Pintu Bairagy - Followers Answers

Bacteria called group A streptococcus (GAS) causes common infections such as strep throat and skin infections. GAS produces a toxic enzyme known as streptolysin O. Your immune system produces antibodies to fight this toxic enzyme. One of these antibodies is called antistreptolysin O (ASO).

An antistreptolysin O titer measures how much ASO is in your blood. The ASO antibodies start increasing about a week after you experience a strep infection.

fungus, plural fungi, any of about 144,000 known species of organisms of the kingdom Fungi, which includes the yeasts, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms. Fungi are among the most widely distributed organisms on Earth and are of great environmental and medical importance. Many fungi are free-living in soil or water; others form parasitic or symbiotic relationships with plants or animals.
Fungi are eukaryotic organisms; i.e., their cells contain membrane-bound organelles and clearly defined nuclei. Historically, fungi were included in the plant kingdom; however, because fungi lack chlorophyll and are distinguished by unique structural and physiological features (i.e., components of the cell wall and cell membrane), they have been separated from plants. In addition, fungi are clearly distinguished from all other living organisms, including animals, by their principal modes of vegetative growth and nutrient intake. Fungi grow from the tips of filaments (hyphae) that make up the bodies of the organisms (mycelia), and they digest organic matter externally before absorbing it into their mycelia.
While mushrooms and toadstools (poisonous mushrooms) are by no means the most numerous or economically significant fungi, they are the most easily recognized. The Latin word for mushroom, fungus (plural fungi), has come to stand for the whole group. Similarly, the study of fungi is known as mycology—a broad application of the Greek word for mushroom, mykēs. Fungi other than mushrooms are sometimes collectively called molds, although this term is better restricted to fungi of the sort represented by bread mold. (For information about slime molds, which exhibit features of both the animal and the fungal worlds,

Stool culture — A definitive diagnosis of cholera is based on isolation of the organism from clinical samples, which also permits a determination of the antibiotic susceptibility profile. V. cholerae can be isolated from stool using selective media such as thiosulfate citrate bile sucrose agar or taurocholate tellurite gelatin agar. Once cultured, V. cholerae can be identified by biochemical tests; serogroup and serotype can be assigned by testing with specific antibodies. In settings such as the United States, where cholera is a sporadic illness, the clinical microbiology laboratory should be informed of a suspicion of cholera so that appropriate selective media can be used. These selective media are not routinely used for stool culture.

The recovery of viable V. cholerae from clinical specimens can be enhanced by enrichment in alkaline peptone water . V. cholerae can also persist in a number of standard transport media, including Cary-Blair media, while being transported to a central laboratory from field settings.

Rapid tests and other tools

●Antigen detection − Several rapid antigen detection-based tests are commercially available for diagnosis of cholera. These include immunochromatographic lateral flow devices (dipsticks), such as Crystal VC, which detect the presence of the O1 or O139 antigen in watery diarrheal stools, and Cholkit, which detects only the O1 antigen. In one meta-analysis including 20 studies representing 8 different commercial rapid tests, the combined sensitivity was 90 percent (95% CI 86-93) and the specificity was 86 percent (95% CI 81-90), relative to bacterial culture (the diagnostic gold standard); there was variation across individual studies.

The sensitivity of culture is diminished among individuals who no longer shed viable bacteria in the stool; negative stool culture may be observed in the setting of antibiotic administration and/or coinfection with lytic bacteriophage. The apparent diminished specificity of antigen-based dipstick tests (bacterial culture used as the diagnostic gold standard) may reflect of the limits of bacterial culture. To account for this, one study evaluated the performance of Cholkit, Crystal VC, microbial culture, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a Bayesian latent class modeling approach; the sensitivity of Cholkit and Crystal VC were 98 percent (95% CI 88-100 percent for both), with specificities of 97 percent (95% CI 89-100 percent) and 98 percent (95% CI 92-100 percent), respectively.

●Molecular tests − Molecular testing for V. cholerae (eg, PCR), including tests that use dried fecal spots, is also feasible; however, thus far practical use of molecular tests has been limited to epidemiologic research and surveillance.

●Darkfield microscopy − Darkfield microscopy of rice-water stools (at 400x magnification) can also be used to evaluate for the presence of highly motile Vibrios, whose shooting star-like motion can be inhibited by the subsequent addition of specific antibodies [52]. Darkfield microscopy is quite specific for V. cholerae but lacks sufficient sensitivity to be used reliably for diagnosis.

“Community Medicine is about a system of delivery of comprehensive health care (preventive, promotive, curative & rehabilitative) to the people by a health team in order to improve the health of the community. It deals with population or groups rather than individual patients. It is concerned with identification and assessment of health needs of the people, health problems affecting them and to devise appropriate measures (planning, organization, delivery and evaluation of health care services) to meet these requirements as best as possible with the available resources. Community Medicine is thus a bridge between public health and clinical medicine. Successful implementation of a community health program under the leadership of a doctor depends on the mutual co-operation among all grades of health personnel’s, social workers, community leaders connected with the program and the common team spirit exhibited by them.

Doctors should be prepared to build up an effective partnership for health. It has now been realized that medical education should include knowledge about behavioral science, for such knowledge will enable medical students to appreciate human behavior better and to understand how different cultures influence health & illness. This will prepare doctors to deal more effectively the diseases and human sufferings.”- Ibrahim Medical College.