Of the approximately 80 million people who travel from industrialized to developing countries each year, 22% to 64% of travelers report some illness. The approach to the patient requires knowledge of world geography, the epidemiology of disease patterns in 230…
Revised March 31, 2020 Pretravel management of an international traveler should be based on risk management principles. Prevention strategies and medical interventions need to be individualized according to both the itinerary and factors that are dependent on the traveler. A…
Zoonoses, derived from the Greek words for animal (zoo) and the suffix modification indicating a state or condition (sis), are infectious diseases of humans that originate in animals. Infectious diseases that originate in humans and move into other animals are…
Revised April 3, 2022 Revised February 24, 2020 The two most effective means of preventing disease, disability, and death from infectious diseases have been sanitation and immunization. Both approaches antedated understanding of the germ theory of disease. Artificial induction of…
Bite wounds are common injuries caused by a wide variety of domestic and wild animals, as well as humans. Most data on the incidence of infection, bacteriology, and the value of various medical and surgical interventions in the treatment of…
Burn Injury Injuries due to severe burns rank among the most serious forms of trauma, resulting in anatomic, physiologic, endocrine, and immunologic stresses, especially when burns involve greater than 20% of the total body surface area (TBSA). In 2015 US…
Historical Background In 1862 Louis Pasteur's ingenious experiments into the nature of putrefaction were officially endorsed by the Paris Academy of Science. The endorsement signaled an end to the long-held belief that the exposure of organic material to air brought…
According to the 2017 World Drug Report, an estimated 250 million people worldwide used illicit drugs at least once in 2015. Of these, 11.8 million injected drugs. Since the early 2000s, prescription opioid injection increased dramatically in the United States,…
After discovery of the spleen, which occurred sometime during the dawn of human dissection, its true role in health and disease remained a mystery for many generations. At the time of Galen, the spleen was thought to be important in…
Predisposition of Older Adults to Infection Risk factors for infection in older adults are numerous and often coexist in complex relationships. Seemingly similar patients by conventional criteria may have very different risk due to measures not often used in young…