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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Family physicians should be alert for unusual diseases in patients who are returning from foreign travel. Malaria is a potentially fatal disease that can be acquired by travelers to certain areas of the world, primarily developing nations. Transmitted through the bite of the Anopheles mosquito, malaria usually presents with fever and a vague systemic illness. The disease is diagnosed by demonstration of Plasmodium organisms on a specially prepared blood film. Travelers can also acquire amebic infections, which may cause dysentery or, in some instances, liver abscess. Amebiasis is diagnosed by finding Entamoeba histolytica cysts or trophozoites in the stool. Invasive amebic infections are generally treated with metronidazole followed by iodoquinol or paromomycin. Cutaneous larva migrans is acquired by skin contact with hookworm larvae in the soil. The infection is characterized by the development of itchy papules followed by serpiginous or linear streaks. Cutaneous larva migrans is treated with invermectin or albendazole. Case studies are presented.
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PMID:Case studies in international travelers. 1075 Aug 73

During a flight to Kenya, a 42-year-old man took a therapeutic dose of chloroquine because of fever. He regularly travelled to Africa and always took chloroquine and proguanil for malaria prophylaxis. The fever disappeared but he did not fully recover. He complained of malaise and weight loss. Fourteen years previously he had suffered from amoebic dysentery. One month after the onset of the patient's complaints, an amoebic liver abscess was suspected on the basis of his medical history, an elevated ESR and a slight leukocytosis. The diagnosis was confirmed by ultrasonography and serology.
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PMID:[Malaise after a trip to Africa: amoebic liver abscess]. 1190 44

Fever after travel to sub-tropical and tropical areas opens a wide door of differential diagnoses. Apart from the entire scope of internal medicine, unrelated (first manifestation of a plethora of disorders) or related to travel (e.g. pulmonary embolism in a risk patient), there are emergency and non-emergency infectious causes to be considered. Bacterial meningitis or other causes of septicaemia (Pyelonephritis, Pneumonia), severe bacterial infections of the intestines and amoebic liver abscess, typhoid fever, and viral haemorrhagic fevers should always be considered. Malaria must be ruled out if the patient has travelled in an endemic area within the past 3-12 months. A thorough history and a meticulous physical examination, the use of an electronic support (e.g. www. fevertravel.ch) and basic laboratory investigations (malaria blood slide, Hb. Differential WBC, platelets, stool culture, urine analysis, selective cultures and serologies), if necessary with the help of expert advice from a specialist in tropical and infectious diseases are elements for a successful establishment of a meaningful differential diagnosis.
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PMID:[Practical aspects on fever in returning travellers]. 1704 87

Travel medicine deals with travellers' diseases. The target group is therefore distinct from tropical medicine. It has gained in significance due to the increase in tourism and professional work abroad in the last 50 years. Dangerous and widespread diseases in tropical countries, in particular tropical malaria, have come into focus in industrialized countries because of their appearance in travellers. Travel medicine deals not only with infectious or transmittable diseases, but also with the ability of patients with chronic diseases to travel, the medical aspects of flying, as well as the health hazards of professional work or high-risk sports abroad. The risk of disease as a result of travelling can be minimized by advice and prophylactic measures, such as vaccinations and drug prophylaxis against malaria, if indicated. On return, medical symptoms should be investigated promptly to ensure early detection of life-threatening disease courses, particularly tropical malaria, as well as to prevent the occurrence of small-scale epidemics. A small number of diseases can also emerge after several years, such as benign types of malaria, amoebic liver abscess and visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar). Aids also belongs to these diseases. Therefore, in this era of HIV pandemic travellers concerned should be made aware of the risks.
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PMID:[Travel medicine]. 1948 93

International travel is increasing. Most physicians and general practitioners will encounter returned travellers with fever and the majority of travel-related infection is associated with travel to the tropics. In those returning from the tropics malaria must always be excluded, and HIV considered, from all settings. Common causes of non-malarial fever include from Africa rickettsial diseases, amoebic liver abscess and Katayama syndrome; from South and South East Asia, enteric fever and arboviral infection; from the Middle East, brucellosis and from the Horn of Africa visceral leishmaniasis. Other rare but important diseases from particular geographical areas include leptospirosis, trypanosomiasis and viral haemorrhagic fever. North and South America, Europe and Australia also have infections which are geographically concentrated. Empirical treatment may have to be started based on epidemiological probability of infection whilst waiting for results to return. The evidence base for much of the management of tropical infections is limited. These recommendations provide a pragmatic approach to the initial diagnosis and management of fever in returned travellers, based on evidence where it is available and on consensus of expert opinion where it is not. With early diagnosis and treatment the majority of patients with a potentially fatal infection related to travel will make a rapid and full recovery.
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PMID:Fever in returned travellers presenting in the United Kingdom: recommendations for investigation and initial management. 1959 60

