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PubMed1975

Infectious diseases in primitive societies.

Incidence of various infectious diseases in several Amazon Indian tribes has been determined serologically. Diseases that infect only man fall into two distinct categories. Those which can persist in an individual for a prolonged period are highly endemic, but those which are infectious only in the acute phase die out quickly after introduction. The suggestion is made that the latter diseases could not perpetuate themselves before the advent of advanced cultures and did not exert selective pressures on the human genetic constitution until relatively recently.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Aspects of genetic susceptibility to human infectious diseases.

Host genetic factors play a major role in determining differential susceptibility to major infectious diseases of humans, such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and invasive pneumococcal disease. Progress in identifying the relevant genetic loci has come from a variety of approaches. Most convincing associations have been identified by case-control studies assessing biologically plausible candidate genes. All six of the genes that have a major effect on infectious disease susceptibility in humans have been identified in this way. However, recently genome-wide linkage analysis of affected sibling pairs has identified susceptibility loci for chronic infections such as leprosy and chronic hepatitis B virus persistence. Other approaches used successfully have included assessment in humans of the homologues of susceptibility genes mapped and identified in murine models. However, the great majority of susceptibility loci remain to be identified and the advent of large-scale genome-wide association scans offers a new approach to defining many of these.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗

PubMed2002

(n-3) Fatty acids and infectious disease resistance.

The current view of the manner in which (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) affect the immune system is centered on their ability to alter cytokine production and secondarily to diminish eicosanoid biosynthesis. The purpose of this article is to review the evidence that (n-3) PUFA affect host infectious disease resistance. Although there have been a few human clinical trials involving (n-3) PUFA and human infectious disease, the data are equivocal and the study designs confounded by the simultaneous inclusion of other immunonutrients (i.e., arginine and nucleotides) with the (n-3) PUFA. Thus, this review focuses on animal feeding trials that include an in vivo challenge of the host with a live infectious agent. Host survival and pathogen clearance are the most common end points measured in these studies. The data suggest that (n-3) PUFA can both improve and impair host resistance to a number of pathogens. However, the data are still quite limited in breadth and depth. For those pathogens for which data exist, the number of published studies in general does not exceed two or three. Emphasis is placed on defining important microbiological and immunological differences in various host-pathogen interactions that might help explain the incongruity in the findings published to date. The authors believe that direct examination of (n-3) PUFA on human infectious disease resistance is warranted.

Animals↗

PubMed1995

Infectious Disease in Ecuador.

The republic of Ecuador, which has a population of 10 million, is one of the smallest of the Andean countries in South America. Although it covers only an area of 110,000 square miles, it yields an extraordinary diversity of infectious diseases. Public health problems reflect socioeconomic realities and uniquely diverse climates, cultures, and geography. Equador extends from the Galapagos Islands 600 miles to the west, to inhabited Andean highlands with altitudes over 15,000 feet, and to both the coastal and Amazonian rain forests. Health statistics in Ecuador are widely variable by western standards. Life expectancy is 64-68 years, and infant mortality rates are up to 60 per 1000. The physical and geographic barriers to health care facilities are highly variable in different provinces. This was evidenced dramatically by recent death rates from cholera in 1991-92, which ranged from 0% in Guayaquil to over 50% in isolated highland villages or in the Oriente (eastern provinces). Major cities, provincial borders, and selected topographic features are illustrated in the accompanying map of Ecuador (Fig. 1.) This review reports data on some of the major infectious diseases existent in Ecuador. Emphasis is on the viral, bacterial, protozoal, or helminthic diseases, which are uncommon elsewhere in the world, but which are prevalent, or especially important to public health officials in Ecuador. Table 1 lists reportable disease categories in Ecuador, 1986-1993. Recognition of the diversity of infectious agents endemic to Ecuador may prove useful for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases in international travelers.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1998

CD48 expression on leukocytes in infectious diseases: flow cytometric analysis of surface antigen.

