Viral Infection

A viral infection is any type of infection that is caused by a virus.

A virus is a germ that is smaller than a bacteria. Viruses are encapsulated by a protective coating so they are more difficult to kill than bacteria. They are harder to treat because they are not susceptible to antibiotics like bacteria are because of their protective coating. However, viruses cannot grow or exist without host cells - they must be in a living organism (such as the human body) to survive.

Common Viral Infections

Viral infections can cause illnesses as minor as the common cold and as severe as AIDS. Many times people will be diagnosed with a viral infection but not get any more specific information about the virus that is causing the symptoms. Usually when this happens, the symptoms are relatively minor and you will recover without any treatment. Health care providers don't always know the exact virus that is causing the illness. This is when you will get the diagnosis of a "viral infection" with no specific name.

Other common viral infections include:

    The Flu
    Viral Pneumonia
    RSV
    Croup
    Stomach Flu (Gastroenteritis)
    Chickenpox

Treating Viral Infections

Antibiotics do not kill viruses and the use of them for viral infections just leads to antibiotic resistance. There are only a few antiviral medications available to treat very specific viruses, and they are not always effective. In some cases steroids are effective.

However, there are vaccines available to help prevent many infections. If you have a minor illness and your health care provider tells you that it is a viral infection, the best thing to do is to treat the symptoms if you are able to and just let it run its course.

Steroids and HIV Infection

The connection between injection drug use and HIV infection is well known. Sharing injection equipment such as needles and syringes presents a real risk of transmitting HIV as well as Hepatitis C. However, the injection of steroids is often overlooked as a risk behaviour.

Unlike mood-altering drugs, steroids are not perceived as having any health risks and, therefore, the user does not think he/she is in any danger.
Who Uses Steroids?

The majority of users are high school students. Other users may include strip dancers, wrestlers, weight lifters, military personnel and prisoners. The use of anabolic steroids for cosmetic purposes far exceeds their use by athletes for competition. The preferred method of use is by injection rather than by mouth.

Steroid use is a short cut to self-esteem. It needs little investment in energy and its reinforcing results are almost immediate. In a society that places so much value on body image, steroids are seen as a quick and easy response to that pressure.
What Are The Risks?

Most of the negative effects of steroids are due to overuse or misuse. The side effects may include: liver damage, sexual difficulties, aggressive behaviour, depression, acne, muscle spasms and interference with normal growth. Some of the effects are reversible after discontinuing the steroid use. However, the very real health risks are from:

    sharing needles, syringes and vials
    improper injection site
    failure to clean injection site
    failure to ensure the needle is not in a vein or artery

Steroid users must be given the opportunity to decide for themselves the negative aspects of steroid use. Until they are ready to quit, it is essential to help our young people stay alive. Any discussion of HIV/AIDS should ensure that use of steroids is included as a risk behaviour. In addition, information on the proper use of injection equipment must be readily available.

How to Manage the Most Common Respiratory Infection - the Cold

The common cold is known as one of the most prevalent infections worldwide. It is estimated that the average person contracts two to four colds per year. It has people running to drug stores and reaching for pharmaceuticals, causing further imbalance in the body, not to mention wasting money and resources. However, given a proper understanding of how the common cold works, people are able to prevent or treat this ailment in the most beneficial, and natural of ways.
A cold is classified as an upper respiratory infection (URI) and exhibits a collection of symptoms. The most common include nose and throat irritations, like a runny or stuffy nose and cough.

Colds are caused by viruses, not bacteria. Viruses and bacteria are as different as computers and elephants. Although they have some things in common, viruses generally do not respond to measures that work on bacteria. Therefore, using anti-bacterial soaps or antibiotics, which are both intended for bacteria, is useless. Viruses are not alive in the typical sense that a cell is, therefore, we cannot 'kill' them. The best way to deal with viruses is to limit our exposure to them and have our body's immune system "disassemble" them.

