scholarly journals The Eye as a Window to Systemic Infectious Diseases: Old Enemies, New Imaging

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pirani ◽  
Pelliccioni ◽  
De Turris ◽  
Rosati ◽  
Franceschi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Clinical Evaluation ◽  
Multimodal Imaging ◽  
Ocular Involvement ◽  
Tertiary Referral Center ◽  
Imaging Examination ◽  
Previous Diagnosis ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Examination Methods

Background: Syphilis, tuberculosis and toxoplasmosis are major infectious diseases worldwide; all of them are multisystem pathologies and share a possible ocular involvement. In this context, a fundamental help for the definitive diagnosis is provided by the ophthalmologist, through clinical evaluation and with the aid of a multimodal imaging examination. Methods: We hereby describe selected cases who came to our attention and were visited in our eye clinic. In all clinics, the use of retinal and optic disc multimodal imaging during ophthalmological evaluation allowed to make a diagnosis of an infectious disease. Results: In our tertiary referral center more than 60 patients with syphilis, tuberculosis and toxoplasmosis have been evaluated in the last two years: In 60% of cases the ophthalmological evaluation was secondary to a previous diagnosis of an infectious disease, while in the remaining cases the ophthalmologist, with the help of a multimodal imaging examination and clinical evaluation, represented the physician who leads to the diagnosis. Conclusion: Our results confirm how in these life-threatening pathologies a prompt diagnosis is mandatory and may benefit from a multidisciplinary and multimodal imaging approach, especially during ophthalmological evaluation.

scholarly journals ABO Blood Groups and Cholera: An Investigation of an Infectious Disease as an Agent of Natural Selection.

1996 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Abonyi
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Blood Groups ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Ganges River ◽  
Selective Effect ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
The Ganges

In a 1949 landmark paper Haldane proposed that infectious diseases may act as agents of natural selection. Apart from the well-established link between sickle-cell anaemia and malaria, direct evidence for the selective effect of infectious disease is scarce. There is some evidence to suggest that blood group O individuals may be more susceptible than individuals from other blood groups to life-threatening cholera infections. Cholera is endemic to the Ganges River Delta in India, a region whose current population appears to represent the lowest global frequency of the 0 allele. Using a model proposed by Svanborg-Eden and Levin (1991) as the framework of investigation, this paper evaluates the evidence for cholera operating as an agent of natural selection in the Ganges River Delta. This model proposes a series of six conditions that must be met in order to accept an infectious disease-mediated selective effect. All six conditions could not be satisfied by the existing evidence, and it is therefore concluded that cholera cannot be accepted as further evidence of infectious diseases acting as agents of natural selection in human populations.

scholarly journals Uveitis as an Open Window to Systemic Inflammatory Diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 281
Author(s):  
Thomas El Jammal ◽  
Olivier Loria ◽  
Yvan Jamilloux ◽  
Mathieu Gerfaud-Valentin ◽  
Laurent Kodjikian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Inflammatory Diseases ◽  
Retinal Vasculitis ◽  
Human Leukocyte ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Ocular Involvement ◽  
Tertiary Referral Center ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Systemic Inflammatory Disease ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Mediastinal Involvement

Spondyloarthritis (Spa), Behçet’s disease (BD) and sarcoidosis are major systemic inflammatory diseases worldwide. They are all multisystem pathologies and share a possible ocular involvement, especially uveitis. We hereby describe selected cases who were referred by ophthalmologists to our internal medicine department for unexplained uveitis. Physical examination and/or the use of laboratory and imaging investigations allowed to make a diagnosis of a systemic inflammatory disease in a large proportion of patients. In our tertiary referral center, 75 patients have been diagnosed with Spa (n = 20), BD (n = 9), or sarcoidosis (n = 46) in the last two years. There was a significant delay in the diagnosis of Spa-associated uveitis. Screening strategies using Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-B27 determination and sacroiliac magnetic resonance imaging in patients suffering from chronic low back pain and/or psoriasis helped in the diagnosis. BD’s uveitis affects young people from both sexes and all origins and usually presents with panuveitis and retinal vasculitis. The high proportion of sarcoidosis in our population is explained by the use of chest computed tomography (CT) and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography CT that helped to identify smaller hilar or mediastinal involvement and allowed to further investigate those patients, especially in the elderly. Our results confirm how in these sight- and potentially life-threatening diseases a prompt diagnosis is mandatory and benefits from a multidisciplinary approach.

scholarly journals HLA and Infectious Diseases

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 370-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenefer M. Blackwell ◽  
Sarra E. Jamieson ◽  
David Burgner
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Human Leukocyte Antigen ◽  
Molecular Basis ◽  
Selective Pressure ◽  
Human Leukocyte ◽  
Acquired Immunity ◽  
Leukocyte Antigen ◽  
Extreme Variability ◽  
Classical Human Leukocyte Antigen

SUMMARY Following their discovery in the early 1970s, classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loci have been the prototypical candidates for genetic susceptibility to infectious disease. Indeed, the original hypothesis for the extreme variability observed at HLA loci (H-2 in mice) was the major selective pressure from infectious diseases. Now that both the human genome and the molecular basis of innate and acquired immunity are understood in greater detail, do the classical HLA loci still stand out as major genes that determine susceptibility to infectious disease? This review looks afresh at the evidence supporting a role for classical HLA loci in susceptibility to infectious disease, examines the limitations of data reported to date, and discusses current advances in methodology and technology that will potentially lead to greater understanding of their role in infectious diseases in the future.

