Infectious Diseases Quotes

“They all call me "Excuse me," even though my nametag clearly says "Jordan." It's like people don't actually exist while they're working. Workers are just tools who aren't supposed to have feelings or personalities. You don't become human until your shift is over. Until then, we're all just zombies. We're dead to the world: infected people who need to be avoided, unless, of course, someone needs to know where the paintbrushes are located.”
― J. Cornell Michel, Jordan's Brains: A Zombie Evolution

“That's the world out there, little green apples and infectious disease.”
― Don DeLillo, The Angel Esmeralda

“In times of stress and danger such as come about as the result of an epidemic, many tragic and cruel phases of human nature are brought out, as well as many brave and unselfish ones.”
― William Crawford Gorgas, Sanitation in Panama

“Many people infected with C. diff are sick with diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, and weight loss. Others are “carriers” of C. diff with no signs or symptoms of disease. Some of these carriers have been recently infected with C. diff but have recovered and now feel well. But carriers still have the C. diff organism in their stools and can serve as a silent reservoir of infection in hospitals and nursing homes.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“He grinned. It was the sort of grin that Agnes supposed was called infectious but, then, so was measles.”
― Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

“Humanity shares a common ancestry with all living things on Earth. We often share especially close intimacies with the microbial world. In fact, only a small percentage of the cells in the human body are human at all. Yet, the common biology and biochemistry that unites us also makes us susceptible to contracting and transmitting infectious disease.”
― Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, Infectious Diseases: In Context

“In large groups of enclosed people who were not allowed out, infectious diseases spread like wildfire. For example, in the 1880s in a workhouse in Kent, it was found that in a child population of one hundred and fifty-four, only three children did not have tuberculosis.”
― Jennifer Worth, Shadows of the Workhouse

“Why are infectious disease doctors the best ones to date? They are the most cultured and sensitive.”
― Peter Rogers, Straight A at Stanford and on to Harvard

“C. diff is not a simple “stomach bug” like viral gastroenteritis or food poisoning that disappears in nearly all patients after a week or two.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“Hospitals in almost every country have reported outbreaks of C. diff, and the number and severity of cases continues to soar. In 2010 there were 350,000 cases of C. diff diagnosed in U.S. hospitals. That means that of 1,000 patients admitted to U.S hospitals, 10 will become infected with C. diff, most of them elderly. In some hospitals and nursing homes, as many as one in five patients is infected.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“In the past five years, C. diff has spread across the globe, helped in large part by air travel, the availability and frequent use of antibiotics, and the graying of the world’s population.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“Among frail, elderly patients, C. diff can be fatal in approximately 5-10%. Some patients with severe C. diff end up losing their colon and have a permanent bag on their side to catch bodily waste, via a procedure known as an ileostomy.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“Some studies have reported C. diff in food purchased in a supermarket. Dogs, horses, pigs, and rabbits can also be carriers of C. diff, although spread of disease from pets or domestic animals to humans has yet to be documented. Like most infections, it is usually impossible to pinpoint the source of C. diff.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“Testing stools for C. diff in patients after they have finished their Flagyl or Vanco for 10 days and after their bowel movements have returned to normal (that is, formed and not watery) is a waste of time and money, and is not helpful to the doctor or patient.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“C. diff can sometimes be life-threatening, even in healthy young adults.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“Once C. diff leaves the colon of the infected patient in a liquid stool, it usually converts to a spore that is like a seed that lies dormant in the hospital until it gets picked up by a suitable human host. Once swallowed, C. diff germinates (hatches) in the bowel and starts a new cycle of infection.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“The idea behind a stool transplant is to “reseed the lawn,” so to speak. After exposure to weeks or months of antibiotics (including Vanco) the normal bowel flora — the organisms in your colon that help prevent infection — is weakened. They simply can’t keep C. diff out. In other words, the normal barrier function of the colonic flora is gone, and C. diff gets right back in. So putting in some normal flora from a healthy donor is like reseeding the lawn — it restores the barrier. When that happens, C. diff cannot get back in, and the infection is cured.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“Some older or very ill patients may not be suitable candidates for fecal transfer. Colonoscopy is an invasive procedure, especially for those patients who are too ill with other conditions like cancer, heart failure, dialysis, or Alzheimer’s.”
― J. Thomas LaMont

“Human error leads to viral terror in this Covid-19 Pandemic. That is, infection rate has become more due to man made mistakes.”
― Sivakumar Gowder, Cholera

“Cleanliness is one of the parameters to eradicate infection.”
― Sivakumar Gowder, Cholera