Over the counter cold medications do not cure colds, they just suppress the symptoms. It is; therefore, prudent to know that going out to buy typical cold medications, anti-bacterial soaps or drugs like antibiotics, is generally a waste of money and further damage to health. The best thing we can do to manage, alleviate or decrease the chances of a cold is work on boosting our immune system - and not just when a cold strikes, but year round.

Enhance your immune system
The best way to manage a cold is to not get it in the first place. This is possible by adopting optimally healthy lifestyle habits. Eating a diet based on whole, natural plant food is key. Fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices offer the most natural vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to protect and strengthen our immune system. Additionally, drinking enough pure water, having regular movement, effective stress relief, exposure to fresh air and sun for optimal vitamin D levels are of key importance as well.

Rest, hydrate and 'nutrate'
When a cold strikes, the best thing we can do first for our body is to rest. This means allowing yourself to take a day or two off of work. It is the very message the cold is trying to send us - take a break. Rest helps our bodies do what they does best, offering a most efficient and quick recovery.

Next, hydrate your body with water. Well lubricated tissues are less likely to be attacked by viruses and water helps to cleanse, as well as optimize all functions.

Finally, 'nutrate' your body by ingesting lots of high quality nutrition. This is the time to avoid all processed, junk and fast food completely, and instead take in pure nutrient-dense foods from whole, natural, plant foods. Boosting nutrient levels with supplements such as vitamins C and D and zinc is also beneficial.

Urinary Tract Infections in Children

As many as 8 percent of girls and 2 percent of boys will develop a urinary tract infection. Furthermore, young children have a greater risk of kidney damage linked to urinary tract infection than older children or adults. The information below should help you recognize a urinary tract infection in children before it causes serious damage.

What causes urinary tract infections in children?

Normal urine is sterile and contains no bacteria. However, even under normal circumstances bacteria cover the skin and are present in large numbers in the rectal area and within bowel movements. Bacteria may, at times, get into the urinary tract and travel up the urethra into the bladder. When this happens, the bacteria multiply and unless the body gets rid of the bacteria, they can cause infection (urinary tract infection or "UTI."

There are two general types of UTIs—bladder infection and kidney infection. When the infection involves the bladder it can cause inflammation, swelling and pain of the bladder. This is called cystitis. If the bacteria travel upward from the bladder through the ureters and reach and infect the kidneys, the kidney infection is called pyelonephritis. Kidney infections are more serious than bladder infections, and can cause kidney damage especially in young children.

What are the symptoms of urinary tract infections in children?

Most often when there is a urinary tract infection, the linings of the bladder, urethra, ureters, and kidneys become red and irritated. This usually causes painful, frequent urination and children may pass urine with a foul odor. Many children start having urinary accidents, and/or bloody urine. If the kidneys become infected, children often have abdominal or back pain and fever. If your child is an infant or too young to tell you how he or she feels, the signs are likely to be vague and unrelated to the urinary tract. For example, your child may just have a high fever, or be irritable and not eating, or sometimes have only a low-grade fever, loose bowel movements or just not seem healthy. You may notice that the diaper urine "smells bad." If your child has a high temperature and appears sick without another obvious source for his/her discomfort (such as runny nose or ear ache), they should see a doctor. If a kidney infection is not treated promptly, the bacteria may spread to the bloodstream and cause a life-threatening infection or permanent kidney damage.

Older children may complain of pain in the low stomach area or back as well as the need to urinate frequently. Your child may cry when he or she urinates or complain that it hurts to urinate and produce only a few drops of urine. It may be hard for them to control their urine so they may have urinary accidents or bed-wetting. They may also produce urine that smells bad or looks cloudy.

How are urinary tract infections treated in children?

