Low neutrophils count results to a disease known as neutropenia. Neutrophils are contained in the white blood cells and help in reducing risks of infection of diseases in the body. People do not always realize that they have neutropenia unless they have been tested for other infections.
Although it is very rare, neutropenia can be found in people who seem very healthy. It can happen in many ways; destruction of the neutrophils in the body, decreased production or accumulation of the neutrophils away from the circulation that is also called pooling of the neutrophils. It can be as a result of many conditions that are brought about by someone's daily life.
Without your knowledge neutropenia can be caused by the types of medication that you take. Most of the time, drugs usually distort the functions of the bone marrow. Medical; procedures usually like chemotherapy usually affect the bone marrow and this can result to low neutrophils count in the body. It can also be caused by bacterial infections like tuberculosis and malaria which cause in the wearing out of the white blood cells. Other causes are inborn disorders, deficiency of vitamins, radiation therapy and bone marrow diseases like leukemia.
In itself, neutropenia does not have specific symptoms. Since your bodies can no longer fight infections, it becomes vulnerable to many diseases. It is through such diseases that you will realize some symptoms. The infections can be used to assess the symptoms of the disorder.
Some of the most common infections are:
If you have noticed some or most of these symptoms then you should probably visit your doctor for through checkup. In doing so, you will find out whether you have neutropenia and how strong it is in your system. Depending on the strength of the infection, there are several ways of treating low neutrophils. Mostly, doctors start with antibiotics to suppress further infection in your body. Antibiotic will treat all the bacterial infections in your body. There is also the G-CSF method that stimulates your bone marrow to produce more white blood cells. For more serious cases, doctors might use other measure like stem cell transplants.
Patients suffering from low neutrophils count are at high risks of getting infections. The infections can get as serious as fatal if not well taken care of. Taking precaution is the best way to reduce the seriousness of neutropenia. If you are suffering from neutropenia, then you should follow the following guidelines to prevent yourself from contacting infections.