BACKGROUND: The function of CD48, one of the pan leukocyte cell surface antigens, is not yet well understood. CD48 was recently shown to enhance the CD40-mediated activating signal to B lymphocytes. As CD48 is one of the activation antigens of monocytes, neutrophils and lymphocytes, a change of its expression on the cells could be expected in infectious diseases. METHODS AND RESULTS: Leukocytes from 27 healthy controls and 97 patients with various infectious diseases were stained with anti CD48 antibody and analyzed by flow cytometry. On monocytes and neutrophils, the CD48 expression was increased in all of the patients with varicella, measles, rubella, infectious mononucleosis, streptococcus tonsillitis, sepsis and appendicitis. On lymphocytes, a significant increase of CD48 was also detected in the patients with the same diseases, except those with sepsis or appendicitis. The normalization of increased CD48 expression was confirmed on monocytes at the convalescent phase. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that CD48 expression on leukocytes reflects the disease activity of infectious diseases, especially of viral infections.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A new joint training programme in infectious diseases and medical microbiology.

The increasing overlap between the disciplines of medical microbiology and infectious diseases prompted the Joint Royal Colleges Committee on Infection and Tropical Medicine to set up a working party to examine how trainees could obtain certification in both subjects. Following widespread consultations, a scheme was developed that entails six years of training and leads to the award of CCSTs in both microbiology and infectious diseases. Both Royal Colleges and the Specialist Training Authority have approved the scheme. Joint training will be demanding and will not be suitable for everyone; it represents an alternative approach to training in the infection disciplines that will run alongside the existing monospecialty training programmes.

Certification↗

PubMed1991

The potential of embryo transfer for infectious disease control in livestock.

This review of the general epidemiological aspects of embryo transfer indicates that the transfer of embryos provides the opportunity to introduce genetic material into populations of livestock while greatly reducing the risk for transmission of infectious diseases. Studies of specific diseases of livestock confirm that many pathogens are likely to be excluded when embryos are transferred. Twenty years of commercial embryo transfer under field conditions in a variety of species has not resulted in a single documented transmission of an infectious disease agent. Strategies for insuring that embryos are free of pathogens include the use of donors that are specific pathogen-free, washing of embryos, the trypsin treatment of embryos, or a combination of these methods. Although researchers continue to develop new procedures for the treatment of embryos to provide an even greater margin of safety, it is clear that existing techniques for the handling and transfer of embryos can be used to limit the spread of infectious diseases.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2006

Risk factors for infectious disease in corneal transplant screening.

PURPOSE: To identify potential medical and behavioral risk factors associated with infectious disease seropositivity in potential corneal donors using an extensive questionnaire completed by the next of kin. METHODS: Retrospective review of medical history and behavioral risk assessment questionnaire and microbiology data for potential corneal donors seropositive for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency virus, human T-cell leukemia virus and syphilis as compared to controls. RESULTS: Tobacco use, cigarette smoking, chest pain and heart disease are each associated with corneal donor seropositivity (P < 0.05). Vaccination in the last twelve months is inversely associated with infectious disease (P < 0.05). Statistically significant factors associated with hepatitis C positive donors include: cigarette use, illicit drug use, chest pain, cardiac medications, kidney stones and lung disease (P < 0.05). Factors most often associated with transmission of this disease panel (such as intravenous drug use, sexual contact with prostitutes and history of blood transfusion) are often not identified by the next of kin in the questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: While there are questionnaire identified risk factors associated with seropositivity in this study, their clinical usefulness is unclear. Many factors crucial to the elimination of potentially infectious donor tissues are not identified in the posthumous history typically completed by next of kin. These questionnaires alone do not provide exclusion criteria for elimination of potentially infectious tissues from the donor pool.

Communicable Diseases↗

PubMed2004

Research on infectious diseases requires better coordination.

This special supplement of Nature Medicine, directed at the topic of emerging infectious diseases, is very timely. Recent high-profile outbreaks have highlighted the global risk that infectious agents, both new and old, represent for society. The experience of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) shows the risk posed by emerging infectious diseases, but also the power of strongly coordinated global surveillance and public health measures, coupled with scientific research, to keep infection under control. Diseases such as drug-resistant malaria continue to be threats. There is a need to enhance global resources to investigate, detect and respond to emerging infections, and to appropriately coordinate and direct research efforts to meet the challenges presented by these diseases.

