Is acute nephritis contagious?

Written by Zhou Qi

Nephrology

Updated on September 29, 2024

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Acute nephritis is not contagious.

Acute nephritis generally occurs after a patient has a bacterial inflammation of the respiratory tract, such as infections by streptococcus, staphylococcus, and other bacteria affecting the respiratory tract, urinary tract, digestive tract, or skin. This leads to a secondary inflammatory response. These inflammatory immune complexes travel through the bloodstream to the kidneys, causing an inflammatory reaction within the organ. It could also be due to the deposition of immune complexes within the glomeruli, leading to glomerular damage.

This disease itself is not contagious. Although these bacteria exist as triggers, they typically do not have the capability to infect other patients. Moreover, even if they were to infect others, it would not necessarily lead to nephritis.

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Written by Zhou Qi

Nephrology

57sec

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How long does acute nephritis require hospitalization?

Generally speaking, regardless of the disease, the condition is often stable when patients are discharged from the hospital, including the management of acute nephritis. The length of hospital stay for patients with acute nephritis depends on the individual condition of the patient. If the condition of acute nephritis is mild and the patient does not have obvious symptoms, such as mild proteinuria and hematuria, such patients may be hospitalized for about a week. After assessing the condition and predicting gradual improvement, the patient can be discharged. However, if acute nephritis causes some serious complications and the patient's condition is unstable, such as leading to congestive heart failure, some patients may also develop acute renal failure and severe consequences like lung infections. Before these complications are controlled and stabilized, the patient cannot be discharged, and the hospital stay may even exceed one month.

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Written by Li Liu Sheng

Nephrology

1min

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What are the symptoms of acute nephritis?

Acute nephritis is commonly seen in children. Most cases of acute nephritis are preceded by a history of streptococcal infection one to three weeks before the onset. Once acute nephritis occurs, the main symptoms include the development of edema, especially swelling of the eyelids and face after waking up in the morning. Additionally, patients with acute nephritis will also experience hematuria, which can be visible or microscopic, with increased foam in the urine and a change in color, and even a decrease in urine output. Of course, patients with severe acute nephritis will also experience a significant increase in blood pressure, leading to nausea, vomiting, headaches, palpitations, chest tightness, shortness of breath, and an inability to lie flat, resulting in heart failure. Therefore, patients with acute nephritis need to undergo reasonable and standardized treatment to avoid complications.

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Written by Zhou Qi

Nephrology

38sec

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Is acute nephritis prone to "excessive internal heat"?

Acute nephritis indeed tends to cause "fire-up," which refers to the viral infection in patients. Typically, the appearance of herpes on the upper lip is colloquially known as "fire-up," but in reality, this is an active manifestation of the herpes virus when the body's immune capacity is low. The human body often carries this virus, and symptoms appear when immunity is low. In the state of acute nephritis, it is easy to result in reduced immunity in patients, thus activating the dormant virus in the body, causing herpes in corresponding areas including the upper lip and corners of the mouth.

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Written by Hu Lin

Nephrology

1min 9sec

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The difference between acute nephritis and acute pyelonephritis.

The full name of acute nephritis is acute glomerulonephritis. This disease mainly occurs in children and is often preceded by an infection, such as an upper respiratory tract infection or a skin infection. Typical clinical manifestations of acute glomerulonephritis include sudden hematuria, proteinuria, edema, hypertension, and some patients may exhibit transient azotemia. The severity of the condition varies among patients, with severe cases presenting as oliguric acute renal failure. Acute pyelonephritis, on the other hand, is a type of urinary tract infection. Its main clinical symptoms are fever, chills, frequent urination, urgent urination, painful urination, difficulty urinating, and may also include nausea, vomiting, headache, and general body aches. Its diagnosis is mainly based on the presence of positive urinary leukocytes in the routine urine test, and a clean-catch midstream urine culture greater than 100,000 per milliliter.

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Written by Zhou Qi

Nephrology

53sec

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Is acute nephritis contagious?

Acute nephritis is not contagious. Acute nephritis generally occurs after a patient has a bacterial inflammation of the respiratory tract, such as infections by streptococcus, staphylococcus, and other bacteria affecting the respiratory tract, urinary tract, digestive tract, or skin. This leads to a secondary inflammatory response. These inflammatory immune complexes travel through the bloodstream to the kidneys, causing an inflammatory reaction within the organ. It could also be due to the deposition of immune complexes within the glomeruli, leading to glomerular damage. This disease itself is not contagious. Although these bacteria exist as triggers, they typically do not have the capability to infect other patients. Moreover, even if they were to infect others, it would not necessarily lead to nephritis.