infectious disease
tsmith | April 26, 2010Student guest post by Anne Dressler
Ninety percent of menstruating women experience some kind of premenstrual symptoms during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, with 20-30% experiencing moderate to severe symptoms. With an even more severe collection of symptoms, is premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). 3-8% of menstruating women report symptoms severe enough to be considered suffering from PMDD. Yet another designation, premenstrual magnification (PMM), is used to describe women who are symptomatic the entire cycle but have a premenstrual exacerbation of a diagnosed psychiatric,…
tsmith | April 23, 2010Student guest post by Zainab Khan
Schizophrenia has puzzled and often times scared not only the scientific community, but also the general public since its emergence. Cases of schizophrenia-like behavior have been well documented in history. As this disease has been studied, factors such as genetics, environment, and even personal habits have all been associated to some degree with schizophrenia. However, evidence in past years has mounted showing an association between infectious agents and schizophrenia. The three main infections associated/studied with schizophrenia have been…
tsmith | April 22, 2010Student guest post by Liz Stepniak
In the field of chronic disease, genetics has long been determined as a component of disease susceptibility. Infectious disease was believed to be caused by an agent of infection, such as a virus or bacteria which comprises a large environmental factor. In the past decade or so, this view has been expanded to include an important genetic factor as well.
There has been scientific evidence supporting the controversial idea that one error in a single gene can significantly alter the individual's risk of obtaining a bacterial infection. Can infectious…
tsmith | April 20, 2010Student guest post by D.F. Johnston
As the year marches forward, ever closer to that summer sun we missed so much during dreary winter days, we also get closer to the traditional summer picnics and barbecues. Sometimes, in our hurry to enjoy quality time with friends and family, we get distracted from our usual practices for proper food handling. We might try to get little Billy his hamburger before he has time for a full-fledged temper tantrum, so we hurry it along, figuring a tiny bit of pink in the middle won't be the end of the world. Or we might realize that we're short a couple of…
tsmith | April 20, 2010Student guest post by Laura Vonnahme
As a part of traveling to a developing nation, we are often required to take medical precautions. This generally includes a line-up of shots for various diseases, a few other tests, and various regimens of prophylaxis for possible diseases. I have often left these doctors appointments with a line of band-aids on my arm, a handful of prescriptions and a little weakness in my knees. However, I will readily admit that my malaria prophylaxis is often pushed to the back burner; in fact the last time I went to a developing nation, I didn't even get the malaria…
tsmith | April 19, 2010Student guest post by Ahn To
There are two separate philosophies regarding the relationship between life and food. There are those that believe we only eat to live. On the other hand, there are those that believe one of life's greatest pleasures is food. I am a firm believer of the latter, thus, you can imagine my horror when I first learned of celiac disease (CD). This is a disease with no treatment except for a lifetime on a gluten-free diet, thus people with CD cannot eat many types of food. I knew then that I had to find out more about causation of CD, which includes the complex…
revere | March 29, 2010A day or two after CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR) released a report about risks to pregnant women from pandemic 2009 flu, CDC held a suddenly announced press briefing about the current H1N1 situation (I listened in but a transcript should be up on the site by the time you read this; check this page). The occasion for the briefing was a worrisome increase in hospitalizations and deaths in CDC's Georgia backyard. Despite housing CDC, Georgia has one of the lower flu vaccination rates in the country and now is experiencing an unexpected recrudescence of H1N1 flu, with…
revere | March 19, 2010As predicted, the pandemic of 2009 is beginning to yield more data, some of it directly applicable to pressing practical questions. The answers are still preliminary, and, as with all science, subject to revision. But it's what we have at the moment, and a letter that just appeared in the CDC sponsored journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, addresses an important question. During a flu outbreak, can hospitalized patients contract influenza from blood transfusions? Since people getting transfusions already have compromised health (else why would they be getting a transfusion?), they are at high…
ddobbs | March 17, 2010Neither plane crashes nor anti-aircraft fire could kill my namesake uncle, but MRSA did, and it wasn't pretty. Accordingly I take a particular in this nasty bacteria, and am looking forward to reading Maryn McKenna's new book, Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA, which I just ordered from Amazon, and which comes out next week.
While you're waiting to order yours, you can see hear from McKenna about MRSA, and the new strain's emergence in the daughter of a Dutch pig farmer, in this short video clip:
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revere | March 11, 2010The latest study on flu vaccine effectiveness in children has been well discussed in the MSM and the flu blogs, so I'll point you to those excellent pieces (Branswell, crof, Mike Coston at Avian Flu Diary) and just add some things not covered elsewhere. The full text of the article is available for free at JAMA and it's a pretty good read, so if you want to see for yourself what is involved I urge you to read it, too. First, let me back up a bit and connect this to the controversy about observational and randomized clinical trials we've been discussing here of late (before my grant writing…
revere | March 6, 2010Two days ago I went with my daughter to the pediatrician to check out her 20 month old who had a fever and rash. Viral origin, probably. Also an ear infection. Pretty much par for the course at this time of year. But lots of little ones and their older sibs weren't so lucky this flu season. As we've had too many occasions to mention, the severity of the 2009 pandemic has yet to be gauged, but trying to compare it to seasonal flu is misleading as its epidemiology is very different. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the melancholy figures for pediatric deaths.
