Where all your ID needs are met! Sort of.
Robert Koch is probably one of the most important people in all of medicine. Arguably one of the fathers of microbiology, he popularized the idea of his “postulates” which are a set of criteria designed to assess whether a microorganism causes disease (1). His most well known work is with the bacteria bacillus anthracis aka
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
Originally described as a pathogen in 1923, Corynebacterium equi was isolated from the lungs of ten foals (aka a young horse) who had pneumonia (1). Its name was later changed to rhodococcus (aka red coccus), and can be mistaken for mycobacterium spp due to its sometimes acid-fast appearance (2). It is known to infect horses,
COVID-19 is still among us. I had actually predicted it would be an endemic virus, similar to influenza, where we would have to get annual “flu+covid” shots each year to avoid disaster. I have a lot of issues with the initial response, not to mention the amount of useless COVID-related papers that have been published.
Coccidioides (from now on, called Cocci) is an endemic fungi that exists in two forms, yeast and mold, that is endemic to the southeastern United States (1). It is related to both Histoplasma and Blastomyces with two species known to infect humans. C. immitis and C. posadasii. Arthroconidia can be transported in soil or fomites,
I recently wrote about the fact that all pneumonia are aspiration events. Depending on the colonization of the oropharynx and the volume of aspirate material plays a role in the development of subsequent disease. It stands to reason that, if we are able to figure out what is colonizing the oropharynx, we may be able
So, you are thinking about starting antibiotics to cover for pseudomonas? That is great. Piperacillin-tazobactam or cefepime are great choices. Perhaps ceftazidime is another one if you are feeling a bit wild. Piperacillin-tazobactam covers anaerobes while the other 2 do not, however metronidazole is a nice addition to the latter 2. Either way, these all
Aspiration of any content is one of those nebulous things we tend to treat, no matter what. The idea is that aspiration of any oropharyngeal contents into the lungs represents an establishment of a new infection and, thus, it needs to be treated. I think the term aspiration pneumonia is actually misunderstood, and it may
What is this? I am writing about a topic related to transplant infectious diseases? Something has to be going on! I had originally intended to write about CMV serostatus and risk of organ rejection in SOT patients, but that was a more difficult topic to tackle (just like that HTLV-1 post; yeah that one is
First identified by Carlos Chagas (yes, that Chagas) back in 1909, pneumocystis was identified as a cause of plasma cell pneumonia in debilitated infants following WWII (1). Since then, it has been identified as a unicellular fungus that is of low virulence and unique amongst the other fungi in that it lacks ergosterol in its
Dr. Germophile 