In July 1987, eight teenage boys living on the island of Kauai in the state of Hawaii swam every day in the Waimea River. These boys all came down with a flu-like illness in the same week. Five were put in the hospital. Their blood was sent to the CDC for testing, and they were diagnosed with leptospirosis. They caught it from swimming in river water that contained infected animals’ urine. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us remember the horrors of leprosy depicted in the movie Ben Hur, in which lepers with filthy bandages wrapped around decaying limbs were cast out of society. Other horrible and conspicuous skin diseases were called leprosy in biblical times, but archaeologists believe from studying skeletons that the disease we call leprosy did not appear until the sixth century, when it first appeared in Egypt, France, and Britain. Read the rest of this entry »

In 1976, 182 Legionnaires attending an American Legion convention at the Bellevue-Strafford Hotel in Philadelphia became ill, and 29 died. Most of them had pneumonia. Not knowing what kind of illness the Legionnaires had, doctors called it Legionnaires’ disease. Read the rest of this entry »

Tinea cruris is a fungal infection that is referred to as “jock itch” because it affects males only, causing red, flat, spreading lesions in the groin region.

Certain fungi, called dermatophytes, cause jock itch. These fungi live only on dead body tissues, such as our hair, the outer layer of skin, and our nails. The fungi responsible for jock itch are Microsporum cam’s, Trichophyton, and Read the rest of this entry »

Japanese Encephalitis

In 1981, an American student living in Beijing, China, died from Japanese encephalitis. Because of the efforts of the victim’s family, the vaccine, long available in Asia, was licensed in December 1992 for use in the United States by American travelers.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is found in rural areas of China and Korea, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Japan, Eastern Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. At least 50,000 people are infected in these areas every year. It is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in Asia.

JE virus is a zoonosis, a disease that primarily infects animals but occasionally will infect humans, in a group of viruses Read the rest of this entry »

Infant botulism is quite different from the botulism caused by eating contaminated foods. Infant botulism occurs in babies younger than six months old, and, if hospital care is provided, it is not as serious as food-borne botulism.

All botulisms are due to toxins given off by Clostridium botulinum bacteria that attack the body’s nervous system. Food-borne botulism is caused by eating toxin already formed in contaminated food. In infant botulism, the baby does not ingest toxin; instead, spores from the botulism bacteria are able to produce toxin in the baby’s immature digestive Read the rest of this entry »

Impetigo is the most common skin infection in children. It is a contagious bacterial infection on the surface of the skin that starts as a small blister, then drains, crusts over, and heals, leaving no scars. There are two forms, bullous and nonbullous. Non-bullous impetigo is the most common.

Nonbullous impetigo is caused by either group A streptococcus or Staphylococcal aureus or both. Bullous impetigo is Read the rest of this entry »