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Query: UMLS:C0009450 (infectious diseases)
 83,438 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

One of the most important and most lasting benefits of medicine to human health and health expenditure is the controlled immunological interruption of the vicious cycle of infectious disease such as smallpox, poliomyelitis, yellow fever, measles. Smallpox, with globally more than 2.5 million cases ten years ago, is gone. The incidence of infectious diseases with available immunoprophylaxis has been reduced by 90 % over the past two decades, while the incidence of diseases without vaccine has nearly tripled. By contrast, influenza, a disease against which there have been vaccines in existence for many years, demands more deaths than any other infectious disease. Reasons for this failure of influenza immunoprophylaxis are discussed and suggested to include: indiscriminate use of available vaccines of which some types are much less antigenic than others, the disappointment that influenza virus vaccines will not protect against influenza-like illnesses caused by noninfluenza virus pathogens and the concomitant indiscriminate rejection of all influenza vaccines as being of doubtful value; superficial vaccination policies which aim at narrow populations, leaving those most likely to spread the virus the full potential to do so; the unjustified fear of side reactions following vaccination which are considerably less severe than the disease this vaccination is attempting to prevent.
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PMID:Vaccination against virus diseases. 39 10

Various workers, including T. D. Stewart, claim that the aboriginal Americas were relatively disease-free because of the bering Strait cold-screen, eliminating many pathogens, and the paucity of zoonotic infections because of few domestic animals. Evidence of varying validity suggests that precontact Americns had their own strains of treponemic infections, bacillary and amoebic dysenteries, influenza and viral penumonia and other respiratory diseases, salmonellosis and perhaps other food poisoning, various arthritides, some endoparasites such as the ascarids, and several geographically circumscribed diseases such as the rickettsial verruca (Carrion's disease) and New World leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis. Questionably aboriginal are tuberculosis and typhus. Accordingly, virtually all the "crowd-type" ecopathogenic diseases such as smallpox, yellow fever, typhoid, malaria, measles, pertussis, polio, etc., appear to have been absent from the New World, and were only brought in by White conquerors and their Black slaves. My hypothesis is that native American medical care systems--especially in the more culturally advanced areas--were sufficiently sophisticated to deal with native disease entities with reasonable competence. But native medical systems could not cope with the "crowd-type" disease imports that struck Indian and Eskimos as "virgin-field" populations. Reanalysis of native population losses through a genocidal combination of diease, war, slavery and attendant cultural disruption by Dobyns, Cook and others strongly suggest that traditiona estimates underplayed the death toll by a factor of the general order of ten. This would make for an immediately pre-contact Indian population of some 90-111 million instead of the tradition 8-11 million. Evidence is growing that Indians may have been no more susceptible to new pathogens that are other "virgin soil" populations, and thus their immune systems need not be considered less effective than those in other people. Present-day high mortality rates in Indians of both continents from infectious disease imports may be more socioeconomic than anything else.
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PMID:Aboriginal new world epidemiolgy and medical care, and the impact of Old World disease imports. 79 20

Infections or inflammatory states often cause significant increases in serum phenylalanine and the phenylalanine-tyrosine ratio. More than 95% of samples obtained during inflammatory diseases in man showed phenylalanine-tyrosine ratio increases greater than the maximum normal values. An increase in this ratio also occurred in monkeys with induced Rocky Mountain spotted fever, viral encephalitis, yellow fever, or pneumococcal and Salmonella infections, as well as in rats with pneumococcal and Salmonella infections, as well as in rats with pneumococcal, Salmonella or tularemia infections. A similar ratio increase occurred in rats inoculated with unpurified mediator substances (released by activated leukocytes) that appear to initiate many of the secondary metabolic phenomena associated with infection and/or inflammation. To identify responsible mechanisms, rats were given lethal doses of Streptococcus pneumoniae; serum phenylalanine and phenylalanine-tyrosine ratios increased significantly. Hepatic phenylalanine hydroxylase activities were slightly decreased when compared to noninfected controls. Infected and noninfected rats showed comparable oxidation rates for 14C-phenylalanine given with an oral phenylalanine load, as a pulse-oral dose, or as an intraperitoneal injection. After 8 hr, both infected and control rats had similar amounts of radioactivity in total body protein, but tissue distributions were markedly altered during pneumococcal sepsis. Serum proteins of infected rats contained almost twice as much total radioactivity as that found in controls, while the amount of labeled phenylalanine in skeletal muscle protein was significantly reduced in the infected group. Isolated muscles from infected rats released more phenylalanine and less tyrosine than control muscles. Infection-related increases in serum phenlalanine could not be explained by decreased hydroxylation or oxidation. Rather, the data were consistent with an increased flux of phenylalanine into serum, most likely as the result of increased skeletal muscle catabolism. Elevations in the serum phenylalanine-tyrosine ratio have potential value for estimating the presence of an inflammatory fisease and the catabolic state of a patient.
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PMID:The significance and mechanism of an increased serum phenylalanine-tyrosine ratio during infection. 82 5

