Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0023241 (Legionella)
 6,990 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A cumulative review of illness experienced by 13,816 travellers returning to Scotland since 1977, shows an overall attack rate of 36%. Alimentary complaints predominated; 18% of travellers had these alone and a further 10% had other symptoms as well as their gastro-intestinal disorder. Higher attack rates were noted in those taking package holidays. Inexperience of travel, smoking, more southerly travel and younger age (particularly those between 20- and 29-years-old) were other contributing factors. A similar pattern emerged from a I year study of hospital in-patients with travel related admissions. Serological studies of 470 travellers showed that 20% had incomplete immunity to poliomyelitis; 25% of those tested (312 travellers) had serological evidence of typhoid immunisation, I.9% (of 760 travellers) had antibodies to Legionella pneumophila, 64% (5II travellers tested) had antibodies to hepatitis A, 87% (288 tested) had adequate levels of tetanus antitoxin but only 40% of the 225 travellers tested had adequate levels of diphtheria antitoxin. Amongst a subgroup of 645 travellers the travel agent was the most frequently consulted source of pre-travel health advice. This carries particular significance for the dissemination of relevant advice in view of the inadequacies found from study of the health information in travel brochures. These findings, viewed against the perspective of the continuing growth in international travel, means that travellers, the medical profession, the travel trade, health educators, global health agencies and health authorities in those countries accepting and encouraging tourists, will be required to recognise the health implications of further tourism development if this problem of illness associated with travel is to be brought under control.
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PMID:A cumulative review of studies on travellers, their experience of illness and the implications of these findings. 216 66

In this review of the risk of infection to hospital staff, attention is drawn to the continuing risk presented by hepatitis B and pulmonary tuberculosis, which are more common than diseases such as typhoid fever, brucellosis, histoplasmosis, whooping cough, infectious gastroenteritis, measles, and parotiditis. Other items considered include the susceptibility of female hospital staff to rubella and the importance of their undergoing screening and vaccination; the risks currently presented by epidemic keratoconjunctivitis and by herpes viruses (herpes simplex, varicella zoster, and cytomegalovirus); and the risk of contracting the new infectious diseases (Legionnaires' disease, Marburg disease, Lassa fever, and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome).
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PMID:Occupational hazards in hospitals: risk of infection. 330 95

The tetracyclines are effective in the treatment of Chlamydia, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and rickettsial infections and may also be used for gonococcal infections in patients unable to tolerate penicillins. These drugs may cause gastrointestinal irritation, photo-toxic dermatitis, diarrhea, vestibular damage, and hepatotoxicity in pregnant women. Chloramphenicol is used primarily for anaerobic infections, Haemophilus influenzae meningitis, and typhoid fever. The most important toxic effect of chloramphenicol is bone marrow suppression, which can be dose related or idiosyncratic. Erythromycin is the drug of choice for the treatment of infections caused by M. pneumoniae, Legionella species, group A beta-hemolytic streptococci, and Streptococcus pneumoniae. The frequency of serious untoward effects associated with the use of erythromycin is low; epigastric distress may occur. Clindamycin is active against Bacteroides fragilis and other anaerobic microorganisms. Pseudomembranous enterocolitis has developed in as many as 10% of patients taking this drug. The use of clindamycin should be discontinued promptly if diarrhea occurs.
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PMID:Tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, erythromycin, and clindamycin. 365 8

Typhoid fever is an infectious disease commonly seen in the tropics, with multisystem involvement and a high morbidity and mortality rate. Legionnaires' disease: a newly described acute respiratory infection by unusual aerobic gram-negative micro-organisms namely Legionella pneumophila. Cellular immunity: in vitro and in vivo evaluations of cellular immunity using E-rosette formation (E) and 2.4-Dinitrochlorobenzene (D) reaction were made in typhoid fever, amebiasis and Legionnaires' disease. Results will be presented. Three patients with relapsing typhoid fever were given transfer factor and another group with typhoid fever were given Levamisole with sulfamethoxazole-trimethoprim. Up to 90% of the cases receiving immunopotentiating factors/agents improved faster in both general condition, fever and cellular immunity.
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PMID:Cellular immunity in typhoid fever, Legionnaires' disease, amebiasis: role of transfer factor and Levamisole in typhoid fever. 687 76

