Travel Related Infection Flashcards
What are the common features of most important travel-related infections?
1 - Fever
2 - Headache
3 - Abdominal discomfort
4 - Cough
5 - Rash
How is Malaria diagnosed?
- Thick and thin blood films
- Quantitative buffy coat
- Rapid antigen tests
How is Typhoid fever diagnosed?
- Blood, urine and stool culture
- Bone marrow culture
How is Dengue Fever diagnosed?
- Thrombocytopenia
- Elevated transaminases
- PCR
- Serology
How is Schistosomiasis diagnosed?
- Clinical features
- Antibody tests
- Ova in stools and urine
- Rectal snip
How is Rickettsiosis diagnosed?
- Clinical features
- Serology
What important questions should be asked when taking a history from a patient with febrile illness returning from overseas travel?
- Where have you been travelling?
- What precautions were taken?
- What risks were taken?
- What symptoms have they had?
- How long since symptoms started?
How is Malaria treated?
- Riamet (3 days)
- Eurartesim (3 days)
- Malarone (3 days)
- Quinine (7 days)
How is Typhoid fever treated?
- Azithromycin
- IV Ceftriaxone
How is Dengue fever treated?
- IV fluids
- FFP
- Platelets
How is Schistosomaiasis treated?
- Praziquantel
- Prednisolone if severe
How is Rickettsiosis treated?
- Tetracycline
What is the Malaria vector?
Female anopheles mosquito
What is the lifecycle of Malaria?
1 - Mosquito bites human
2 - Sporozites enter circulation
3 - Sporozites travel to Liver and infect heaptocytes
4 - Within the hepatocytes, the sporozites mature into schizonts which produce merozoites
5 - Merozoites replicate until they rupture the hepatocytes, entering the blood stream and infecting RBC’s
6 - Merozites replicate within RBC’s until they rupture
7 - Some RBC’s become gametocytes, which may be transferred to another mosquito that feeds on the infected human
8 - The gametocytes then turn into sporozites within the mosquito and it becomes a vector of the disease
What is the most dangerous species of malaria?
Plamodium falciparum