As quarantine control of international travellers dies away, health screening of immigrants becomes more important. Port health controls attempt to identify the sick immigrant, thereby limiting disease spread among susceptibles and sparking early treatment. Port health controls also ease the impact of immigrants arriving at destinations by alerting relevant authorities so that they can begin health education procedures early, if they wish. Two problems arise: some destination authorities make little attempt to trace their immigrants and even those that do cannot find more than 70 per cent so notified. For receiving communities the most important disease the immigrant may carry or later develop is tuberculosis. In the indigenous population the incidence of this disease is decaying exponentially but, in communities of recent immigrants, may be stable or even rising. This means that in about ten years the great majority of new tuberculosis cases will be in recent immigrants, unless better preventive techniques are used. The overall trend is likely to be a fall in the number of cases, but the disproportion may provoke problems. What can be done? Assuming incoming immigrants are typical of their country of origin, many must enter Britain mantoux-negative, a fact supported by various destination authorities here which have performed testing. So, the logical solution is to ensure that all receive BCG vaccination, preferably before they migrate or otherwise as they enter Britain, and to ensure their babies born later in Britain also receive the protection of BCG vaccination. Consumption of medical services by the travelling public increases with the number of travellers and, as more people penetrate romantic but unhealthy areas formerly inaccessible, importation of communicable disease also increases. Many of these diseases could be prevented by good advice but, unfortunately, unfamiliarity blunts the edge of prophylaxis and diagnosis. Airport experience indicates that the general practitioner could help his patient more, particularly the overlander, by discussing sanitary precautions and suggesting anti-malarial drugs and immunization against typhoid and infectious hepatitis, when appropriate. Vaccination against smallpox, cholera or yellow fever may be obligatory and a valid certificate required; inoculation against diphtheria, poliomyelitis or tetanus may be sensible, and against rabies if the traveller may come into contact with animals abroad. Although complex queries about health hazards abroad should be addressed to such research centres as the Ross Institute, I suggest much practical advice can be obtained by phoning Heathrow health control 01-759 4361.
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PMID:Port health problems. 96 79

To determine whether non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) is related to prior medication use or health history, a population-based case-control study was conducted. A total of 619 male and female residents of Los Angeles County who were diagnosed with NHL between January 1, 1979, and June 30, 1982, were compared to individually age-, race-, and sex-matched neighborhood controls with regard to history of use of 49 different medications, 47 chronic and infectious diseases or other conditions, 15 types of immunizations, and 15 specific allergic reactions. Based on preliminary analyses, long-term regular use of aspirin and other pain relievers and greater than or equal to 2 mo of treatment with penicillin and other antibiotics were associated with significantly increased risk of NHL. Other drugs associated with greater risk of NHL were use of digitalis and estrogen replacement therapy by women, use of corticosteroids, and greater than or equal to 2 mo of use of tranquilizers. NHL was strongly associated with a prior history of cancer. Cases more frequently reported histories of kidney infections and anemia than did controls; a history of eczema appeared to be protective against NHL. Women who had been immunized against polio by injectable vaccine were at significantly lower risk of NHL than women who had not received this immunization. Among men, cholera immunization and allergy to nuts and berries were significantly protective. Subjects who had received a yellow fever immunization also had lower NHL risk. Further analyses of these data will attempt to establish the relative importance of these potential risk factors and to determine whether any are markers of early symptoms of NHL.
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PMID:Prior medication use and health history as risk factors for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: preliminary results from a case-control study in Los Angeles County. 139 65

The effects of global climate change on infectious diseases are hypothetical until more is known about the degree of change in temperature and humidity that will occur. Diseases most likely to increase in their distribution and severity have three-factor (agent, vector, and human being) and four-factor (plus vertebrate reservoir host) ecology. Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes may move northward and have more rapid metamorphosis with global warming. These mosquitoes transmit dengue virus, and Aedes aegypti transmits yellow fever virus. The faster metamorphosis and a shorter extrinsic incubation of dengue and yellow fever viruses could lead to epidemics in North America. Vibrio cholerae is harbored persistently in the estuaries of the U.S. Gulf Coast. Over the past 200 years, cholera has become pandemic seven times with spread from Asia to Europe, Africa, and North America. Global warming may lead to changes in water ecology that could enhance similar spread of cholera in North America. Some other infectious diseases such as LaCrosse encephalitis and Lyme disease are caused by agents closely dependent on the integrity of their environment. These diseases may become less prominent with global warming because of anticipated modification of their habitats. Ecological studies will help us to understand more fully the possible consequences of global warming. New and more effective methods for control of vectors will be needed.
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PMID:Global climate change and infectious diseases. 182 Feb 62