Amebiasis is the disease caused by the enteric dwelling protozoan parasite Entamoeba histolytica. The WHO considers amebiasis as one of the major health problems in developing countries; it is surpassed by only malaria and schistosomiasis for death caused by parasitic infection. E. histolytica primarily lives in the colon as a harmless commensal, but is capable of causing devastating dysentery, colitis and liver abscess. What triggers the switch to a pathogenic phenotype and the onset of disease is unknown. We are becoming increasingly aware of the complexity of the host-parasite interaction. During chronic stages of amebiasis, the host develops an immune response that is incapable of eliminating tissue resident parasites, while the parasite actively immunosuppresses the host. However, most individuals with symptomatic infections succumb only to an episode of dysentery. Why most halt invasion and a minority progress to chronic disease remains poorly understood. This review presents a current understanding of the immune processes that shape the outcome of E. histolytica infections during its different stages.
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PMID:The immunopathogenesis of Entamoeba histolytica. 2030 55

Travel-related illness is most often due to gastrointestinal, febrile, and dermatologic diseases. Fever in a returned traveler demands prompt attention because it may be a manifestation of an infection that could be rapidly progressive and lethal. The approach to the febrile patient should be stepwise and consider travel and exposure history. Malaria is the most common cause of fever in patients returning from Sub-Saharan Africa, whereas dengue is more frequent in travelers from other tropical and subtropical areas. Other serious diseases are typhoid and paratyphoid fever, amebic liver abscess, visceral leishmaniasis, leptospirosis and-rarely-viral hemorrhagic fevers.
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PMID:[Fever in returning travelers]. 2455 43

This comprehensive review is focused on a serious protozoan disease, amebiasis. This disease is caused by the human parasite Entamoeba histolytica (E. histolytica), the second leading cause of mortality due to protozoan disease worldwide (the leading cause is malaria). The incidence of amebiasis in the Czech Republic is very low, but it may be underreported as the disease often escapes diagnosis. Intestinal colonisation by E. histolytica may be asymptomatic. The clinical picture ranges from diarrhea to colitis or fulminant colitis when the parasite progresses to the trophozoite stage. Secondary dissemination in the blood or lymph system may induce systemic signs of the disease. Liver abscess is the most common extraintestinal form of amebiasis. The diagnosis of intestinal amebiasis is based on the clinical picture and parasitological examination of the stool. To diagnose extraintestinal amebiasis, serology tests are used to detect antibodies in the blood. Recently, molecular methods have been increasingly used for the detection of the nucleic acids of the pathogen in biological specimens. The first line therapy for amebiasis are 5-nitroimidazole drugs, currently available in the Czech Republic. However, surgical intervention should also be considered in patients with a severe course of the disease. Included in the review are the case reports of patients with severe concomitant intestinal and extraintestinal amebiasis.
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PMID:[The current view of the diagnosis and management of amebiasis in the light of the authors own case reports]. 2541 88

A study was carried out to investigate the causes of prolonged fever or onset of fever, after starting anti-tubercular treatment (ATT) in sputum smear positive, HIV negative patients admitted in a Tuberculosis (TB) Sanatorium for directly observed therapy (DOT). A total of 40 patients were studied. All were males with age ranging from 22-55 years (mean 43 years). There were 22 (55%) patients with radiological extensive disease, 12 (30%) of whom had toxemia of TB (any three of the following, <90% body weight, hypoalbuminemia, hyponatremia, severe normocytic anaemia, <5mm response on tuberculin testing). Radiologically, moderately extensive disease was seen in 9 (22.5%) cases, whereas focal disease was present in another 9 (22.5%) patients. There were 28 (70%) patients who had evidence of dissemination of disease to extra pulmonary organs. It was found that fever occurred because of direct complications of TB in 22.5%, TB hypersensitivity (cold abscess) in 12.5%, drug resistance in 10% and drug reactions in 22.5%. Other diseases were the cause of fever in 32.5%. These included superadded lung infections in 15%, malaria in 7.5% anaemia in 5%. Filariasis and amoebic liver abscess in another 2.5% each. It is concluded that such fevers require a systematic and detailed investigation rather than attributing fever to drug resistance or TB toxemia alone.
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PMID:PROLONGED FEVER DURING THE TREATMENT OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS. 2740 58

In resource-limited settings, the scarcity of skilled personnel and adequate laboratory facilities makes the differential diagnosis of fevers complex [1-5]. Febrile illnesses are diagnosed clinically in most rural centers, and both Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs) and clinical algorithms can be valuable aids to health workers and facilitate therapeutic decisions [6,7]. The persistent fever syndrome targeted by NIDIAG is defined as presence of fever for at least one week. The NIDIAG clinical research consortium focused on potentially severe and treatable infections and therefore targeted the following conditions as differential diagnosis of persistent fever: visceral leishmaniasis (VL), human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), enteric (typhoid and paratyphoid) fever, brucellosis, melioidosis, leptospirosis, malaria, tuberculosis, amoebic liver abscess, relapsing fever, HIV/AIDS, rickettsiosis, and other infectious diseases (e.g., pneumonia). From January 2013 to October 2014, a prospective clinical phase III diagnostic accuracy study was conducted in one site in Cambodia, two sites in Nepal, two sites in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and one site in Sudan (clinicaltrials.gov no. NCT01766830). The study objectives were to (1) determine the prevalence of the target diseases in patients presenting with persistent fever, (2) assess the predictive value of clinical and first-line laboratory features, and (3) assess the diagnostic accuracy of several RDTs for the diagnosis of the different target conditions.
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PMID:Diagnosis of Persistent Fever in the Tropics: Set of Standard Operating Procedures Used in the NIDIAG Febrile Syndrome Study. 2781 90


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