Relative bradycardia in infectious diseases is a poorly defined term. No exact and useful definition exists and the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Despite this, the term is often used in the literature and in clinical practice both as a clinical sign for an individual patient and as a characteristic feature of certain specific diseases. In this study a definition of relative bradycardia as a clinical sign in an individual patient and a definition of relative bradycardia as a characteristic feature of a specific disease were established based on a reference population comprising 673 patients with various infectious diseases. Relative bradycardia as a clinical sign in an individual patient held no predictive value regarding the likely type of infection. Relative bradycardia as a characteristic feature of specific disease was found for typhoid fever (P = 0.003), Legionnaire's disease (P = 0.005), and pneumonia caused by Chlamydia sp. (P = 0.0005), but not for mycoplasma pneumonia. It was not found for other pulmonary infections, infections caused by other Salmonella sp., other extracellular Gram-negative infections, or viral infections. Thus, relative bradycardia as a clinical sign has no predictive value for obtaining a tentative diagnosis, but relative bradycardia as a feature of specific disease is seen in typhoid fever, Legionnaire's disease, and pneumonia caused by Chlamydia sp. It seems that relative bradycardia as a feature of specific disease only occurs in diseases caused by organisms that are both Gram-negative and intracellular.
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PMID:Relative bradycardia in infectious diseases. 1071 9

A variety of newly discovered pathogens and new forms of older infectious agents threaten to reemerge. Typical symptoms of acute infection are fever, headache, malaise, vomiting, and diarrhea. Some of the better-known emerging viral infections include dengue, filoviruses (Ebola, Marburg), hantaviruses, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, influenza, lassa fever, measles, rift valley fever, rotavirus, and yellow fever. Emerging bacterial infections include cholera, Escherichia coli 0157:H7, legionnaires disease (Legionella), lyme disease, streptococcus infections (group A), tuberculosis, and typhoid. Emerging parasitic infections include cryptosporidium and other waterborne pathogens and malaria. The causes of many diseases are still shrouded in mystery; thus, treatments and cures for them are as yet unknown.
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PMID:The threat of emerging infections. 1234 57

Many classes of pathogens excreted in feces are able to initiate waterborne infections. There are bacterial pathogens, including enteric and aquatic bacteria, enteric viruses, and enteric protozoa, which are strongly resistant in the water environment and to most disinfectants. The infection dose of viral and protozoan agents is lower than bacteria, in the range of one to ten infectious units or oocysts. Waterborne outbreaks of bacterial origin (particularly typhoid fever) in the developing countries have declined dramatically from 1900s. Therefore, some early bacterial agents such as Shigella sonnei remains prevalent and new pathogens of fecal origin such as zoonotic C. jejuni and E. coli O157:H7 may contaminate pristine waters through wildlife or domestic animal feces. The common feature of these bacteria is the low inoculum (a few hundred cells) that may trigger disease. The emergence in early 1992 of serotype O139 of V. cholerae with epidemic potential in Southeast Asia suggests that other serotypes than V. cholerae O1 could also getting on epidemic. Some new pathogens include environmental bacteria that are capable of surviving and proliferating in water distribution systems. Other than specific hosts at risk, the general population is refractory to infection with ingested P. aeruginosa. The significance of Aeromonas spp. in drinking water to the occurrence of acute gastroenteritis remains a debatable point and has to be evaluated in further epidemiological studies. Legionella and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) are environmental pathogens that have found an ecologic niche in drinking and hot water supplies. Numerous studies have reported Legionnaires' disease caused by L. pneumophila occurring in residential and hospital water supplies. M. avium complex frequently causes disseminated infections in AIDS patients and drinking water has been suggested as a source of infection; in some cases the relationship has been proven. More and more numerous reports show that Helicobacter pylori DNA can be amplified from feces samples of infected patients, which strongly suggests fecal-to-oral transmission. Therefore, it is possible that H. pylori infection is waterbome, but these assumptions need to be substantiated. Giardiasis has become the most common cause of human waterborne disease in the U.S. over the last 30 years. However, as a result of the massive outbreak of waterborne cryptosporidiosis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, affecting an estimated 403,000 persons, there is increasing interest in the epidemiology and prevention of new infection disease caused by Cryptosporidium spp. as well as monitoring water quality. The transmission of Cryptosporidium and Giardia through treated water supplies that meet water quality standards demonstrates that water treatment technologies have become inadequate, and that a negative coliform no longer guarantees that water is free from all pathogens, especially from protozoan agents. Substantial concern persists that low levels of pathogen occurrence may be responsible for the endemic transmission of enteric disease. In addition to Giardia and Cryptosporidium, some species of genera Cyclospora, Isospora, and of family Microsporidia are emerging as opportunistic pathogens and may have waterborne routes of transmission. More than 15 different groups of viruses, encompassing more than 140 distinct types can be found in the human gut. Some cause illness unrelated with the gut epithelium, such as Hepatitis A virus (HAV) and Hepatitis E virus (HEV). Numerous large outbreaks have been documented in the U.S. between 1950 and 1970, and the incidence rate has strongly declined in developing countries since the 1970s. Hepatitis E is mostly confined to tropical and subtropical areas, but recent reports indicate that it can occur at a low level in Europe. A relatively small group of viruses have been incriminated as causes of acute gastroenteritis in humans and fewer have proven to be true etiologic agents, including rotavirus, calicivirus, astrovirus, and some enteric adenovirus. These enteric viruses have infrequently been identified as the etiologic agents of waterborne disease outbreaks, because of inadequate diagnostic technology, but many outbreaks of unknown etiology currently reported are likely due to viral agents. Actually, Norwalk virus and Norwalk-like viruses are recognized as the major causes of waterborne illnesses world-wide. The global burden of infectious waterborne disease is considerable. Reported numbers highly underestimate the real incidence of waterborne diseases. The most striking concern is that enteric viruses such as caliciviruses and some protozoan agents, such as Cryptosporidium, are the best candidates to reach the highest levels of endemic transmission, because they are ubiquitous in water intended for drinking, being highly resistant to relevant environmental factors, including chemical disinfecting procedures. Other concluding concerns are the enhanced risks for the classic group of debilitated subjects (very young, old, pregnant, and immunocompromised individuals) and the basic requirement of to take specific measures aimed at reducing the risk of waterborne infection diseases in this growing, weaker population.
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PMID:Microbial agents associated with waterborne diseases. 1254 97

