Accurate
diagnosis of typhoid fever at an early stage is important not only for
etiological diagnosis, but also to identify individuals that may serve as
potential carriers, who may be responsible for acute typhoid fever outbreaks.
Additionally, the diagnosis of typhoid fever on clinical grounds is difficult,
as the presenting symptoms are diverse and similar to those observed with other
febrile illnesses. Serodiagnosis of typhoid fever has been attempted since the
late nineteenth century by Widal and Secard. The test is based on demonstrating
the presence of agglutinins (antibodies) in the serum of an infected patient,
against the H (flagellar) and O (somatic) antigens of Salmonella enterica
serotype typhi (S. typhi).(Read more)
In hospitals Clostridium difficile colitis is a
matter of becoming more acute, especially related to elderly patients. Health care for the elderly are
complex and multiple, different from those of adult. This care should take into
account the particularities linked to old age: presence of a multitude of
chronic diseases associated, mobility and mobilization increasingly difficult
and low, dependence in different degrees of helping from another person, less
capacity to adapt to environmental changes (e.g. hospitalization), mental
impairment, incontinence, etc. For example in Infectious
Diseases Hospital of Brasov in 2015 were 228 hospitalizations
for Clostridium
difficile colitis. Of these 66.23 % were patients older than 65
years and 21.05% over 80 years of age.(Read more)
Giardiasis is a zoonotic disease
that affects at least 280 million people worldwide each year. It is one of the
main causes of nonviral diarrhoea in industrialized countries and it is
associated with additional digestive disorders in children and adults including
abdominal pain, nausea. Giardiasis can develop into a chronic condition, anddisease can be aggravated in immunocompromised hosts. Infection with the
causative intestinal protozoa Giardia intestinalis is commonly associated with
unsafe drinking water, poor hygiene and sanitation, poverty and warm climate. Correspondingly,
the prevalence of G. intestinalis is estimated at 2-7% in developed
countries and up to 20-30% in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Owing
to their common faecal-oral mode of transmission G. intestinalis is
often found in coinfection with other intestinal protozoa.
Studies among school-aged
children across Africa are scarce; however, those available reports a G. intestinalis
prevalence’s of 16% in urban and 24% in rural areas of Morocco and 11.7% in a
rural setting in southern Ethiopia. From Côte D'Ivoire a 17.3% and 13.9%
prevalence was demonstrated in the Man area and the region of Agboville,
respectively. G.
intestinalis prevalence in school children in Burkina Faso is
currently described by several smaller studies reporting on local numbers,
while the national prevalence unknown. One such study, conducted in 2014, has
shown G.
intestinalis prevalence’s of 13.3%, 12.5% and 9.8% among children
aged 6-15 years from three different schools of the Central region. Another
setting revealed a prevalence of 43.7% in patients aged 5 months to 72 years
suffering from gastroenteritis visiting the Saint Camille Hospital of
Ouagadougou. A retrospective study of parasitological aetiology assessments of
gastroenteritis patients from the same hospital showed an infection rate of
24.8%.(Read more)
Zika virus was
discovered nearly 70 years ago, but received little attention prior to 2015, as
the virus infection causes no or only a mild, self-limiting illness without
need for treatment. However, large scale outbreaks in South and Central Americaand the Caribbean in 2015 strongly suggested Zika epidemic may have
associations with the increased cases of birth defect called microcephaly.
Microcephaly is a condition in which a person’s head is significantly smaller
than normal for their age and sex, and occurs most often when a baby’s brain
has not developed properly during pregnancy.
The microcephalus babies may have life-long intellectual or
physical disabilities. Now, a compilation of evidences solidified the link
between the Zika virus infection in pregnant mothers and microcephaly of their
babies. As the Zika virus has ‘explosive’ pandemic potential in Africa,
Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas, the World Health
Organization (WHO) declared Zika
virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in early 2016.(Read more)
A young man aged about 29 years attended the Outpatient’s
Department of Glocal Hospital, Krishnanagore, West Bengal, India with thecomplains of tiredness, loss of body weight, excessive sweating, and protrusion
of the eye balls. On further enquiry, it was found that he had bilateral
exophthalmos, raised systolic blood pressure 160/80 mmHg, tachycardia 120 beats
per minute, and fine tremor in the outstretched fingers of the hands, and had
diarrheoa. Laboratory tests showed that T4 was raised and TSH was
below normal. A diagnosis of Grave’s disease was made.
