The rise of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease in India

Sub: Science and tech

Sub: Health

What is Inflammatory Bowel Disease(IBD)?

IBD is a chronic autoimmune condition where the white blood cells mistakenly identify cells in the human gut as their enemy and decide to attack it, causing ulcers in the mucosa.
As a result a child with IBD may develop fever, loose stools and bloody diarrhea.
These children may not absorb macro and micronutrients and hence lose weight, muscle mass, become anemic and may have vitamin deficiencies.

What are various types of IBD?

There were two types of IBD.

Ulcerative colitis:

Ulcerative colitis affects only the large bowel.
Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in which abnormal reactions of the immune system cause inflammation and ulcers on the inner lining of your large intestine.
Ulcerative colitis can develop at any age, but the disease is more likely to develop in people between the ages of 15 and 30.

Crohn’s disease:

Crohn’s disease can affect any part of the gut from mouth to anus.
Crohn’s disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
It causes swelling of the tissues (inflammation) in your digestive tract, which can lead to abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition.
Sometimes when we find it difficult to distinguish between these two conditions, we label it Indeterminate Colitis for a while until it evolves into one of the above conditions.

Why does IBD occur frequently in children?

Children who are susceptible to IBD often have a weak or dysregulated immune system which responds inappropriately to environmental triggers such as a virus or bacteria.
There may also be genetic factors which predispose these children to IBD as sometimes it seems to affect members of the same family.
The human gastrointestinal tract harbors millions of microorganisms,often referred to as gut microbiota which plays an important role in IBD.
The gut microbiota of each individual is unique and influences health and disease.
The nature and composition of gut microbiota can be altered by frequent antibiotics.
Westernization of food habits and lifestyle is also strongly linked to changes in the gut microbiota and a predisposition to develop IBD.

How can we treat and cure IBD?

IBD – Crohn’s disease can be treated with very effective medications that control the inflammation and suppress the dysregulated and overactive immune system.
These medications include steroids and a new class of drugs called biologics.
IBD – Ulcerative colitis is also treated similarly, though another group of drugs called ‘aminosalicylates’ are used to treat milder forms of Ulcerative colitis.
Exclusive Enteral Nutrition has not been found to be useful in treating Ulcerative Colitis.