Stomach flu or viral gastroenteritis is an infection that occurs in the intestines and is transmitted often by drinking contaminated water or eating contaminated food. The virus is transmitted also through physical contact with a person who is infected by the virus. A healthy person can recover easily without complications but people with weak immune systems, older adults, and infants can die from the infection. Prevention is vital since no treatment is effective.
Gastroenteritis (commonly know as stomach flu or stomach bug or infectious diarrhea), is an infection of the gastrointestinal tract by bacteria or viruses and results in nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and an increase in body temperature. It is not related to the true flu. Pathogens are usually Campylobacter bacteria, salmonella, or a norovirus. Noroviruses often cause vomiting and diarrhea for 2-3 days, are very infectious, and can cause an epidemic.
Between a few hours and a few days after contagion, the patient experiences vomiting or diarrhea. Some pathogens may cause blood in the stool. It is usually accompanied by loss of appetite, fatigue, stomach pain or -cramps. Fever and sweating can occur as well. Many patients describe vertigo and a tendency to collapse, which can be caused mainly by dehydration.
Patients can find themselves in a dangerous situation if they become too dehydrated from the loss of fluids due to diarrhea and vomiting. Thus it’s important to replace lost fluids by rehydrating often (with drinks like cola that contain sugars and salts). Bed rest is also recommended, as well as easily digested foods (toast, pretzel sticks), and medication for nausea and diarrhea can be used if needed. If diarrhea does not go away, a high fever develops, there is blood in the stool, or you cannot drink without help, make an appointment with your doctor.
Several years of work in academia, medical practice and finally commercialization make it possible to provide an end-to-end process to help users to “find the appropriate medical help based on their present symptoms”. Below you will find a short explanation, showing you which part of the platform will help you best in finding the appropriate medical support.
Proceed as follows to enter your current symptoms.
Click on the appropriate body part on the picture. Select one/multiple symptoms corresponding to your complaint.
You can also add symptoms by typing your medical complaint in the search box and selecting the best matching suggestion.
Note: Your information will be kept anonymously.
Once you have selected all applicable symptoms, click the “analyze disease pattern”-button.
Accordingly, you will get a list of possible diseases and matching doctor categories who can further help you.
You can inform yourself about the possible diseases by reading the related information. But you can also return to the previous step and add more symptoms or delete already added ones to further narrow down your disease pattern.
Click on the desired doctor category to find a doctor who can help you.
If you are logged in with your profile, you will be displayed the appropriate doctors in your area. Otherwise you can enter an address in the “address” field and you will be displayed a doctor’s list around that specified address.
You will receive further information about the displayed doctors when you press on “details”.
Online bookable doctors in your area will be indicated with the notation “Book appointment” or “Book externally”, additionally they will be displayed on top of the list for your convenience.
Click on “Book appointment” to start the online appointment booking process with the desired doctor.
Please select an available appointment. “Green“ appointments are booked directly. “Red“ appointments need to be confirmed by the doctor.
Enter your general personal and health information.
Enter your present medical symptoms.
Enter your mobile phone number to identify yourself and you can finalize the appointment booking.
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