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
What are the symptoms of Malaria?
Fever
Rigors
Aching bones
Abdo pain
Headaches
What are some of the clinical signs that can be seen in Malaria?
Splenomegaly
Hepatomegaly
What are some of the complications of Malaria?
Cerebral malaria
Blackwater fever
Pulmonary Oedema
Severe anaemia
What is the treatment for complicated malaria?
IV Quinine
+
Oral doxycyline
What are the bacterias that cause typhoid fever?
Salmonenella typhi/paratyphi
What are the clinical features of Typhoid fever?
1st week - Fever, headache, abdo pain
2nd week - Fever peaks, rose spots, diarrhoea
3rd week - Intestinal bleeding, perforation, metastatic infections
4th week - recovery
What type of infection is Dengue fever?
Arbovirus
From which organism is Dengue fever transmitted?
Aedes Aegypti
What are the classical signs of Dengue fever?
Sudden fever
Severe headache and retro-orbital pain
Severe Myalgia
Macular rash
Petechiae