Communicable Disease Control↗

PubMed2026

From spillover to systems: evidence gaps in One Health preparedness for emerging infectious diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Latin America and the Caribbean are a global hotspot for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, yet regional One Health preparedness remains uneven and incompletely operationalized. This narrative Mini Review synthesizes evidence published mainly between 2015 and 2026 on One Health preparedness for emerging infectious diseases in the region, emphasizing how environmental disruption and climate change shape zoonotic and vector-borne spillover risk. Available regional surveys suggest broad professional familiarity with the One Health concept but limited operational implementation, with environmental health frequently identified as the least-integrated domain. We argue that spillover risk-and the failure to detect and contain spillover once it occurs-should be understood as a system-level outcome shaped by ecological disruption, socioeconomic vulnerability, surveillance capacity, and governance, rather than as an isolated biological event: deforestation, agricultural and extractive expansion-including illegal mining and logging-unplanned urbanization, and climate variability generate new human-animal-vector interfaces, while fragmented governance, uneven and poorly decentralized laboratory capacity, and limited reservoir and environmental surveillance leave these interfaces unmonitored. Environmental and climatic drivers are robustly linked to spillover, although the pathways are disease-specific rather than universal, and socioeconomic vulnerability concentrates the resulting burden in Indigenous, rural, and marginalized populations. We identify priority gaps in integrated surveillance, decentralized diagnostics, genomic capacity, reservoir ecology, governance, financing, and equity, and propose an agenda for anticipatory, climate-informed, and context-sensitive preparedness.

Latin America↗

PubMed1999

[The important role of the microbiology laboratory in treating patients with infectious diseases and in controlling hospital infections].

It is very important for the microbiology laboratory to provide the clinician with information about microbiology laboratory tests results as soon as possible, since this data is strongly connected to treating patients with infectious diseases appropriately, as well as with performing adequate hospital infection control. Therefore, the microbiology laboratory should always have a good relationship and good communication with the clinician and infection control practitioner. For this purpose, it would be beneficial for the microbiology laboratory staff to attend the doctor's round to see patients with infectious diseases, or to attend the patients management conferences in the wards. In most hospitals in Japan, microbiology laboratories are closed on holidays. But the microbiology laboratory should be available for at least some important tests, such as the identification and susceptibility testing of blood cultures isolates on holidays in order to facilitate treatment of patients with serious infectious diseases by appropriate antimicrobial therapy.

Bacterial Infections↗

PubMed2006

Management of persistent bacteremia caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a survey of infectious diseases consultants.

We conducted a survey in 2005 of infectious diseases consultants and asked about persistent bacteremia due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Many consultants perceived an increase in the frequency of illness, and, when presented with vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentrations approaching the limit of the susceptible range, most consultants indicated that they would switch to newer antimicrobial agents for treatment.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

PubMed2006

The Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative.

At the Kyushu-Okinawa Group of Eight summit in 2000, Japan announced the Okinawa Infectious Diseases Initiative (IDI) and pledged to spend US$3 billion over a five year period to combat infectious and parasitic diseases in developing countries. The IDI has exceeded expectations, spending more than US$4 billion over four years. The IDI is a unique initiative with its own philosophical basis and specifically tailored interventions and measures that helped to initiate worldwide political and financial commitments in the fight against infectious diseases. Notably, it promoted partnerships among stakeholders and emphasized comprehensive and inter-sectoral approaches (i.e. coordination and collaboration between health and other sectors). It helped to create a new vision of what is possible in the global effort against communicable diseases and has been instrumental in shaping the changing environments of development assistance, poverty reduction and other trends to reduce the impact of infectious and parasitic diseases.

Animals↗

PubMed2003

Update on molecular techniques for diagnostic testing of infectious disease.

The era of diagnostic molecular biology has arrived for small animal clinicians, and it is a near certainty that assays such as the PCR and RT-PCR will become more widely available for a wider array of infectious agents. Already there is an extensive list of infectious diseases of dogs and cats that have been investigated with molecular tools. A partial list is included in box 1. An understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the molecular techniques and some of the questions these techniques can answer for clinicians can serve practitioners well in their approach to the diagnosis of infectious diseases in dogs and cats. It is likely that additional applications of these tools to small animal medicine will become apparent as investigators use and refine them for their research purposes, or as new uses emerge from human medical applications. Clinicians also are likely to reap the benefits of this knowledge. Because samples often are acquired easily from clinical patients in most practice settings, access to these tools puts all clinicians in the group of discoverers of new, or variations of, infectious diseases and their clinical manifestations.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Immunogenetics and infectious diseases: special reference to the mayor histocompatibility complex.