Urinary tract infections are treated with antibiotics. If your doctor thinks your child has a urine infection, they will choose a drug that treats the bacteria most likely to be causing the problem. Sometimes a few days later, after the culture results are finished, the antibiotic drug might be changed to one that is more effective against the particular bacteria found in your child's urine. In addition to antibiotics, you can help your child's body fight the infection by encouraging lots of fluids and very frequent urination.

The specific antibiotic drug, way it is given and number of days that it must be taken may depend, in part, on the type and severity of infection. If your child is very sick and unable to take fluids, the antibiotic may need to be given as shots (injected directly into the bloodstream or muscle) with your child in the hospital; otherwise, oral medicine may be given. The daily treatment schedule your child's doctor recommends will depend upon the specific drug prescribed: it may call for a single dose each day or up to four daily doses. In some cases you will be asked to give your child medicine until further tests are finished.

After a few doses of the antibiotic, your child may appear much improved or even have returned to their normal activities, but often it may take weeks before all symptoms are gone. Even if they are improved, it is important that your child take the antibiotic medicines as prescribed by your doctor and not stop them because just because the symptoms have gone away. Unless urinary tract infections are fully treated, they may return, or your child may get another infection.

Urinary Tract Infection in Adults

A urinary tract infection, or UTI, is an infection that can happen anywhere along the urinary tract. Urinary tract infections have different names, depending on what part of the urinary tract is infected.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:

Urinary tract infections are caused by germs, usually bacteria that enter the urethra and then the bladder. This can lead to infection, most commonly in the bladder itself, which can spread to the kidneys.

Most of the time, your body can get rid of these bacteria. However, certain conditions increase the risk of having UTIs.

Women tend to get them more often because their urethra is shorter and closer to the anus than in men. Because of this, women are more likely to get an infection after sexual activity or when using a diaphragm for birth control. Menopause also increases the risk of a UTI.

The following also increase your chances of developing a UTI:

    Diabetes
    Advanced age (especially people in nursing homes)
    Problems emptying your bladder completely (urinary retention)
    A tube called a urinary catheter inserted into your urinary tract
    Bowel incontinence
    Enlarged prostate, narrowed urethra, or anything that blocks the flow of urine
    Kidney stones
    Staying still (immobile) for a long period of time (for example, while you are recovering from a hip fracture)
    Pregnancy
    Surgery or other procedure involving the urinary tract

The Spread Of HIV

Despite the significant progress made in the world in recent years in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV, the number of new cases detected among gay and bisexual men can not be cut. British scientists have found out how, from 2001 to 2010 in England and Wales diagnosed with HIV each year approximately 2,300 men who have sex with members of their sex. Researchers from Cambridge, it says that gays and bisexuals are returned to the practice of "risky sex" do not take precautions to properly during sexual act. The results of study published are in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

In the whole country, according to a recent report by the UK Health Protection Agency, the rate of HIV infection in homosexual and bisexual British men increased from year to year. "Every day about seven gay and bisexual men infected with HIV in the UK" - says Yusef Azad, one of the leaders National Fund for AIDS.

In fact, according to the researchers, the exact number of people ill with HIV each year, it is extremely difficult, as many patients do not seek medical attention immediately, but after many months or even years after infection. Scientists from Cambridge based in the Department of Biostatistics, Medical Research Council were founded upon the immune system of the patient at the time of referral to a doctor to figure out exactly when it was positive. "We found that the number of new cases has remained stable over the decade, there is no signs of its decline, "- said in an interview with BBC, Dr. Daniela De Angelis.

At the same time, the number of gay and bisexual men, every passing HIV testing in clinics in England and Wales rose from 16 to 59,000, the period from infection to the detection of the disease decreased from four years to three, and the number of patients receiving antiretroviral drugs, increased from 69% to 80%. "Men who have sex with men should be tested for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases at least annually, and every three months, if they have unprotected sex with new or casual partners," - said the representative of the Health Protection Agency Dr. Valerie Delpesh.

