Where all your ID needs are met! Sort of.
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
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
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
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
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
Leviticus 13:45-13:46 – And the leper in whom the plague [is], his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague [shall be] in him he shall be defiled; he [is] unclean: he shall dwell
Visceral leishmaniasis is a protozoan disease caused by the Leishmania donovani complex, which is transmitted by sand flies in the genus phlebotomus in the old world and Lutzomyia in the new world (1). Leishmaniasis tends to be an intracellular organism, infecting macrophages and the reticuloendothelial system, leading to severe bone marrow suppression and splenomegaly. The
Strongylodiasis is probably one of those disease you don’t think about. After all, it is generally thought to be a tropical infectious disease, and as a result, there is little Western familiarity with it. While the number of infected people worldwide ranges from 30-100 million (1), with a recent review noting the prevalence being 10-40%
Dr. Germophile 