Archive for the 'Infectious Diseases' Category

Candida is the name given for group of yeasts that commonly affect the moist areas of your body like vaginal regions and also alimentary tracts.

These forms of yeast are normally found in lower bowel regions and causes infection to your skin.

The most significant form of this group of yeasts is Candida albicans.

This form of bacteria is present in small numbers in your body and causes no harm for you. It is controlled by the beneficial bacteria and also by your immune system.

When ever this beneficial bacterium is destroyed with harmful antibiotics, then these small numbers of Candida starts growing. When this growth of bacteria exceeds its tolerance level, then it can lead to weakening of your immune system.

Responsible factors for developing Candida:

• Usage of certain oral contraceptives, anti-ulcer drugs, steroids and also long term use of antibiotics can improve the growth of Candida in your body.
• Consuming high sugar contents is also one of the major reasons which will help in the development of Candida in your body.
• In women, during pregnancy, you have more chances for the development of candida bacterium in your body.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed!

Anthrax is a disease caused due to the Bacillus anthracis bacterium that lives in soil. Most commonly, anthrax occur in animals. Humans can get this when there is a contact with infected animals or tissue from infected animals.

Three forms of anthrax disease that affects people often include:

Cutaneous anthrax:

This is an infection of the skin caused by bacterium.

During this infection, initially skin lesions will form and leads to blisters.

After that, the blister will break down into a black ulcer.

The nearby lymph nodes will also be infected and they will be very much painful.

If this disease is left untreated, it can spread to the blood stream and becomes fatal.

Inhalation anthrax:

This is also called as respiratory anthrax which affects the lungs.

It is due to the breathing the spores of the bacterium bacillus anthracis.

This affects when you breathe in airborne anthrax spores.

This disease develops when anthrax spores enter into the lungs. Antibiotic therapy will help you in preventing the disease.

The chief kind of inhalational anthrax includes hemorrhagic infection of the lymph nodes in the chest. Most of the affected people will have hemorrhagic meningitis.

Cholera is a serious form of bacterial infection which can lead you to death with in hours, if left untreated.

Contaminated water is the main source for cholera to spread.

It is an acute intestinal infection which is mainly caused due to intake of contaminated food or water.

Cholera is an acute illness which is mainly characterized with watery diarrhea. The toxin released by this bacterial infection increases the secretion of water and chloride ions in the intestine and develops massive diarrhea.

This bacterial infection can occur under certain epidemic conditions like poor sanitation, famines, crowding and during war times. The mild form of cholera is associated with a short incubation period of one to five days.

Don’t get confused with diarrhea and cholera

For most of the people, the signs and symptoms of cholera are not exposed and you will never feel any illness and infection, until the disease becomes serious. If you become sick with cholera, then you can experience mild to moderate forms of diarrhea and it is hard to distinguish the diarrhea caused with bacterial infection and with other problems. These are some of symptoms which you can rarely experience when you get cholera infection.

West nile virus is a dreadful mosquito borne disease which is most prevalent in warmer places.

As the temperature rises the growth in mosquito population rapidly increases.

These mosquitoes not only transmit west nile virus but also spread equine encephalomyelitis, a virus which causes sleeping sickness.

West nile virus not only influences people but also show its effect on birds, horses, and some other mammals.

Mostly humans are caught with this virus.

How to identify the west nile virus disease?

West nile virus does not show any signs and symptoms as such when you have mild effect of this virus but if it is severe then the following signs will help you to identify this virus:

• When you have mild effect, then you can feel slight head ache and low fever and body pains. Some times you can find some rashes over the skin with swollen lymph’s.
• The severe form of west nile virus shows high fever, weakness in muscles and stiffness in neck.
• If the infection is much severe then it may lead to paralysis and also there are chances to drive the affected person to coma.

The symptoms and effects of all hepatitis viruses are similar on the lungs; however, it is constricted in different ways.

The severity and duration of hepatitis infection depends on the organism by which the disease is caused.

There are different forms of hepatitis, but this disease is caused by one of several hepatitis viruses (A, B, C, D or E). This disease varies from acute to chronic.

Hepatitis A virus is transmitted primarily by fecal contamination of food and water or through person-to-person contact.

This infection is less dangerous when compared to other viruses. In rare cases, this virus leads to damage of the liver.

The person who has this infection may not have symptoms and the inflammation lasts only for a few weeks.

Once if a person acquires this infection, that person has immunity to this virus and will never expose to this infection again. People should protect themselves from hepatitis A vaccine.

Hepatitis B virus is transmitted from person-to-person through the blood at the time of sex, during birth, or by contaminated needles and syringes. Most of the people in United States get infected with this virus because of unprotected sex. This is considered to be the more dangerous infection as it can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure, or liver cancer causing severe illness or even death.

As chicken pox is a benign disease that usually occurs in children below 15 years of age, the aim of treatment is treating the symptoms.

Usually, treatment of chicken pox takes place at home until the symptoms are worse.