Results of the study alarmed activists British organisations to prevent the spread of HIV. Sir Nick Partridge, the head of the charity Terrence Higgins Foundation said that spending on promotion of safe sex in the last 10 years in a strongly reduced. It is possible that this is one of the reasons for increase in the number of unprotected sex in gay media, as described in the study, researchers from Cambridge.

Bird Flu Just Three Mutations Away

Bird flu virus continues to mutate. If it would be able to transmit from human to human than humanity would face a new pandemic.

In spite of the fact that bird flu is the disease of birds, some viruses of bird flu may infect humans and cause severe infections that often end up with death.

Today bird flu virus is not transmitted from human to human. However, if the virus mutates, it may begin to transmit from human to human which may result in a pandemic.

Scientists claim that only several mutations do separate humans from a real pandemic.

ARVI Treatment

Patient with ARVI is treated at home. In case of fever it is recommended bed regimen, dairy and vegetative diet rich in vitamins, plenty of warm liquids (fruit drinks, tea with lemon).  Are prescribed symptomatic drugs: nasal vasomotorial drugs, mucolytics, anti-tussive medications, antihistamine drugs, ascorbic acid, polyvitamins.

In case of causal treatment (directed on fight with causative agent) within 48 hours from the onset of the disease it is necessary to start taking antiviral medications, for example, Tamiflu. In case of complications development and occasional temperature rise after its normalization, start using antibiotics (penicillins, aminopenicillins with beta-lactamase, cephalosporins).

For the specific prevention of influenza, vaccination  is recommended. It should be done before the epidemic rise. However, vaccination is useless in other ARVI cases which are registered all year round.

ARVI prevention:
- common health improvement
- body strengthening
- immunity promotion with exercises
- consumption of food rich in vitamins
Additionally, when pandemic, your doctor may advice you to take vegetative adaptogens and immunomodifiers.

Complications after ARVI
Past viral infection makes body more vulnerable to bacterial infection which results in bacterial complications especially in cases of late diagnostics and untimely ARVI treatment. Past ARVI frequently results in chronic pathology in respiratory ways such as bronchial asthma, sinusitis, tonsillitis, otitis.

What Is Hepatitis?

A person may catch hepatitis and recover from it, not even knowing about it. A person may live with chronic form of hepatitis many years and discover it when the disease is on cirrhosis stage.

What viruses cause hepatitis?

Viruses A and E may cause acute hepatitis called “the disease of dirty hands” because people often get infection while traveling in the African and Asian countries. Viruses B, C, D may be agents of chronic hepatitis. Those viruses are transmitted via blood or during unprotected sex. In some cases chronic viral hepatitis after 10-30 years may lead to cirrhosis or liver cancer.

What are hepatitis symptoms?Acute hepatitis has the same symptoms as simple cold with food infection symptoms। In case yellow plague is not developed, people often recover successfully without knowing what disease they had। So acute hepatitis C in 95% of cases is unnoticed and hepatitis B is unnoticed in 70%. The main symptom showing chronic form of disease is constant fatigue.

Who and when should make tests for hepatitis?
# patients with chronic kidney failure who are on hemodialysis
# persons after operations and endoscopic procedures
# spouses and children of persons with hepatitis
# if the blood biochemical test shows liver damage
# drug addicts
# after unprotected sexual intercourse
# after making tattoo, piercing, manicure or pedicure in salon
# after visiting countries with high prevalence of hepatitis: South-East Asia, Central Africa

What tests should be made at the first suspicion?

To detect hepatitis, biochemical test of blood is made. This test is cheap, informative and available in most laboratories. The most important indicators for the diagnosis of hepatitis is the level of enzymes SPGT (alanine aminotransferase) and ACT (aspartate aminotransferase). In case they are out of normal level then it means the patient has hepatitis. Then the next step is to go to gastroenterologist and infectiologist that do specialize on hepatitis.

How to check for hepatitis B and C?