He was advised to take
Carbimazole (Neomercazole) 10 mg three times a day. He improved on treatment.
Grave’s disease is a combination of thyrotoxicosis and exophthalmos. The other
options of treatment are radio-iodine treatment and when required surgery. The
tremor may be controlled by using propranolol. Grave’s disease though not
common is also not rare. In my clinical experience, I saw 3 cases of Grave’s
disease in one year.(Read more)
Porcine
reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is a contagious disease of swine
caused by porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV). PRRS wasfirst reported in America in the late 1980s and subsequently reported in Europe.
The main clinical symptoms of this highly pathogenic disease are abortion,
stillbirth, breeding problems, and respiratory problems in newborns. The
vaccines that are currently commercially available contain inactivated or
attenuated virus immunogens and can lessen the clinical severity of PRRS.
However, these regimens offer limited protective efficacy and have a poor
safety profile. Design of a more effective immunogen or regimen is limited by
the lack of information available about the immune response to PRRSV. The
protective immune mechanism elicited by current vaccines is undetermined, and
the immune mechanisms responsible for clearing a natural infection of PRRSV
remain unknown. Furthermore, an efficacious immunogen must elicit an immune
response capable of protecting animals from genetically diverse strains of this
virus.(Read more)
During the last decade,
resurgence of TB has been seen in both developed and developing nations;
especially due to increase in cases of co-infection with human immune
deficiency virus (HIV). India contributes to approximately one quarter of globalTB burden. In 2015, 2.2 million new cases of active TB were detected in India,
out of global incidence of 9.6 million.
Rapid and reliable diagnosis of
disease is required for early start of lengthy treatment for TB. Acid fast
bacterial (AFB) culture followed by Ziehl-Neelsen staining of Mycobacteria
is time consuming and often not able to differentiate between tuberculous and
nontuberculous mycobacteria.
The EPTB is even more difficult to detect by AFB culture and smear methods due
to low bacillary load. The paucibacillary nature of EPTB, lack of uniform
distribution of mycobacteria
at various sites in the body makes the early diagnosis of this disease even
more cumbersome.(Read more)
Typhoid fever is a systemic
disease caused by Salmonella typhi and is the major cause of morbidity and
mortality worldwide. Reports by the World Health Organization revealed that
about 21 million cases and >600,000 annual deaths from typhoid fever occurthroughout the world. Developing nations share the highest burden due to rapid
population growth, increased urbanization, and limited safe water and health
systems.
Accurate diagnosis of typhoid
fever at an early stage is important not only for etiological diagnosis, but
also to identify individuals that may serve as potential carriers, who may be
responsible for acute typhoid fever outbreaks. Additionally, the diagnosis of
typhoid fever on clinical grounds is difficult, as the presenting symptoms are
diverse and similar to those observed with other febrile illnesses.
Serodiagnosis of typhoid fever has been attempted since the late nineteenth
century by Widal and Secard.(Read more)
The mammary gland may represent an organ of primary
localization of a hydatid cyst, but with an extremely rare frequency. Most of
reported studies in the literature show isolated cases. Patients usually present
a palpable and painless lump of the breast, and it is difficult to
differentiate these cysts from other tumoral lesions of the breast.
Diagnosis
is frequently delayed because the symptoms lack specificity and, moreover, they
mimic other pathological conditions. We report the case of a patient with
breast hydatid cyst in Transylvania, Romania, an area that is not considered
endemic.(Read more)
Dengue Virus (DENV), a
mosquito-borne virus, is a member of the Flaviviridae family and transmits to
humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes of the genus Aedes,
most often Aedes
aegypti (Ae. aegypti) and Ae. Albopictus. DENV includes four serotypes (DENV-1,
DENV-2, DENV-3, DENV-4). Generally, infected patients experience a spectrum of clinical
diseases ranging from an acute debilitating self-limited dengue fever (DF) to a
life-threatening syndrome, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), dengue shock
syndrome (DSS).
At present, no specific antiviral drugs and vaccines are
available against DENV. Therefore, DENV infections cause dramatic public health
issues in more than 100 countries and regions, particularly in tropical and
subtropical regions in the world. The geographic expansion of the vector
contributes to a widespread of disease with various severities. (Read more)
