Everyone, at some point in their life, have experienced getting sick from another human being. Whether it was contracting chicken pox playing kickball in elementary school or kissing a significant other, it is not uncommon to contract an infectious disease from another person.
A disease is defined as an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, usually indicated by specific symptoms and signs. Infectious diseases, in particular, are caused by external factors such as viruses, bacteria, and other harmful pathogens. It may be as simple as the coughing of co-worker or carelessness in the hospital that can cause you to contract an infectious disease. These diseases range from the common cold to deadly sexually transmitted diseases.
Infectious diseases may seem like an omnipresent part of human life, but there are definitely steps that you can take to avoid contracting such infectious diseases. Being careful and conscious of your safety, along with knowing your surrounding environment can help you avoid contract an infectious disease. Your skin is the main defensive mechanism against infectious diseases, but some diseases will find other ways to enter your body.
The rest of this article will give you tips on how to avoid contracting infectious diseases. Follow these tips to change your behavior and avoid the spread and contraction of these diseases. plumber atlanta Read more »
Tags: abnormal condition, article, Atlanta, Avoid, bacteria, behavior, being, Birthday, body, brain, carelessness, chicken, chicken pox, co worker, Cold, common cold, condition, contract, contracting, contraction, cornea, course, course of a day, day, defense, defensive mechanism, difference, disease, doctor, environment, Everyone, external factors, eye, flu, germ, happy birthday, Harmful, harmful microbes, harmful pathogens, hospital, Infectious, infectious disease, infectious diseases, invitation, keyboard, kickball, life, many different things, mechanism, microbe, Microbes, mouth, nose, organism, organism that impairs bodily functions, part, person, plumber, point, pox, practice, rest, safety, school, Sex, simple, skin, song, spread, surface, system, timer, use, vaccination, Wash, wash your hands, Washing, way
Posted in medicalmatrix | February 13, 2010 | 
Comments (0)
It may seem a daunting task to keep yourself and your loved ones free of infections. Beyond the obvious—steering clear of runny noses and hacking coughs—you may be wondering about some other practical ways of staying infection-free. Your skin acts as a natural barrier against harmful microbes that cause infections, but smart “bugs” have found alternative routes to get into your body and cause infection. By making a few simple behavioral changes (which ultimately reduce their access into your body), you can easily prevent the spread of many infectious diseases.
- Wash your hands frequently. Did you know that microbes can live on inert surfaces anywhere from a few minutes to several months? Imagine these disease-causing microbes living on your computer keyboard, your light-switch, or even on the pedestrian-crossing button next to the crosswalk!Surprisingly, most people don’t know the best way to effectively wash their hands. The CDC recommends washing thoroughly and vigorously with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, followed by hand-drying with a paper towel. In the absence of running water, an alcohol-based hand gel or wipe will suffice, although nothing beats good ol’ soap and water. This takes about as long as it does to sing “Happy Birthday”, so some hospitals recommend washing your hands for the duration of this simple tune!
- Don’t share personal items. Toothbrushes, towels, razors, handkerchiefs, and nail clippers can all be sources of infectious agents (bacteria, viruses, and fungi). In kindergarten, you were taught to share your toys, but keep your hands to yourself. Now try to remember to keep personal items to yourself as well!
- Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. In a similar vein, good personal hygiene includes not only personal cleanliness, but also the age-old practice of covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Why is this important if you aren’t sick? For most infections, the disease-causing microbe has already started growing and dividing long before any symptoms begin to show. Coughing or sneezing can spread these germs through microscopic droplets in the air. The current recommendation is to cover your mouth with your arm, sleeve, or crook of the elbow, rather than using your hands. Read more »
Tags: absence, access, air, animal, aren, arm, bacteria viruses, barrier, behavioral changes, Birthday, blood, body, button, cause infections, caution, CDC, cleanliness, computer, computer keyboard, cooking, cough, Coughing, Cover, crook, crosswalk, cutting, destination, dining, disease, Don, drinking, duration, Eat, elbow, environment, Exercise, food, Food-borne, gel, good personal hygiene, growth, Hand, handkerchiefs, Happy, harmful microbes, hygiene, inert, infection, Infections, Infectious, infectious agents, infectious diseases, keyboard, kindergarten, light switch, litter, memory, microbe, Microbes, moist, mouth, nail, nail clippers, natural barrier, nose, nothing, notice, number, paper, paper towel, pedestrian crossing, person, personal cleanliness, pick, practice, preparation, production, Promptly, recommendation, refrigerate, Refrigeration, room, runny noses, Sex, Sexually-transmitted, simple tune, skin, skin acts, sleeve, sneeze, soap, soap and water, source, spread, system, taboo, task, temperature, time, Toothbrushes, touching, towel, transfer, travel, traveler, trick, tune, use, vein, Wash, water, way
Posted in medicalmatrix | | Comments (0)
Infectious disease is disease caused by a pathogen which enters the body and triggers the development of an infection. Infectious diseases have a range of causes, and they can be found all over the world. These diseases are considered contagious or communicable, meaning that they can be passed from person to person. It is also possible for such diseases to spread indirectly through unhygienic conditions, or from animals to people, in which case they are known as zoonotic diseases.
