Infectious diseases are diseases caused by biological agents that can be transmitted from one person to another, rather than genetically, by physical or chemical agents.
Infection is the invasion of the host organism tissues by pathogenic agents, their reproduction, and the reaction of the tissues of the human body to stay invading organisms and toxins produced.
These include diseases caused by viruses, viroids, bacteria, prions, arthropods such as ticks, fleas and lice, fungi such as ringworm, and other microparasites such as tapeworms.
The body can fight off infections using their immune system.
Symptomatic infections are obvious while the infection, which is active but does not produce noticeable symptoms, called subclinical or inapparent. Inactive infection that is called latent. Infection also can be acute or chronic.
Our doctors specialize in treating the following types of infections:
Urinary Tract Infections
Skin Infections
Respiratory Tract Infections
Odontogenic infection (infection that originates in the teeth or in the surrounding tissues)
Vaginal infections
Intra-amniotic infection
Diseases in which infection is the most common cause, include pneumonia, meningitis and salpingitis.
Signs and symptoms of infectious disease
Symptoms of infection depends on the type of disease. Some signs of infection affect the whole body, such as fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, fever, night sweats, chills and pain. Others are specific to individual parts of the body such as skin rash, cough or runny nose.
In some cases, infectious disease may be asymptomatic for a long period of time or all the time. Bacterial and viral infections can cause the same kinds of symptoms.
It is important to accurately diagnose the cause of the infection, because viral infections can not be treated with antibiotics. The disease can occur if the host protective immune mechanisms are compromised and the body can not defend themselves. Microorganisms can cause tissue damage by releasing a variety of toxins or destructive enzymes. For example, the agent produces tetanus toxin that paralyzes muscles, and staphylococcus releases toxins that cause shock and sepsis. Not all infectious agents cause disease in all people. For example less than only 5% of patients infected with polio the disease develops. On the other hand, some infectious agents are highly virulent.
Persistent infections occur because the body is unable to clear the initial infection. There are certain viruses which can maintain a chronic infection, infecting various cells of the body. Some viruses will never leave the body. A typical example is a herpes virus which as a rule lies in the nervous system and is shown again in special circumstances.
Transmission: airborne droplets (by inhalation), fecal-oral route (contaminated food or water), direct skin contact (athlete’s foot, impetigo and warts), by transmission from mother to embryo, fetus or child during pregnancy or childbirth, by medical procedures such as injection or transplantation of infected material by insect bites, sexually orally (kissing, or indirect contact, such as through the exchange and a glass or cigarette).
Diagnosis
Diagnosis of infectious diseases is almost always begins with a medical history and physical examination. More detailed identification techniques include specifying culture infectious agents. Culture allows identification of infectious organisms by examining their microscopic features, by detecting the presence of substances produced by pathogens, and directly determine the genotype of an organism it. Other methods (eg, X-rays, CT scans, PET-CT or MRI) are used to produce images of internal disturbances in connection with the growth of an infectious agent. Images can be used in detecting, for example, bone abscess or spongiform encephalopathy.
Crop on microbiological culture. Microbiological culture are the main tool used for the diagnosis of infectious disease. In a microbial culture of a specific agent designed its growth medium. A sample is taken from a potentially diseased tissue or fluid is then tested for the presence of an infectious agent that can grow in this medium.
Microscopy. Another major tool in the diagnosis of infectious diseases is a microscopy. Virtually all methods of cultivation should be confirmed by microscopic examination for definitive identification of the causative agent. Microscopy is done by using an electron microscope.
Biochemical tests. Biochemical tests involved in the identification of infectious agents include detection of metabolic or enzymatic agents specific to the infectious agent. Since bacteria ferment carbohydrates in samples representative of their genus and species identification of the fermentation products is typically used in identifying bacteria.
Serological methods. These tests are highly sensitive often used to identify microorganisms. They are based on the ability of the antibody to specifically bind an antigen. The antigen is usually a protein, carbohydrate, binds to the antibody. Serological tests are usually the preferred method of identification, however, are some of the costly due to develop reagents ispolzuemyeh test.
Molecular Diagnostics. This technology, based on the method of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the gold standard for determining the infectious agents. Infectious agent should grow in the human body to excite the disease, that is, substantially, it should enhance its nucleic acid to induce disease. This amplification of the nucleic acid in infected tissues enables to detect an infectious agent using PCR.
Thus, currently Israeli technology capable of detecting any infectious agents quickly and with high accuracy.
Management infectious diseases
Our specialists use certain drugs for the treatment of the latest generation of infections, such as antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, antiprotozoal, anthelmintic drugs.