An immunofluorescent assay (IFAT) using whole cell antigen derived from Burkholderia thailandensis used for detection of total antibodies to Burkholderia pseudomallei, was found to compare favorably with a previous published report on a B. pseudomallei IFAT assay. At a 1:20 cut-off titer, the assay had high sensitivity (98.9%) and satisfactory specificity (92.3%), when tested against sera from 94 patients suspected of melioidosis. Sera from 12 patients with culture proven melioidosis gave absolute concordance with the 2 test antigens. No sera from 50 blood donors had a titer of > or =20. Cross-reactivity with patients' sera positive for Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, Legionella and typhoid was not observed, except for 3 sera from typhus patients and one from a patient with leptospirosis. The major advantage of this assay is that the cultivation and preparation of B. thailandensis as antigen can be carried out in any laboratory with basic microbiological set-up. The serodiagnosis of melioidosis can be made safe for medical laboratory personnel, particularly in B. pseudomallei endemic regions.
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PMID:Burkholderia thailandensis whole cell antigen cross-reacts with B. pseudomallei antibodies from patients with melioidosis in an immunofluorescent assay. 2057 23

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium causes typhoid-like disease in mice and is a model of typhoid fever in humans. One of the hallmarks of typhoid is persistence, the ability of the bacteria to survive in the host weeks after infection. Virulence factors called effectors facilitate this process by direct transfer to the cytoplasm of infected cells thereby subverting cellular processes. Secretion of effectors to the cell cytoplasm takes place through multiple routes, including two separate type III secretion (T3SS) apparati as well as outer membrane vesicles. The two T3SS are encoded on separate pathogenicity islands, SPI-1 and -2, with SPI-1 more strongly associated with the intestinal phase of infection, and SPI-2 with the systemic phase. Both T3SS are required for persistence, but the effectors required have not been systematically evaluated. In this study, mutations in 48 described effectors were tested for persistence. We replaced each effector with a specific DNA barcode sequence by allelic exchange and co-infected with a wild-type reference to calculate the ratio of wild-type parent to mutant at different times after infection. The competitive index (CI) was determined by quantitative PCR in which primers that correspond to the barcode were used for amplification. Mutations in all but seven effectors reduced persistence demonstrating that most effectors were required. One exception was CigR, a recently discovered effector that is widely conserved throughout enteric bacteria. Deletion of cigR increased lethality, suggesting that it may be an anti-virulence factor. The fact that almost all Salmonella effectors are required for persistence argues against redundant functions. This is different from effector repertoires in other intracellular pathogens such as Legionella.
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PMID:Diverse secreted effectors are required for Salmonella persistence in a mouse infection model. 2395 Sep 98

Hepatitis A, B, C, D, E, G are the most common causes of acute hepatitis, however, there are many infectious diseases affecting liver and with fever, early diagnostics of which is very important for the clinic of internal diseases. This review presents infections, causing fever and hepatitis, but not necessarily accompanied by jaundice. Leptospirosis, yellow fever have been considered, in which liver damage determines the clinic and the prognosis of the disease. In other cases, such as infectious mononucleosis, cytomegalovirus and herpetic hepatitis, typho-para-typhoid infections, typhoid, pneumonia, some viral diseases, malaria, Legionnaire's disease, hepatitis do not have their independent status and represent one of the important syndromes of a common disease. Modern methods of diagnostics and treatment of these diseases have been described.
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PMID:[Acute hepatitis in infectious diseases]. 2429 83


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