Category: Infectious Disease
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Sulfonamides: The first synthetic antibacterial agents
Few discoveries in medicine have a more interesting history than the introduction of the sulfonamides into clinical medicine.1 I feel somehow part of this process only because, having suffered from some febrile illness as a little boy, I distinctly remember being given a medicine that went by the name of “rubiazol” and turned the urine…
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Carlo Forlanini and his artificial pneumothorax for tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is an ancient disease that long ago earned the appellation of ‘‘Captain Among these Men of Death.” It remained untreatable until the nineteenth century, when physicians and patients turned to spas or sanitaria offering regimens of rest, diet, and carefully supervised exercise.1 The first sanatoria in North America opened in 1884 in Asheville, North…
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Girolamo Fracastoro and syphilis
JMS Pearce Hull, England In 1924, London’s National Gallery received a bequest from the Mond family, an oil painting titled Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro, attributed to Titian about 1528. What special attributes of a Veronese physician made him a suitable subject for the renowned artist Titian? Girolamo Fracastoro or Hieronymus Fracastorius (1483–1553) became famous because…
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The discovery of the Bairnsdale (or Buruli) ulcer and the source of the White Nile
John HaymanParkville, Victoria, Australia Five of the six patients in whom Mycobacterium ulcerans infection was first identified and described lived in the Bairnsdale district of southeastern Australia.1 The mycobacterium was not initially named as such, but the progressive skin ulcer that it causes became known as the “Bairnsdale ulcer.” It was soon appreciated that this…
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Book review: The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care
Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden In the 1950s, parents on both sides of the Atlantic dreaded the arrival of the annual polio epidemic. In the US, the number of polio cases peaked in the summer. In Scandinavia, the polio season was at its worst in September and October—the “autumn ghost.” Studies done nearly a century earlier indicated…
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Albert Alexander: Unsung hero of penicillin
JMS PearceHull, England Hartnup disease, Christmas disease, and Lou Gehrig’s disease are instances of the rare naming of diseases after the patients so afflicted. There are other medical discoveries, disorders, or treatments in which the crucial part played by the patient is unattributed. One example relates to the early days of penicillin. The story of…
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Kuru, the laughing disease of New Guinea
New Guinea is the second-largest island in the world that is not a continent (after Greenland). It is divided into the Republic of Papua-New Guinea in the east and a western area that belongs to Indonesia. In both parts, indigenous populations face significant health challenges because of poverty, parasitic diseases, and poor medical facilities. Of…
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Onchocerciasis, a continuing cause of blindness
Among the various illnesses that deprive humans of their sight, onchocerciasis ranks highest. It affects millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as substantial numbers in Yemen and isolated areas of Brazil and Venezuela. Transmitted by infected blackflies that breed near fast-flowing streams and rivers, it is commonly known as “river blindness.” The disease…
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Sand flies, leishmaniasis, and kala-azar
Sand flies are about three millimeters long and gray, brownish or golden, with long, piercing mouthparts adapted for sucking blood from their hosts. These seemingly innocuous creatures, classified as belonging to the genus Phlebotomus or Lutzomyia, have long legs and hairy wings held in a vertical V-shape when at rest. They seek moist resting places…
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Trachoma: Contained but not yet subdued
Trachoma is a chronic eye infection caused by Chlamydia trachomatis, a bacterium at first thought to be a virus because of its minuscule size. It is the most common infectious cause of blindness worldwide, striking repeatedly in early childhood and, until recently, blinding millions.1 In 1907, Ludwig Halberstadter and Stanislaus von Prowazek observed the causative…