scholarly journals Drivers of Infectious Disease Seasonality: Potential Implications for COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 074873042098732
Author(s):  
N. Kronfeld-Schor ◽  
T. J. Stevenson ◽  
S. Nickbakhsh ◽  
E. S. Schernhammer ◽  
X. C. Dopico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Preliminary Assessment ◽  
Epidemiological Evidence ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Human Coronaviruses ◽  
Induced Changes ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Timing Phase

Not 1 year has passed since the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Since its emergence, great uncertainty has surrounded the potential for COVID-19 to establish as a seasonally recurrent disease. Many infectious diseases, including endemic human coronaviruses, vary across the year. They show a wide range of seasonal waveforms, timing (phase), and amplitudes, which differ depending on the geographical region. Drivers of such patterns are predominantly studied from an epidemiological perspective with a focus on weather and behavior, but complementary insights emerge from physiological studies of seasonality in animals, including humans. Thus, we take a multidisciplinary approach to integrate knowledge from usually distinct fields. First, we review epidemiological evidence of environmental and behavioral drivers of infectious disease seasonality. Subsequently, we take a chronobiological perspective and discuss within-host changes that may affect susceptibility, morbidity, and mortality from infectious diseases. Based on photoperiodic, circannual, and comparative human data, we not only identify promising future avenues but also highlight the need for further studies in animal models. Our preliminary assessment is that host immune seasonality warrants evaluation alongside weather and human behavior as factors that may contribute to COVID-19 seasonality, and that the relative importance of these drivers requires further investigation. A major challenge to predicting seasonality of infectious diseases are rapid, human-induced changes in the hitherto predictable seasonality of our planet, whose influence we review in a final outlook section. We conclude that a proactive multidisciplinary approach is warranted to predict, mitigate, and prevent seasonal infectious diseases in our complex, changing human-earth system.

scholarly journals Application of 3D bioprinting in the prevention and the therapy for human diseases

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hee-Gyeong Yi ◽  
Hyeonji Kim ◽  
Junyoung Kwon ◽  
Yeong-Jin Choi ◽  
Jinah Jang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
In Vitro Models ◽  
Delivery Systems ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
3D Bioprinting ◽  
Disease Research ◽  
Infectious Disease Research

AbstractRapid development of vaccines and therapeutics is necessary to tackle the emergence of new pathogens and infectious diseases. To speed up the drug discovery process, the conventional development pipeline can be retooled by introducing advanced in vitro models as alternatives to conventional infectious disease models and by employing advanced technology for the production of medicine and cell/drug delivery systems. In this regard, layer-by-layer construction with a 3D bioprinting system or other technologies provides a beneficial method for developing highly biomimetic and reliable in vitro models for infectious disease research. In addition, the high flexibility and versatility of 3D bioprinting offer advantages in the effective production of vaccines, therapeutics, and relevant delivery systems. Herein, we discuss the potential of 3D bioprinting technologies for the control of infectious diseases. We also suggest that 3D bioprinting in infectious disease research and drug development could be a significant platform technology for the rapid and automated production of tissue/organ models and medicines in the near future.

Contemporary Plagues and Social Progress

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-461
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Weller
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Malignant Disease ◽  
Diarrheal Disease ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Social Progress ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Opening Session

For this address at the opening session of the First Mexican National Congress of Infectious Diseases in Children (ler, Congreso National de Infectologia Pediatrica), I have chosen as my title "Contemporary Plagues and Social Progress." While in medicine the term plague usually refers to diseases caused by Pasteurella pestis, the word has broader meanings and usages. It describes that which smites or troubles, can refer to an afflictive evil or anything troublesome or vexatious, or can be applied to any malignant disease, especially those that are contagious. It can be used as an expression of annoyance, as a mild oath, or with the implication of harassment. Thus, today we are concerned with the plague of plagues, the afflictive evils of the cumulative insults of infectious disease. Additionally, we might be tempted to cast a plague on the system of medical education and on the political process that neither conveys the continuing importance of infectious diseases nor funds the mechanisms for their containment. Or, should the shoe be on the other foot? Should not society cast a plague on us? As experts in the field of infectious disease, have we not failed to publicize that, on a global basis, the combination of diarrheal disease and malnutrition is the leading cause of death in infants and children? Has not our successful use of antibiotics induced unjustified public complacency regarding the problems of infectious disease? Why have our low-keyed reports of resistant typhoid bacilli, or pneumococci or of gonococci failed to dispel the prevalent mystique that science has controlled infectious agents, leaving cancer and heart disease in the public eye as the major unconquered problems in the health field?

scholarly journals A socio-economic approach to One Health policy research in southern Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim A. Kayunze ◽  
Angwara D. Kiwara ◽  
Eligius Lyamuya ◽  
Dominic M. Kambarage ◽  
Jonathan Rushton ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Burden Of Disease ◽  
One Health ◽  
Animal Health ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Emerging Zoonoses

One-health approaches have started being applied to health systems in some countries in controlling infectious diseases in order to reduce the burden of disease in humans, livestock and wild animals collaboratively. However, one wonders whether the problem of lingering and emerging zoonoses is more affected by health policies, low application of one-health approaches, or other factors. As part of efforts to answer this question, the Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS) smart partnership of human health, animal health and socio-economic experts published, in April 2011, a conceptual framework to support One Health research for policy on emerging zoonoses. The main objective of this paper was to identify which factors really affect the burden of disease and how the burden could affect socio-economic well-being. Amongst other issues, the review of literature shows that the occurrence of infectious diseases in humans and animals is driven by many factors, the most important ones being the causative agents (viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc.) and the mediator conditions (social, cultural, economic or climatic) which facilitate the infection to occur and hold. Literature also shows that in many countries there is little collaboration between medical and veterinary services despite the shared underlying science and the increasing infectious disease threat. In view of these findings, a research to inform health policy must walk on two legs: a natural sciences leg and a social sciences one.

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