STIs and congenital infections Flashcards
What is the most common presentation of STIs and congenital infections?
Asymptomatic
Why is it crucial to culture bacteria?
To test suceptibility
What is the most infectious period of an infection?
Primary infection as there is no immune response yet (high pathogen load)
What does a high antibody avidity reflect?
-High affinity means a non-recent infection (time to select for antibodies and hypermutate)
Apart from antibody avidity how else can you differentiate a recent from non-recent infection?
Rising antibody titre that is 4x previous levels
What are the symptoms for congenital rubella?
- Deafness
- Opthalmagia
- CVD defects
What is the most common congenital infection?
CMV
A women presents with white vaginal discharge and vulvitis. What is your likely diagnosis?
Candida albicans
What are the features of N. gonorrhoae?
Gram -ve dipplococci
Why do you swab urethral and cervical areas when looking for N. gonorrhoae?
They like columnar cells
How do you test for syphilis?
EIA=tests for antibodies which tells you if antigen has/is there (current or past exposure)
RPR= Marker for acute infection (non-specific)
How do you treat gonorrhoea?
Ceftriaxone
What causes syphilis?
Treponema pallidum
What causes chlaymdia?
Chlamydia trachomatis
How do you treat chlamydia?
Macrolide eg azithromicin
How do you treat candida albicans overgrowth?
Anti-fungals
A patient has presented with hepatitis like symptoms. If they are suffering from an acute Hep B infection what would their test results show?
- HBsAg +ve (virus present)
- Anti HBc IgM +ve (virus present)
- HBe Ag +ve (active replication + they are infectious)
- Negative for Anti HBs because no immunity formed
When is a patient classified as a chronic Hep B carrier?
If they have HBsAg after 6 months
What does positive for anti-HBe mean?
a person has recovered from infection/chronic carrier
A patient presents with painful blisters in and around their vagina. How are you going to confirm a diagnosis?
- PCR for HSV
- Cell culture looking for cytopathic effect
What can lead to HSV outbreaks?
cold, heat, stress, immunosuppresion
What is the treatment of HSV?
Acyclovoir
What are some complications of HSV infection?
- Dissemination to other places
- Perinatal infection
A pregnant woman presents with a rash and a mild fever. What are some possible infections that could produce these symptoms?
- Rubella
- Parvovirus
- Enterovirus