Since the beginning of…
revere | February 28, 2010Rabies is one of those diseases that scares the crap out of me. Once clinical symptoms start, it is essentially a death sentence. "Essentially" because there are 6 cases of survival in the medial record, but 5 of the 6 had had rabies vaccination prior to illness. A single case of survival in an unvaccinated case is on record, but only after a long period in intensive care. Now CDC is reporting an unusual case they are calling "abortive rabies." The patient was a 17 year old girl who had multiple hospitalizations for a variety of neurologic symptoms, including severe headache, vomiting and…
tsmith | February 26, 2010Student guest post by Shylo Wardyn
I recently read the book 'Good Germs, Bad Germs' by Jessica Snyder Sachs. I became intrigued by parts of her book that discussed how babies become colonized with bacteria during birth. The most interesting part was the differences between vaginally-delivered and Caesarean-delivered babies. It was not something I had ever thought of before. With my interest piqued, I did a Google scholar search to see what kind of research was being done on this topic. I stumbled upon an article looking at C-sections and risk of childhood allergies, namely asthma. I…
revere | February 26, 2010It is becoming conventional wisdom that the 2009 H1N1 pandemic was not as severe as a bad seasonal flu year. That might be true, although I don't find it much comfort because a bad seasonal flu year is no less bad for being more familiar. But I am not yet willing to assent to the conventional wisdom yet. I don't think we have had sufficient time to collate all the information that would enable us to make that kind of judgment, which sometimes takes years to evaluate. However bad it was or wasn't, the pandemic flu strain could kill you just as dead as any other flu. CDC has just released…
tsmith | February 25, 2010Student guest post by Desiré Christensen
Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are small DNA viruses that infect epithelial cells. There are well over 100 subtypes of HPV. The subtypes that infect cutaneous epithelia are termed beta-HPVs and those that infect the mucosal epithelia are termed alpha-HPVs. Some alpha-HPVs have received attention as strong risk factors for the development of cervical cancer. Less public awareness has been generated over the role of HPVs in the development of other cancers such as vulvar, vaginal, anal, head and neck, and penile cancers. Only recent research has…
tsmith | February 25, 2010Student guest post by Andrew Behan
Type I Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is a disease most affecting children (previously named juvenile-onset diabetes). However, adults can still develop this life-threatening illness. Research in the genetic arena has provided evidence this disease is partially due to inheritance, leaving a portion of causality yet to be determined. More specifically, a look at certain viruses which attack the beta cells of the pancreas, the cells responsible for producing insulin, have provided new information regarding etiology of T1DM. Some recent research aimed at…
tsmith | February 25, 2010Student guest post by Rajeshwari Nair
Discussion on consumption of meat products is a common occurrence in my household. Hailing from India, I have always relished meat dishes that my mom cooks up, hot and spicy! However, there is always a nagging guilt on eating animals. People have tried convincing me that we are all part of the food-chain in this ecosystem, so either eat or be eaten. However, in recent times one thought crosses my mind when I stuff that yummy piece of meat in my salivating mouth, will this karma get to me soon? Will my brain dissolve as I chew on the brain of this mute…
tsmith | February 24, 2010Student guest post by Anne Dressler
The idea of evolutionary medicine is new to me and my understanding is quite shallow but it has piqued my interest. Currently, the book "Why We Get Sick" by Randolph M. Nesse and George C. Williams has been satisfying my curiosity during the 15 minutes of intellectual thought I have left at the end of the day while reading before bed. From what I've read, I'm finding how useful it can be to consider disease in light of evolution and I'm left wondering how I haven't heard of it before. I'm guessing I'm not the only one interested, so let's talk evolutionary…
tsmith | February 24, 2010Student guest post by Jay Watson
We've all been there at some point before: a hot summer day, your delicious ice cream cone or tasty treat, and that uneven sidewalk. After taking about ten steps away from the vendor, you mistakenly put your foot into a gigantic fault in the sidewalk and accidentally toss your tasty treat face-down into the pavement. For many of us, "what now?" is actually a deliberation of a bunch of different, yet seemingly important questions: Who is watching me? How hungry am I? How much did it cost? Does this thing look dirty? Can I salvage most of it? But perhaps…
tsmith | February 23, 2010Student guest post by Liz Stepniak
In the United States, the obesity epidemic is rapidly spreading. Since 1980 the prevalence of obesity has increased over 75%. Currently, over half the population is overweight, and nearly 1 in every 3 adults is clinically obese. Research has also been proliferating, exploring a plethora of possibilities to better understand and treat this growing epidemic. One of the recent trends in obesity research has been investigating the role of the microbiota in the gut and differences in the composition of these bacteria between obese and non-obese individuals.…