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 »
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Posted in medicalmatrix | February 13, 2010 | 
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PHILADELPHIA – For the folks who promote vaccination, these are trying times. Recently, CNN hosted a segment titled: “Virus or Vaccine: Which is Worse?”
It’s enough to set Paul Offit to ranting, which he did this week at a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Offit, a physician who heads the infectious disease division at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, has devoted a career to fighting illness. In his job, vaccines are often the most reliable weapon available, and cost-effective to boot. And although it’s astonishingly more dangerous to contract a disease than it is to get vaccinated for it, that message seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way.
Offit traces this detour back to 1982, when DPT — the shot that prevents diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis – was (wrongly) linked to brain damage. “Three people believed their kids were harmed by the vaccine,” he says.
Offit has compassion for families who have a child who has suffered, whatever the cause may be, known or unknown. But since 1982, it’s been one accusation after another against vaccines. People tried to link the HIB vaccine to diabetes (no evidence), the hepatitis B vaccine to multiple sclerosis (all but one study found no link), and other vaccines to SIDS or autism. Recently, the HPV vaccine — which prevents cervical cancer – got linked to heart attacks and strokes (no proof).
And now the seasonal flu vaccine and H1N1 flu vaccine are being skipped by millions of people who somehow distrust the science that went into making them, even though the illnesses they cause can be fatal. Read more »
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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 »
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Background
Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an autoimmune inflammatory process that develops as a sequela of streptococcal infection. ARF has extremely variable manifestations and remains a clinical syndrome for which no specific diagnostic test exists. Persons who have experienced an episode of ARF are predisposed to recurrence following subsequent (rheumatogenic) group A streptococcal infections. The most significant complication of ARF is rheumatic heart disease, which usually occurs after repeated bouts of acute illness.
Pathophysiology
ARF is characterized by nonsuppurative inflammatory lesions of the joints, heart, subcutaneous tissue, and central nervous system. An extensive literature search has shown that, at least in developed countries, rheumatic fever follows pharyngeal infection with rheumatogenic group A streptococci. The risk of developing rheumatic fever after an episode of streptococcal pharyngitis has been estimated at 0.3-3%. More recent investigations of rheumatic fever occurring in the aboriginal populations of Australia suggest that streptococcal skin infections might also be associated with the development of rheumatic fever. In Oceania and Hawaii, streptococcal strains that are not typically associated with rheumatic fever have been found to cause the disease.
Molecular mimicry accounts for the tissue injury that occurs in rheumatic fever. Both the humoral and cellular host defenses of a genetically vulnerable host are involved. In this process, the patient’s immune responses (both B- and T-cell mediated) are unable to distinguish between the invading microbe and certain host tissues.The resultant inflammation may persist well beyond the acute infection and produces the protean manifestations of rheumatic fever.
Frequency
United States
The incidence of ARF has declined markedly in the past 50 years in both the United States and Western Europe. Most Western physicians see only the late sequelae of rheumatic heart disease; the diagnosis of an acute case is usually reason enough for a ground rounds presentation. This remarkable decline of rheumatic fever likely reflects improved socioeconomic conditions, as well the decline in prevalence of the classically described rheumatogenic strains of group A streptococci.
Following two decades of almost total absence, a resurgence of ARF occurred in the 1980s among middle-class white children in Salt Lake City, Utah. Clusters were also reported in US Army and Navy training camps during the same period. These limited outbreaks were associated with mucoid rheumatogenic strains that were rarely seen in the preceding 20 years. Today, ARF remains a rarity in most of the United States, although Hawaii and American Samoa continue to see a significant number of cases, many of which are caused by streptococcal strains not usually associated with rheumatic fever in persons of Polynesian descent. Read more »
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