The enveloped RNA viruses are responsible for many important infectious diseases both in the UK and worldwide. The most familiar of these would probably be influenza, measles, mumps, rubella, rabies, dengue and yellow fever. Conventional vaccines against all of the most widespread diseases have been available for several years, although with widely varying degrees of safety and efficacy. Although vaccines against diseases such as measles, rubella, and yellow fever have been fairly successful, all vaccines against diseases caused by this group of viruses still have several drawbacks and are in need of improvement for a variety of reasons. During the past decade our knowledge in several diverse areas of the biological sciences has expanded to the extent that it can now be combined and serious attempts made to design and engineer biological molecules with immunogenic potential. First, significant advances have been made in elucidating the mechanisms operating in the immune defence network and in determining the structure of both immunogenic molecules and the components of the immune system with which they interact. Second, the development of recombinant DNA technology has enabled biological molecules to be synthesized under conditions not restricted by the characteristics of their parent organism. Such molecules can then be altered in such a way as to improve their efficiency and their level of production. It is the purpose of this paper to outline the problems associated with the production of vaccines against enveloped RNA viruses and to discuss how recent advances in knowledge and techniques can help to overcome these problems.
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PMID:Rational design of vaccines against enveloped RNA viruses. 240 98

Cross-infection enhancement of seven African flaviviruses by subneutralising concentrations of antibody in immune ascitic fluids was investigated in P388D1 cell culture. Infection by all the seven flaviviruses tested was enhanced by homologous and at least one of six heterologous immune mouse ascitic fluids (IMAF) tested. Enhancement ratios and enhancing antibody titres were higher in homologous than in heterologous enhancement. Zika, Wesselsbron, Uganda S and West Nile viruses were enhanced in culture by all the IMAF tested. Enhancement of Dakar bat and Yellow fever viruses was produced by five heterologous IMAF, but Potiskum virus was enhanced by one heterologous flavivirus antibody. The antibody to Potiskum virus was the most potent mediator of heterologous infection enhancement; all six heterologous flaviviruses were markedly enhanced by this antibody.
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PMID:Cross-infection enhancement among African flaviviruses by immune mouse ascitic fluids. 302 13

The patient who has clinical jaundice, abnormal results on liver function tests, or both presents a difficult diagnostic challenge. Many infectious diseases affect the liver, and the extent of involvement determines the degree of clinically apparent jaundice. Some diseases that affect the liver minimally cause no jaundice at all. An important clue to the cause of the disorder is the pattern of abnormal results on liver function tests. Increased alkaline phosphatase predominates with Q fever, secondary or tertiary syphilis, clonorchiasis, and hepatic candidiasis, while elevated levels of serum transaminases characterize viral hepatitis, leptospirosis, mononucleosis syndromes, legionnaires' disease, typhoid fever, toxic shock syndrome, and yellow fever. Increases in serum bilirubin are typical with jaundice caused by clostridial myelonecrosis, severe bacterial sepsis, and relapsing fever (borreliosis). These findings together with the patient's history, physical findings, and basic laboratory tests provide a presumptive diagnosis in most cases.
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PMID:Systemic infections affecting the liver. Some cause jaundice, some do not. 305 Sep 27

The evolution of viral vaccines from the time of Jennerian prophylaxis to today's recombinant technology has been a continuing story of success. From the relatively crude or "first generation" vaccines for smallpox, rabies, and yellow fever followed a second and third generation of improved or new viral vaccines. The application of techniques for attenuating, inactivating, and partially purifying candidate viruses yielded safe, effective vaccines against influenza, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, and rubella. With the advent of effective national immunization programs in the United States and other areas of the world to promote wide scale use of these vaccines, we have seen a dramatic decrease in incidence of the viral infections of childhood. The new biotechnology serves as the cornerstone for a fourth generation of vaccines and has already provided a licensed recombinant yeast human hepatitis B vaccine. The prospects for a wide spectrum of new or improved vaccines are highly encouraging, not only because of the recent technical advances but also because vaccine development has been recognized as a priority area of research. Under the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Program for Accelerated Development of New Vaccines, support is being provided for developmental vaccine studies with hepatitis A and B, influenza A and B, rabies, rotavirus, varicella, and respiratory syncytial virus (53). The outlook for antivirals is equally optimistic. The same technologies that have provided greater insight into the genetics and molecular biology of viruses and hence the means to fashion subunit or even synthetic vaccines have yielded data that can be applied to successful development of targeted antiviral compounds.
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PMID:Viral vaccines and antivirals: current use and future prospects. 328 31


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