also, it takes (on average) 7-10 days for a cold or flu virus to incubate before you start showing symptoms. So if you're getting sick today, you were exposed at least a week ago.
What diseases are caused by viruses? The stomach virus, cold, flu, measles, Hepatitis, pneumonia(also bacterial), etc... Viruses can cause all kinds of things. They can cause symptoms similar or identical to bacteria. The only way to tell the difference for sure is to test (stool, urine, blood, etc) and see what the lab isolates. Some viruses are really hard to isolate or are really fragile, so that isn't always perfect.
Bacteria are a different story. You can get reinfected with bacteria. What diseases are caused by bacteria? Strep throat, pneumonia(yep, also viral), infected wounds, a bunch of things... Bacteria tend to be easier to isolate in the lab.
If your gastroenteritis is bacterial you can pass it back and forth to each other repeatedly.
Whether it is bacterial or viral, the best way to get rid of your gastroenteritis is to start washing your hands well after going to the bathroom, before cooking, after changing diapers or cleaning a bathroom being used by multiple people with diarrhea AND by going to the doctor to see if you need treatment. Many gastroenteritis diseases are self-limiting and will go away in a fairly short period of time. The best thing you can do is to start washing your hands to avoid re-infecting yourself or passing it on to someone else. With GI bugs it isn't uncommon to continue shedding organisms for a week or two after the symptoms go away.
Good hand washing takes 30 seconds.
Wet your hands, soap up, then start your count: front, back between the fingers, under the nails if you can, up the wrists if you can. Sing "row, row, row your boat" three times to get the 30 seconds.
You don't need antibacterial soap, or anything special. Regular old soap and water is all you need.
Hope this answered your question.
It's probably not the exact same infection strain. I think I've had different flus, like 3 times this year. Most recently the stomach flu.
yes, you can get gastrointeritis twice!
i began suffering with gastrointeritis at age 17. they blamed it on too much yeast. come to find out at age 34 I had hepatitis c and it has been conclusive that my bouts with gastro were caused by HCV. They were a bi-directional disease common to those with HCV infection- a viral infection of the liver.