6 Common Infections: An infection occurs when germs enter the body, increase in number. And cause a reaction of the body. Three things are necessary for an infection to occur: Source: Places where infectious agents (germs) live (e.g., sinks, surfaces, human skin) Susceptible Person with a way for germs to enter the body.
What are infections and what types of infections? Infection occurs when germs enter your body and multiply, resulting in disease. The four main types of infections are viral, bacterial, fungal, and parasitic. Infection occurs when germs enter your body and multiply, resulting in disease.
The risk of developing dangerous symptoms increases with age, with those who are age 85 and older being at the highest risk of serious symptoms. In the U.S., about 81% of deaths from the disease have been in people age 65 and older. Risks are even higher for older people when they have other health conditions.
About Infections
An infection is the invasion of an organism’s body tissues by disease-causing agents, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agents and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as transmissible disease or communicable disease, is an illness resulting from an infection.
Infections can be caused by a wide range of pathogens, most prominently bacteria and viruses. Hosts can fight infections using their immune systems. Mammalian hosts react to infections with an innate response, often involving inflammation, followed by an adaptive response.
Specific medications used to treat infections include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, antiprotozoals, and antihelminthics. Infectious diseases resulted in 9.2 million deaths in 2013 (about 17% of all deaths). The branch of medicine that focuses on infections is referred to as an infectious disease.
Colonization
Infection begins when an organism successfully enters the body, grows, and multiplies. This is referred to as colonization. Most humans are not easily infected. Those with compromised or weakened immune systems have an increased susceptibility to chronic or persistent infections. Individuals who have a suppressed immune system are particularly susceptible to opportunistic infections.
Entrance to the host at the host-pathogen interface generally occurs through the mucosa in orifices like the oral cavity, nose, eyes, genitalia, anus, or the microbe can enter through open wounds. While a few organisms can grow at the initial site of entry, many migrate and cause systemic infection in different organs. Some pathogens grow within the host cells (intracellular) whereas others grow freely in bodily fluids.
Wound colonization
Wound colonization refers to non-replicating microorganisms within the wound, while in infected wounds, replicating organisms exist and tissue is injured. All multicellular organisms are colonized to some degree by extrinsic organisms, and the vast majority of these exist in either a mutualistic or commensal relationship with the host. An example of the former is the anaerobic bacteria species, which colonizes the mammalian colon, and an example of the latter are the various species of staphylococcus that exist on human skin.
Neither of these colonizations is considered an infection. The difference between an infection and colonization is often only a matter of circumstance. Non-pathogenic organisms can become pathogenic given specific conditions, and even the most virulent organism requires certain circumstances to cause a compromising infection. Some colonizing bacteria, such as Corynebacteria sp. and viridans streptococci, prevent the adhesion and colonization of pathogenic bacteria and thus have a symbiotic relationship with the host, preventing infection and speeding wound healing.
6 Common Infections
The most common infection patients pick up in the hospital is pneumonia, followed by a gastrointestinal illness, urinary tract infections, primary bloodstream infections, surgical site infections, and other types of infections. These are microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, or parasites. They can sometimes be caught from other people, the environment, from animal contact, or from insect bites.
We all miss a day of school or work here and there thanks to a cold or a sore throat. But those maladies have nothing against the ones presented in this list—six afflictions that many of us have come to know all too well.
And if by some miracle of hygiene you’ve somehow managed to escape the awfulness of these unpleasant. And disturbingly common infections, then brace yourself, because your luck is likely to run out.
Here are the main 6 Common Infections
1. Dermatophytes Feeding on My Keratin
From head to toe, every inch of skin on the human body is susceptible to invasion by dermatophytes, fungi that thrive on keratin, the major structural protein in our outer skin layers. In general, dermatophytes thrive in moist environments, with the scalp, the groin, and the toes being especially popular places of residence.
Invasions in those parts of the human anatomy are responsible for scalp ringworm (tinea capitis), jock itch (tinea cruris), and athlete’s foot (tinea pedis), respectively. Dermatophytes can be transmitted from one person to another or from pets to people, and they can survive on towels, hairbrushes, clothes, and other objects.
2. An Awkward Silence
Chlamydia is a classic silent disease. Most people who contract it are asymptomatic or experience only subtle (subclinical) symptoms. Those individuals, the “silent” carriers, are spared the various unpleasantries of Chlamydia bacterial infection, which range from purulent urethral discharge in men to pelvic inflammatory disease and ectopic pregnancy in women.
But those individuals are a serious public health threat. Each year, about 92 million new cases of chlamydia occur globally. That leaves large numbers of carriers and their sexual partners unaware of the pathogen lurking between them, guaranteeing more than a few moments of awkward silence when their condition is finally discovered, by which time long-term health consequences may have already set in.
3. A Sensation of Sand in the Eye
That gritty, grating feeling of bits of sand rubbing against the eyeballs is a common symptom of conjunctivitis, popularly known as pinkeye. It may be caused by allergens or other irritants, or by bacteria or viruses, with the latter two being responsible for the infectious form of the disease.
Infectious conjunctivitis is exceedingly contagious. Even just sharing a towel or a swimming pool with a pinkeye victim is sufficient for transmission of viral conjunctivitis.
4. O(h)-titis, a Blight in the Ear
The sight of yellowish-green fluid seeping out of the ear is alarming, and in many cases, it is a symptom of one of the more common afflictions of childhood—otitis media, more commonly known as a middle ear infection. Drainage from the ears is an “ick” factor that compounds the awfulness of the fever and earache typically brought on by a middle ear infection.
The condition may be caused by viruses or bacteria and it comes in various forms, though acute otitis media is the most common. About two-thirds of children have had an acute ear infection by age one and by age seven more than one-third have had an astonishing six or more episodes.
5. Bleeding Gums
As I write, bacteria are working their way into your gums. If they aren’t there already, multiplying. And contributing to the buildup of the yellowish film of plaque on your teeth. The consequence of this invasion is gingivitis or inflammation of the gums. A condition that affects at least 70 to 90 percent of adolescents worldwide.
In adults, continued poor oral hygiene may cause gingivitis to progress to periodontitis and the eventual loss of teeth. Some people are predisposed to this condition. And if that isn’t enough to give you tooth nightmares, consider that poor oral health is associated with cardiovascular disease.
6. Viral Gastroenteritis to Spite Us
Stomach flu, “winter vomiting,” “traveler’s diarrhea”—affectionate names for what is known clinically as viral gastroenteritis, an acute infectious illness of the tract by which food normally enters the human body, is broken down, and exits without event, more or less. During an episode of gastroenteritis, unfortunately, there isn’t so much entering as exiting. Various highly contagious viruses are to blame, but rotavirus is one of the most frequent causes.
In infants and children worldwide, it is the most common cause of severe diarrhea, according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that prior to the introduction of a rotavirus vaccine in 2006. Every child in the country had been infected by age five. Viral gastroenteritis is transmitted primarily via the fecal-oral route, which includes eating sewage-contaminated shellfish.
In Conclusion
However, we have helped you with some infections you need to know, and how to avoid them and their symptom. However, if there is anything you think we are missing. Don’t hesitate to inform us by dropping your advice in the comment section.
Either way, let me know by leaving a comment below!
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