Category: Tropical Medicine

Katayama Fever – Acute Schistosomiasis

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

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TB or not TB: A Journey Through Chemotherapy

This is quite a corny and overtold joke. I have discussed some new drugs for multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which is defined as resistance to both rifampin and isoniazid, however I felt like going back to the basics of TB therapy. Indeed, we all learn in STEP 1 and med school about “RIPE-ing it up”

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Rheumatism Mimic – Getting to know Chronic Chikungunya

Topics dealing with tropical medicine are difficult to tackle, as I am never quite sure where to begin. Do I talk about their epidemiology or the clinical presentation? I’ll never recognize one and even if I did, I could offer no therapy outside of “supportive management.” Chikungunya is one of these diseases. This is a

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Cryptococcus Meningitis – Making Amphotericin Float Like a Crashing Seagull and Sting Like a Scorpion

Am I going there? Am I going to look into a topic that one of my attendings literally wrote the guidelines for? I guess I am. Cryptococcus is a yeast that is typically found everywhere there is bat/pigeon droppings or contaminated soil, as well as in certain tree species throughout the world. The most common

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Chagas Disease Reactivation – What to Watch Out For

Primary infection with T. cruzi, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is generally asymptomatic with a small percentage having non-specific symptoms such as fever, malaise, lymphadenopathy, and in certain cases, a Chagoma. The vast majority of people go on to develop an “intermediate” form of the disease, where serology is positive but there is no sign

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What the Chagas? The Impact of Chagas Cardiomyopathy

This is going to be a very different post, in that, while the topic is still related to infectious disease, I’ll delve into other parts of medicine as I think they are relevant. Chagas disease, widely considered a neglected tropical disease, is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi and it is a zoonosis transmitted among domestic and

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Query: A Journey from Ruminants to Heart Valves

Last post was all about dogs and their mouths. This time, is about cow placentas. At least to a certain extent. Coxiella burnetii is a gram negative organism that is known to cause a variety of diseases, however it is most commonly associated with culture-negative endocarditis. While it is generally a “wimpy” organism and not

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Rat Urine, Triathlons, Rainfall, and Spirochetes – The Enigma of Leptospirosis

Leptospirosis is related to the other spirochetes such as T. pallidum and B. burgdorferi. As such, they are thin-coiled bacterium that are difficult to detect via traditional staining methods, and like B. burdorferi, it is a zoonotic disease. It is prevalent anywhere there is water, and has a worldwide distribution. Despite this, the prevalence varies

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Basics of Yellow Fever – i.e The Bare Minimum

Flaviviruses flabber my gaster. There are multiple of these that all look the same and all cause very similar diseases (read: hemorrhagic fever). Dengue, West Nile, and Zika are the more widely known given the recent outbreaks in the US of the latter 2. The one that is of historical (and epidemiological) importance is yellow

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How Trench Warfare Lead to the Discovery of Bartonella Quintana – Among Other Things

(While I do not anticipate this to alter the post, I should note that one name that has published several articles into B. quintana is Didier Raoult. If that name sounds familiar, he was the guy who published a large case series of patients with COVID-19 who were treated with HCQ and kickstarted the HCQ

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