Many studies have tried to identify genetic markers for infectious diseases, some of them have focused on human leukocyte antigens (HLA). The products of HLA genes interact with surface-specific receptors of T lymphocytes, resulting in activation of the host's immune response. Association of bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal infections with the host's HLA has been widely investigated. The type and strength of this association differs among distinct populations, as well as among racial and/or ethnic groups. The new molecular methods for the identification of the HLA alleles, and the resulting new nomenclature, have contributed to a better understanding of this system. Unfortunately, this information has not been adequately transmitted to clinicians, which hampers the understanding of the association between the HLA system and diseases. We revised relevant studies on the association of HLA genes with infectious diseases, demonstrating their importance in the pathogenic mechanisms, through increased susceptibility or protection against infections and their complications.

Alleles↗

PubMed1992

An infectious disease day care unit--the first year.

Details are given of what is believed to be the first Day Care Unit in the U.K. for the diagnosis and treatment of infection and infectious diseases. The reaction of referring doctors and their patients has been favourable, cross-infection in the home has not been a problem and some potentially life-threatening infections have been diagnosed earlier than might otherwise have been the case. Capital and running costs were relatively small and the use of inpatient beds for infectious diseases became more efficient.

Costs and Cost Analysis↗

PubMed2004

[Surveillance of notifiable infectious diseases in Bavaria - results in 2002].

In 2002 nearly 36 000 cases of notifiable infectious diseases were reported in Bavaria representing a 10 % increase compared to 2001 (33 000 cases). As in 2001, around 75 % of reported cases were gastrointestinal infections. Every third infection was due to salmonella. As compared to last year, the incidence of Norwalk-like virus infections increased fivefold. These infections occurred mostly as outbreaks in nursing homes, hospitals or other institutions, affecting as many as 200 persons. Other frequently reported infections in Bavaria are tuberculosis and hepatitis. The relatively high incidence of measles is mainly due to an outbreak in Coburg. The decline in the incidence of tuberculosis observed over the last years has ceased. Around 70 % of reported hepatitis cases were due to hepatitis C. It should be noted that these cases were a mixture of new infections and ongoing infections diagnosed for the first time. Of great epidemiological importance are diseases caused by meningitis pathogens. The incidence of meningococcal infections was practically unchanged as compared to last year. Around half of them were caused by serotype B, which is currently not preventable by vaccination. Meningitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae B is continually declining due to the high vaccination rate and is very rarely reported. Several cases of FSME were described. According to investigations carried out by health departments these infections were acquired in countries not yet classified as FSME risk areas. Hence, the endemics maps of FSME have to be revised. Two years of reporting according to IfSG (infectious disease control law) yielded very encouraging results, i. e. rapid accessibility of data, flexibility, complete and standardised reporting with high quality of data. We thank all the reporting physicians and laboratories and the staff of the Bavarian health departments for their continuous support.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

Infectious diseases of the conjunctiva and cornea.

The modern local antibiotics, such as the aminoglycosides and quinolones, are very successful in treating infectious conjunctivitis and keratitis. More notably in some Third World countries, however, suppurative keratitis is found in more than half of the infectious disease cases caused by Fusarium species. Here, of course, treatment should be antifungal. The emergence of some problematic microorganisms is related to contact lens wear. Pseudomonas, for example, have the ability to adhere to contact lenses and thus form microcolonies, which are protected by biofilm that predisposes to infection. Acanthamoeba infections of the cornea are a direct consequence of inappropriate or inadequate disinfection of contact lens systems. Occasionally the diagnosis of herpes simplex manifestations of the outer eye can be very difficult. Even more confusing is the delayed appearance of zoster manifestations, such as pseudodendrites, particularly in cases of zoster sine herpete eruptione. The polymerase chain reaction is of particular value in demonstrating the presence of varicella zoster DNA. Although infectious disease of the outer eye remains common, the incidence and complications have increased because of frequent use of antimicrobial agents. In the under-developed areas of the world, however, infections are still very common, are frequently caused by fungi, and are the cause of serious ocular complications. In the Western World infectious eye disease does not seem to be a major diagnostic or therapeutic point at present. Some organisms that have been in the environment all along, however, have emerged in the past half century as a major problem. Thus, in the past years a number of new techniques in diagnosis as well as new insights in pathophysiology and new developments in treatment have emerged that are of interest.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