Description of symptom(s) (i.e., nature, onset, duration, severity, associated symptoms). Description of any factors that seem to precipitate, exacerbate, and/or relieve the patient’s symptom(s). Description of the patient’s efforts to relieve the symptoms.
Author: Brian Holtry
Pulmonary Infections
Acute pneumonia is a potentially life-threatening illness requiring rapid diagnosis and treatment. A delay in antibiotic treatment increases the risk of a fatal outcome. Annually, 2 to 3 million cases of pneumonia are reported in the United States.
Parasitic Infections
Most infectious agents fulfill the definition of a parasite: an organism that grows, feeds, and shelters on or in a different organism and contributes nothing to the host. However, medical science has created the classification “parasite” to include a complex group of nonfungal eukaryotic human pathogens. Unlike fungi, parasites have no cell wall and are often motile.
Tissue Protozoa
Leishmania has caused major epidemics in eastern India, Bangladesh, and East Africa. Urban outbreaks have been reported in the cities of northeastern Brazil.
Intestinal Helminths
Infections are often asymptomatic. In the immuno-compromised host, Strongyloides can progress to a fatal hyperinfection syndrome. Helminths include the roundworms (nematodes), flukes (trematodes), and tapeworms (cestodes). These parasites are large, ranging in size from 1 cm to 10 m, and they often live in the human gastrointestinal tract without causing symptoms.
Tissue And Blood Helminths
Trichinella is a roundworm whose larvae are released from cyst walls in contaminated meat by acid-pepsin digestion in the stomach. Upon entering the small intestine, larvae invade the intestinal microvilli and develop into adult worms.
Filariasis (Wuchereria Bancrofti And Brugia Malayi)
Microfilaria is less common than many parasites, being estimated to infect approximately 120 million people. Several strains of worm can cause this disease. Wuchereria bancrofii is found throughout the tropics, and Brugia malayi is restricted to the southern regions of Asia. A third strain, Brugia timori is found only in Indonesia.
Cardiovascular Infections
Acute endocarditis is life-threatening and often requires surgical intervention. Subacute endocarditis is an indolent disease that can continue for months. Infective endocarditis remains a serious but relatively uncommon problem.
Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections
Can be life-threatening. Often prolong hospital stay, and can be complicated by metastatic lesions and bacterial endocarditis. A 53-year-old white woman was admitted to the hospital with complaints of severe shaking during infusion of her hyperalimentation solution. She had been receiving intravenous hyperalimentation for 16years for a severe dumping syndrome that prevented eating by mouth.
Myocarditis
Fulminant myocarditis can be fatal or lead to chronic congestive heart failure. Most cases are self-limiting and are followed by full recovery The true incidence of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) is unknown, because most cases are asymptomatic.