Since the chicken pox is a contagious disease, the patient should stay at home until the new blisters have stopped coming and all the old sores have healed well.

Fever, headache, muscle aches, and fatigue will be seen in patients, who suffer from chicken pox.

Acetaminophen is a drug that helps the patients to reduce those symptoms.

Depending on weight, dose of acetaminophen will be given.

Never give a child, who suffers from chicken pox, aspirin or the drug that contains aspirin as this will lead to a dangerous condition called Reyes Syndrome.

Getting relief from chicken pox:

Numerous baths helps in improving itching. Lukewarm bath for every few hours is helpful to reduce itching. One cup of baking soda to bath water is also useful for itching. Adding oatmeal to the bath water reduces the skin irritation.

Do not rub the skin with towel after bathing. Put the patient in cool environment as the heat and sweat will make itching worse.

What conditions outside the liver are associated with hepatitis C?

Several conditions outside the liver are associated with hepatitis C. These conditions are not common. Cryoglobulinemia is the condition most widely described. The condition occurs due to the abnormal antibodies presence that comes from hepatitis c virus stimulation of lymphocytes.

Inflammation of vessels in tissues throughout the body occurs due to the deposition of antibodies in small blood vessels.

Cryoglobulinemia symptoms include joint pain, weakness, swelling, skin rash, legs and feet swelling due to protein loss in the urine and nerve pain.

With special test, diagnosis of the disease can be done.

Cryoglobulins are identified in the test when the blood sample is exposed to the cold.

Treatment of hepatitis C infection can cure cryoglobulinemia.

B-cell non-hodgkin’s lymphoma, which is a cancer of the lymph tissue, has also been associated with hepatitis C virus. Due to the excessive stimulation by the hepatitis C virus of B-lymphocytes, abnormal reproduction of the lymphocytes can result. Anti-cancer therapies are required for high grade non-hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Lichen planus and porphyria cutanea tarde are also associated with hepatitis C virus. These conditions can be cured with interferon therapy.

Malaria is spread through the bite of an infected female mosquito.

Malaria is one of the leading causes of death in the world.

If you have malaria, you will experience the symptoms like fever, chills, and flu-like illness.

Malaria and HIV:

Both malaria and HIV kill millions of people every year. HIV is pandemic, which spreads from person to person by sexual contacts. Malaria is endemic, which is dependent on infected female anopheline mosquitoes and humans.

Both the diseases can be transmitted by contaminated blood. Both diseases infection rates can be decreased by behavioral changes, barrier protection like condoms for HIV and bed nets for malaria and medical prophylaxis. Malaria can be treated with a 1 week drug course where as HIV treatment is life long with medications.

Malaria and pregnancy:

Anemia during pregnancy is caused due to defects in nutrition, hookworm, malaria and HIV. Mild anemia during pregnancy is exacerbated by asymptomatic malaria. Due to immune suppression in pregnant women, recrudescence of malaria can be more frequent.

If a pregnant woman has falciparum malaria, it is associated with fetal distress, low birth weight, stillbirths, premature labor, neonatal deaths and miscarriages.

For many people, tuberculosis (TB) is the first symptom of immune dysfunction associated with HIV infection.

Active tuberculosis is an AIDS defining illness.

One in ten people with HIV will get active tuberculosis within one year of being diagnosed with HIV.

If you have HIV with CD4+ cell count very high that is in the range of 300 to 400, tuberculosis occurs early.

If your HIV virus is in starting stage, tuberculosis affects and infects only the lungs. As your CD4+ cell count drops, tuberculosis is more likely to appear in other parts of the body.

Your HIV levels increase when immune system responds to tuberculosis and therefore it progresses to HIV disease. This, in turn increases other infection risks.

Tuberculosis and HIV positive:

As tuberculosis spreads through air, the increase in active tuberculosis among people infected with both tuberculosis and HIV results in more people with latent tuberculosis, more transmission of tuberculosis bacteria, and more TB disease in whole population.

HIV infections are increasing in latent TB patients. As HIV weakens the immune system, more people are developing active tuberculosis.

If your sexual partner has yeast infection, then there are chances of getting yeast infection from them to you.

Although yeast infection is not considered as sexually transmitted disease, it can be passed back and forth through sexual intercourse.

In males, the fungus grows under the foreskin of the penis, until it becomes a fully blown yeast infection.

In severe cases, fungus can travel up the man’s urethra and affect the prostate gland. This condition results when a man has unprotected sex with woman who has yeast infection.

Truth about male yeast infections:

Although yeast infections in male are not common, they can occur similarly as vaginal yeast infections. The symptoms that you can identify are pain during sexual intercourse, rashes, burning sensation while urinating and itching of the infected area.

The rashes can occur on the shaft of the penis or on the tip of the penis. Sometimes, men can experience a discharge from penis and this discharge can be milky color and thick in substance. A slight swelling can also result at the affected area.

Constipation, bloating, indigestion, irritability, memory loss, fatigue, and mood swings are the common symptoms of male yeast infections.