Category: Infectious Diseases Hepatitis A virus risk factors include travel to endemic regions, ingestion of contaminated food or water (raw shellfish), work in day care centers (exposure to feces/diaper changing) and close contact with infected patients.
Category: Infectious Diseases Hepatitis A virus is a vaccine-preventable fecal-orally transmitted RNA virus that causes acute hepatitis. Hepatitis A is never chronic, is often asymptomatic in younger patients and causes fulminant hepatic failure in < 1% of cases.
Category: Infectious Diseases Pelvic inflammatory disease consists of several inflammatory disorders of the upper female genital tract that include any combination of endometritis, salpingitis, tubo-ovarian abscess and pelvic peritonitis.
Category: Infectious Diseases Because antiviral medications are excreted by the renal system, caution should be used in patients with renal disease. They should also be prescribed cautiously for pregnant patients and are contraindicated in breast-feeding patients.
Category: Infectious Diseases The three first-line systemic agents used to control genital herpes infections are acyclovir, famciclovir and valacyclovir. These drugs inhibit viral DNA replication and are highly effective.
Category: Infectious Diseases Penicillin decreases the effect of oral contraceptives. Hyperkalemia can result from concurrent use of potassium-sparing diuretics, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and potassium supplements with parenteral penicillin G.
Category: Infectious Diseases Penicillins are bactericidal. They disrupt synthesis of the bacterial cell wall and bind to enzyme proteins, interfering with the biosynthesis of mucopeptides and preventing the structural components of the cell wall from leaking out.
Category: Infectious Diseases Adults with primary or secondary syphilis should be treated with penicillin G benzathine (Bicillin). Other choices for unusual situations include doxycycline, tetracycline (Achromycin), ceftriaxone and erythromycin.
Category: Infectious Diseases Definitive methods for diagnosing early syphilis include dark-field examination and direct fluorescent antibody study of the chancre’s exudate or tissue. The serologic tests used to confirm the syphilis diagnosis are nontreponemal and treponemal.
Category: Infectious Diseases A syphilis chancre erupts 3 weeks after exposure. Signs and symptoms of secondary syphilis are low-grade fever, malaise, sore throat, hoarseness, headache, anorexia, rash, mucocutaneous lesions, alopecia and adenopathy.
Category: Infectious Diseases Syphilis is a chronic, infectious disease caused by the spirochete Treponema pallidum. Infection may be active and characterized by symptoms, or inactive (latent). The latent stage has no clinical symptoms.
Category: Infectious Diseases Gonococcal infection may be transmitted to infants exposed to infected cervical exudate at birth. Manifestations of the infection in newborns include ophthalmia neonatorum, which may result in perforation of the ocular globe and blindness.
Category: Infectious Diseases Extensive clinical experience shows that ceftriaxone is safe and effective for treating uncomplicated gonorrhea at all sites, with a cure rate of 99.1% in clinical trials for uncomplicated urogenital and anorectal infections.
Category: Infectious Diseases Gonorrhea is caused by N. gonorrhoeae, a gram-negative diplococcal bacterium. It is transmitted by sexual contact, and the rate of male-to-female transmission is higher than female-to-male or male-to-male.
Category: Infectious Diseases If compliance for the treatment of chlamydial infections is in question, azithromycin should be used for treatment because it is prepared as a single-dose drug. Doxycycline, however, has been used more extensively and is less expensive.
Category: Infectious Diseases Azithromycin (Zithromax) and erythromycin (E-Mycin), macrolide antibiotics; doxycycline (Vibramycin), a tetracycline antibiotic; and ofloxacin (Floxin), a fluoroquinolone, are drugs of choice for chlamydial infections.
Category: Infectious Diseases The chlamydial infection may be silent. More than half of infected patients have no clinical signs or symptoms. In symptomatic women, the clinical presentation includes vaginal discharge, mucopurulent cervicitis with edema and friability.
Category: Infectious Diseases Chlamydial organisms are like viruses in that they are obligate intracellular parasites. They resemble bacteria by containing both DNA and RNA, by dividing by binary fission and by having cell walls that resemble gram-negative bacteria.
Category: Infectious Diseases Chlamydial infection is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, which shares properties of both bacteria and viruses. The organism is transmitted sexually or perinatally. Repeated infections are common.
Category: Infectious Diseases Vaginitis is a generic term for inflammation of the vagina caused by infection, atrophy, and/or changes in the normal flora. Signs and symptoms of vaginitis can include pain, pruritus, dyspareunia, dysuria and discharge.
