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Bacteria
  • Tuberculosis (Part 1, 2, and 3)
Viruses
  • HIV (coming soon)

Protists
  • Malaria (coming soon)

Popular posts from this blog

The Big 3: Tuberculosis Part 3

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It's time for our third and final post on TB, or at least for the time being. Part one and part two are here if you haven't read them yet. In my last post, we talked about the course of a tuberculosis infection. Now let's dig into how we've treated TB over our history. Treatment Antiquity A disease as old as tuberculosis has endured many treatment regimes over the centuries, some worse than others. Hippocrates prescribed milk, food, and exercise for his patients. The Roman physician Galen recommended fresh air and sea voyages in addition to the milk. It also appears that he and other doctors of his time advised that their patients eat wolf liver and drink elephant urine. Our ancestors treated their tuberculosis with bloodletting as well, which isn't a surprise because bloodletting is a terrible treatment that was used to treat everything back then. Other treatments included: inhaling smoke, licking limestone, consuming animal fat, and eating butter boile...
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The Big 3: Tuberculosis Part 2

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Here we are for part two of the posts covering the basics of tuberculosis. Part one is over here if you haven't read that yet. Last time we talked a little about the history of tuberculosis as well as the biology of bacteria. So today we're going to dive back in and talk about how TB spreads. Transmission and Spread  One of the biggest benefits of living in the 21st century is that we have a much better understanding of the world around us compared to our ancestors. For example, nowadays we know that tuberculosis is caused by a tiny infectious organism. For the majority of our species' existence (which is also probably how long TB has been infecting us), we thought otherwise. Before germ theory got going, it was a common belief that tuberculosis was a hereditary disease that spread among family members.(6) But now we know better. The tuberculosis bacteria spread from person to person through airborne droplets. We produce these droplets by coughing, sneezing, an...
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The Persistent Relevance of Infectious Disease: An Introduction

 Closing the Book on Infectious Disease  If you lived in the United States in 1900, life was pretty rough. Back then, the average lifespan was 47 and the leading causes of death were influenza, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal disorders . What happened? Well, we figured out our public health. Physicians started washing their hands. A scientist got mold on his bread, and then BAM, we had penicillin. Vaccines were developed and the populace was immunized. Death by infection plummeted down the lists to be outpaced by chronic disorders like cancer and heart disease. As medicine became more powerful, so too did human ambition to curb the old threats of the past. Aspirations were high. Polio vaccines saved lives. The World Health Organization began to put together campaigns to exterminate Malaria-carrying mosquitos as well as smallpox. As a testament to the times, the U.S. Surgeon General at the time said: "It’s time to close the books on infectious diseases, declare the war...
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