Pathophysiology of Infectious Diseases

2004/2005

Mosquito-borne disease. (Image courtesy of CDC.)

Highlights of this Course

Medical Microbiology is a vast and ever expanding complex field. The role of microbes in chronic illness, like coronary disease and arthritis, continues to evolve. For example, in the Emerging Infections and Agents of Biological Warfare Lecture, one will learn that while advances in identification, culture techniques, diagnosis and treatment have led to remarkable improvements in the consequences of infectious diseases worldwide in the past quarter century, newly identified pathogens continue to emerge and affect mankind, such as Ebola, anthrax, smallpox, West Nile Virus, monkeypox virus, and others.

Course Description

The intent of the course is to provide a background into the clinical and pathophysiologic aspects of infectious disease of organ systems. Given the contact hours, the course can only be an introduction. We trust that you will discover that the practice of Infectious Disease is akin to detective work: whether related to research or clinical care, we are always asking What is it? Where did it come from? Where did it go? We are not limited to an organ or even a type of patient – Like many microbes, we cross boundaries to visit surgical, neurologic, dermatologic, hematologic, or critically ill patients to name a few and thus have a varied, challenging and exciting daily experience.

Pathophysiology of Infectious Diseases is taught in conjunction with Microbiology and Pharmacology, both of which courses contain essential subject matter in the field of Medical Microbiology that will not be found in this course.

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Syllabus

Objectives

    * The student will be able to identify infectious syndromes by clinical presentation.
    * The student will be able to identify pathogens associated with major infectious syndromes.
    * The student will learn the diagnostic evaluation procedure of major infectious syndromes.
    * The student will demonstrate knowledge of appropriate treatments of major infections.
    * The student will demonstrate knowledge of host characteristics that predispose to infections.

Recommended Text

    * Schaechter M, Engleberg NC, Eisenstein BI, Medoff G. Mechanisms of Microbial Disease. Third Edition; Williams and Wilkins, 1998, Baltimore, MD.

This text coordinates learning about microbes with learning about disease processes. Required or recommended readings of this text are included in this syllabus.

Supplemental Texts

    * Bannister BA, Begg NT, Gillespie SH. Infectious Disease. Blackwell Science LTD 2000.

This is an English version of Schaechter, designed for medical students in Europe. It has excellent diagrams and charts. It complements Schaechter in some areas.

    * Schaechter M, Engleberg NC, Eisenstein BI, Medoff G. Mechanisms of Microbial Disease. Third Edition; Williams and Wilkins, 1998, Baltimore, MD.
    * Mosby's Color Atlas and Text of Infectious Disease. Christopher P. Conlon, MA, MD, FRCP, David R. Snydman, M.D. Mosby-Year Book, Incorporated, October 2000.

This book combines text with very good pictures of lesions. Since a lot of infectious disease is visual, this text complements the others mentioned since they have a limited number of pictures.

In addition to the Textbooks, a syllabus to expands on the principles discussed in the lectures. The syllabus should serve as a basis for your studies, but in no way is it completely comprehensive. We will also place the lecture slides on the course curriculum sciences knowledgebase website after the lecture date and plan to have sample test questions, cases with pictures of micro-organisms, x-rays, skin lesions etc. on the website

Exams

There will be one final exam for 1 hour. There will be about 3 to 5 questions per lecture.