Where all your ID needs are met! Sort of.
In part two of “Ticks and Us” we look at two related viruses that come from ticks and lead to the same symptoms as any tick-borne illness, namely flu-like illness with thrombocytopenia and transaminitis: the Heartland and severe fever and thrombocytopenia syndrome virus! Heartland Virus: The heartland virus is part of the Phenuviridae family, genus
Ehrlichiosis is the name of infections caused by obligate intracellular bacteria that are part of the Anaplasmatacae family (1). 3 different genera tend to cause disease: Ehrlichia chaffeensis, E. ewingii, and Anaplasma phagocytophilum. These organisms tend to be part of the Rickettsiacae family which require eukaryotic cells to grow (4). Leukocytes tend to be the
Unfortunately, i have not being able to figure out how to rotate some of the images on WordPress, despite my google docs being in the correct configuration. Hence, some tables are rotated the wrong way. Do know I tried to fix it. I have been putting off writing about this since the immunology behind this
Well, this is new territory. While I typically talk about esoteric/topics infectious diseases docs should be aware of (see: my recent posts on complicated SAB, prior topics tackling dosing of vancomycin and beta-lactamase inhibitors, and acute katayama fever, as examples) I occasionally delve into other more mundane topics (see: neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio). This one is a
It seems I can never get around talking about staphylococcus aureus. I believe it was Paul Sax who mentioned that an infectious disease fellowship is essentially a staphylococcus fellowship, since you see all different types of complications. Many institutions have implemented automatic infectious disease consultation for anyone with staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB), as it has
Literature review on any “old timey” organism can be kind of a pain since I am convinced microbiologists get drunk every so often to reclassify clinically relevant organisms. This is the case for Bartonella. Originally described as bartonia, which is an erythrocyte-adherent organism similar to organisms of the genus of Rochalimacae, including Rickettsia quintana, was
The complete blood count is one of the more commonly ordered test, along with the basic metabolic profile. The CBC gives you a ton of useful information when it comes to the etiology of anemia (not just from the hemoglobin/hematocrit, but also the mean corpuscular volume, red cell distribution width, etc), coagulation, and inflammation. The
The above is the Katayama Ki or “Katayama memoir” written by Dr Fujii in 1847 which describes the first recorded case of schistosomiasis japonica in the world. The initial description was based on patients from Katayama district, in the Hiroshima prefecture (yes, that Hiroshima). Subsequently, a committee was formed to evaluate the disease and
It should come to the surprise to no one that antibiotics tend to be the class of medications most commonly prescribed. From the “z-pack” to “augmentin” and the quinolones, they are a mainstay for outpatient and inpatient medicine. On the inpatient side, it is common to see the combination of vancomycin and piperacillin-tazobactam as an
During residency, I had the opportunity to do a global health elective where I spent a month in Lima, Peru rotating through Cayetano. I spent the majority of the time in the Tropical Medicine ward, where tuberculosis was everywhere. One of the more vivid memories was a patient with AIDS and cryptococcal meningitis. The residents
Dr. Germophile 