The most rational way is to do a blood test on the most important markers of chronic hepatitis B and C. In case were found HbsAg (membrane antigen of B virus) and antibodies to to hepatitis C virus, you should go to the doctor. He will say if it is necessary or not to make other tests to detect virus antigens. Such profound examinations are made in special laboratories. You may at once make blood test for RNA and DNA of viruses B and C. If they will be detected then you should anyway make antigen and antibodies test in order to find the best treatment.

How To Improve Your Immunity?

In autumn, winter and spring many of us complain on immunity lowering. We become more vulnerable to different diseases and we may catch any virus.


First of all, what is immunity?
Immunity is body resistance to everything heterogenes. Immune system protects body from penetration of dangerous for its life activity matters such as bacteria, viruses and fungi and other harmful micro organisms.

If infection enters human body, then infection starts to reproduce and human condition breaks down. Do appear first symptoms: sneeze, cough, high body temperature. If a person has good immunity then comes breaking point and in the blood start to produce antibodies – matters that destroy infection in the body.

Humans have special cells called lymphocytes. They act as soldiers protecting their state, in other words, they along with antibodies destroy infection acting as aggressors.
There exists species immunity when cats and dogs do not get infected with human diseases and vise versa.

Natural acquired immunity appears after past disease. Artificial immunity appears after flu shot. Everybody know that some people get diseased frequently and some quite rarely. That's a shame. So what to do?

The answer is quite simple – it is necessary to improve your immunity. It is not so difficult as it seems at first sight, although it requires some efforts. Alcohol, smoking, stress, poor ecology, unhealthy food and water, great mental and physical stress do lower immunity.

For most of us it is much easier to take a modern pill than to come down the sofa. Today modern human moves less and less, because civilization brings him a number of things literally on the plate. That is why those who want to iimprove their immunity should increase their physical activity. It may be gymnastics, aerobics, swimming. outdoor games, working in the garden, walking.

Quenching and yoga help in immunity strengthening. Healthy foods (fruits, vegetables, cereals, coarse bread, legumes, vegetable oils, honey, lactate products) also help to increase immunity. Vitamins should always be presented in your diet. Make your habit to drink vitaminic mineral assemblage. It is healthful to take each morning a spoon with honey when your stomach is empty.

Green tea and mate positively work on the immunity. Stress usually is resulted from overfatigue that is why you should rest good. So, you will reduce chances to get infected. And in case you get infected, you will recover from disease much easily. It is better to improve immunity in late spring, summer and early autumn.

Rubella

Rubella is a virus disease with a specific small spotted rash called exanthem is characterized by frank fever. The disease can affect fetus of women being pregnant. Rubella is caused by the agent called togavirus and has a RNA genome. It is nonpersistent in external atmosphere, dies rapidly when heated up to 56 ° C, when drying, under the control of the action of ultraviolet rays, either, formalin and other abluents. The source of infection of is human diseased with that kind of virus disease, especially being in subclinical form that passes without rash. In interepidemic period selected cases are observed. The climactic number of cases of the virus disease are registered in April – June. The disease represents a notable risk for pregnant women because of fetal infection. Rubella virus releases into external environment one week before the rash appears on skin and during the week when foolhardy has appeared. Infection is transmitted via airborne.


Symptoms
Incubation period is 11-24 days. General condition of this kind of virus disease is characterized by weakness that is why at the beginning the only noticeable symptom is rash resembling with these of scarlatina. Patients suffer from brief weakness, lack of energy, headache, pain in muscles and in joints. Temperature of the majority of patients often is subfebrile, although it in some cases riches 38-39°C and keeps 1-3 days. When woman examination low-grade symptoms of catarrh, little redding of pharynx and conjunctivitis are observed. From the identical first days of the virus disease appears generalized lymphadenopathy (in other words, the tenderness of lymphatic system). The most expressed are increasing and painfulness of back-necked and occipital lymph glands. Exanthem appears on 1-3 day from the beginning of disease, first on the neck and after several hours spreads on the whole richness and it can be itching. Also there is some inspissation of rash of extensor surface of limbs and buns.