A variety of pathogens can be responsible for infectious disease, including viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoans, and prions. Within these large categories of infectious organisms, there are numerous modes of transmission and a colorful assortment of symptoms, although surprisingly few organisms cause infectious disease, when one considers the diversity of viral, bacterial, fungal, and protozoan life. In order to treat an infectious disease, doctors must be able to knock out the source of the infection and repair the damage it has done to the body. Many infectious diseases make the body vulnerable to secondary infections, in which other organisms move in to take advantage of a weakened immune system, and this can be very problematic.
The study of infectious disease is known as epidemiology. Epidemiologists work to determine the source of an infectious disease so that they can develop new treatment approaches. They also identify emerging outbreaks, which may develop into epidemics or pandemics, and areas where a disease is endemic, meaning that it occurs regularly. Malaria, for example, is endemic to some regions of Africa and Southeast Asia. Read more »
Tags: access, advantage, Africa, AIDS, Antivirals, assortment, body, case, clean drinking water, colorful assortment, contact, damage, development, diarrheal, disease, diversity, drinking, education, effort, Epidemiologists, epidemiology, example, fight, fungal, fungi, HIV, hygiene, incidence, infection, Infectious, infectious disease, infectious disease doctors, infectious diseases, infectious organisms, killer, life, loss, malaria, medical facilities, modes of transmission, order, Pandemics, pathogen, person, person to person, prevention, prions, protozoan, protozoans, range, Reduction, rodents, Screening, secondary infections, source, Southeast Asia, spread, study, surgery, system, transmission, treatment, use, variety, vectors, water, weakened immune system, work, world, worldwide, zoonotic diseases
Posted in medicalmatrix | | Comments (0)
Background
Anemia, like a fever, is a symptom of disease that requires investigation to determine the underlying etiology. Often, practicing physicians overlook mild anemia. This is similar to failing to seek the etiology of a fever. The purpose of this article is to provide a method of determining the etiology of an anemia.
Anemia is strictly defined as a decrease in red blood cell (RBC) mass. Methods for measuring RBC mass are time consuming, are expensive, and usually require transfusion of radiolabeled erythrocytes. Thus, in practice, anemia is usually discovered and quantified by measurement of the RBC count, hemoglobin (Hb) concentration, and hematocrit (Hct). These values should be interpreted cautiously because they are concentrations affected by changes in plasma volume. For example, dehydration elevates these values, and increased plasma volume in pregnancy can diminish them without affecting the RBC mass.
Pathophysiology
Erythroid precursors develop in bone marrow at rates usually determined by the requirement for sufficient circulating Hb to oxygenate tissues adequately. Erythroid precursors differentiate sequentially from stem cells to progenitor cells to erythroblasts to normoblasts in a process requiring growth factors and cytokines. This process of differentiation requires several days. Normally, erythroid precursors are released into circulation as reticulocytes.