Elements of the indiscreet represent little spots with diameter of 2-4 mm, usually they do not coalesce, are kept for 3-5 days and disappear without living pigmentation on skin. In 25-30% of cases rubella progresses without rash and is characterized by moderate fever. The virus disease can course without symptoms, having the exclusive manifestation of viremia and increasing of titre in blood of specific antibodies.

Diagnosis
Clinical and laboratory data help to recognize that virus disease. Nowadays virologic methods are not used widely. From serological tests are used the neutralization test and hemagglutination-inhibition test injected together with paired sera captivated 10-14 days apart.


Treatment
Doctors prescribe comfort care when uncomplicated rubella. When arthritis doctors usually prescribe 0.25g chingamin (chloroquine) 2-3 times a day for 5-7 days. Also are advised diphenylhydramine (0.05g two times a day), butadiene (0.15g 3-4 times a day), nosotropic treatment. When encephalitis, are advised corticosteroid remedies. Common prognosis for rubella is favorable, excepting when encephalitis which has mortality of 50%.


Preventive Measures
Are extremely important for women in child-bearing age. Some specialists recommend to vaccinate girls of 13-25 years. Diseased with rubella should be isolated up to five days since rash has appeared.

Mononucleosis

Mononucleosis is an acute infectious disease that is characterized by damage of reticuloendothelial and lymphatic systems and is carried out with fever, tonsillitis, polyadenitis, increasing of liver and spleen, leukocytosis of basophilic mononuclear.

The focus of infectious organism is human diseased with mononucleosis and virus carrier. Infection is transmitted via airborne, direct contact (for example, when kissing) and via saliva pollution of articles of daily use. The virus is detected in saliva at the end of incubation period of disease, height of it or in six months or more after recovery.

The recovery of virus is observed in 10-20% of cases who carried mononucleosis over in the past. Epstein-Bar virus in latent form can keep in bursal lymphocytes and in fauces mucous membrane epithelium.

Mononucleosis meets everywhere, people of different ages can disease with it. In developed countries the disease often meets among teenagers and young people, the peak of this virus disease incidence is 14-16-year old girls and 16-18-year old boys. In developing countries often disease junior age groups. Rarely this virus disease meets among people over 40 years because majority of people being in this age are immune namely to that infection. Children up to 2 years old as a rule are not diagnosed in connection with latent course. Mononucleosis is less contagiuos: usually are observed sporadic cases, sometimes are observed little epidemic outbreaks.

First days of disease are marked with increasing of size of liver and spleen that achieve maximum size after 4-10 days. Sometimes are observed dyspeptic condition and abdominal pains. 5-10% of the diseased people can have slight ochrodermia and scleral icterus. In some cases is observed the increment in activity of transaminase in the blood that tells about compromised liver function. In height of the virus disease or in the beginning of the recovery diseased people who take antibiotics often can have rash (spotty papular, urticarial, hemorrhagic). It often appears when taking drugs of penicillic family, especially ampicillin and oxacillin (in the blood often are detected antibodies resistant to these antibiotics).

The virus disease incidence lasts 2-4 weeks, sometimes even more. First, progressively disappears fever and fur on amygdalas then normalizes haemogramma, size of lymphatic glands, liver and spleen. In some cases in several days temperature reduces and rises again. The change of haemogramma can keep for several weeks and even months.

Mononucleosis Treatment

If course of the disease is slight and there is possible isolation, then patient can be treated at home. When the condition of the patient is grave then it is necessary hospitalizing into infectious disease ward. Doctor prescribes bed rest and comfort care. Antibiotics are taken in case of bacterial complications. In this case it must be taken into account that ampicillin and oxacillin are strongly contradicted for the patients diseased with Mononucleosis. For the patients with grave condition it is recommended glucocorticoid therapy.