Reticulocytes remain in the circulation for approximately 1 day before reticulin is excised by reticuloendothelial cells with the delivery of the mature erythrocyte into circulation. The mature erythrocyte remains in circulation for about 120 days before being engulfed and destroyed by phagocytic cells of the reticuloendothelial system. Read more »
Tags: Abnormal, abnormality, absorption, access, addition, adulthood, African, age, AIDS, anemia, Arabians, area, aspirin, attemp, availability, average, Bleeding, blood, body, bone, bone marrow, bowel, calf, capability, care, Carefully, cell, Clinical, colon, color, contrast, Coumadin, decade, deficiency, deficient, dehydration, depletion, description, development, diet, difference, differentiation, disease, disorder, diverticula, document, donor, duration, equilibrium, erythrocyte, estimate, Etiology, examination, example, extent, factor, family, Fanconi, fault, food, gastrointestinal, Gram, growth factors, hair, Hbs, health, hematocrit, hemoglobin, Hemorrhoidal, hiatal, history, household, ice, incidence, inquiry, instance, investigation, iron, jaundice, life, loss, malaria, man, marrow, mass, meat, mild anemia, Morbidity, Mortality, mother, Neoplasia, nonsteroidal, northern Europe, NSAIDs, Obtain, occupation, part, Pathophysiology, patient, phagocytic cells, plasma volume, pregnancy, premenopausal, prescription, prevalence, quantity, Race, rate, RBC, red blood cell, rejection, replacement, reticulocytes, reticuloendothelial cells, reticuloendothelial system, Saudi, Severe, Sex, Sicilians, sickle, significance, Socioeconomic, splenectomy, standpoint, status, stem cells, symptom of disease, Symptoms, syndrome, tarry, thalassemia, tolerance, treatment, tumor, United States, urine, use, woman, Women, work, world
Posted in medicalmatrix | | Comments (0)
Background
Intracranial abscesses are uncommon, serious, life-threatening infections. They include brain abscess and subdural or extradural empyema and are classified according to the anatomical location or the etiologic agent. The term brain abscess is used in this article to represent all types of intracranial abscesses.
Intracranial abscesses can originate from infection of contiguous structures (eg, otitis media, dental infection, mastoiditis, sinusitis) secondary to hematogenous spread from a remote site (especially in patients with cyanotic congenital heart disease), after skull trauma or surgery, and, rarely, following meningitis. In at least 15% of cases, no source can be identified.
In recent years, the complex array of etiologic agents that cause brain abscess has become better understood.
Pathophysiology
Brain abscess is caused by intracranial inflammation with subsequent abscess formation. In at least 15% of cases, the source of the infection is unknown (cryptogenic). Infection may enter the intracranial compartment directly or indirectly via 3 routes.
Contiguous suppurative focus (45-50% of cases)
Direct extension may occur through necrotic areas of osteomyelitis in the posterior wall of the frontal sinus, as well as through the sphenoid and ethmoid sinuses.This direct route of intracranial extension is more commonly associated with chronic otitic infection and mastoiditis than with sinusitis. Odontogenic infections can spread to the intracranial space via direct extension or a hematogenous route. Contiguous spread could extend to various sites in the central nervous system, causing cavernous sinus thrombosis; retrograde meningitis; and epidural, subdural, and brain abscess. Read more »
Tags: abdominal, abscess formation, abscesses, administration, age, agent, AIDS, array, artery, article, availability, Background, body, brain, brain abscess, cause, cavernous sinus thrombosis, central nervous system, cerebellum, Chronic, Clinical, compartment, complication, congenital, congenital heart disease, contamination, Contiguous, contiguous structures, course, decrease, dental infection, diagnosis, dilatation, disease, distribution, drug, dural, emergence, emissary veins, empyema, entry, epidural, esophageal, ethmoid, ethmoid sinuses, etiologic agent, etiologic agents, evidence, exacerbation, extension, extradural, focus, formation, fracture, Frequency, frontal sinus, fulmi, fulminant, fungal, Haemophilus, heart, Hematogenous, history, HIV, hospital, imaging, indolent, infection, inflammation, influenzae, injection, International, Intracranial, introduction, life, lobe, location, lung, mode, Morbidity, Mortality, MRI, mucosa, mucosal, necrotic areas, network, neutropenia, Odontogenic, odontogenic infections, osteomyelitis, paranasal, Pathophysiology, posterior, prevalence, problem, rate, resul, retrograde, route, Rupture, seed, sequelae, Sex, shrapnel, site, skin, skull, source, space, sphenoid, spread, structure, subdural, surgery, system, term, Thrombophlebitis, transplantation, trauma, United States, use, vaccine, vasculature, wall, world
Posted in medicalmatrix | | Comments (0)