James W. Fawcett, Anne E. Rosser, and Stephen B. Dunnett
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198523376
- eISBN:
- 9780191724534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198523376.003.0005
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Techniques
Infectious agents can cause a host of disorders within the nervous system, from fulminant bacterial meningitis to slow viral infections that underlie some neurodegenerative conditions. This chapter ...
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Infectious agents can cause a host of disorders within the nervous system, from fulminant bacterial meningitis to slow viral infections that underlie some neurodegenerative conditions. This chapter concentrates on the main pathogenic mechanisms of infective disorders rather than their neuropathological findings. These mechanisms involve direct invasion and damage by the infective organism, exotoxins, and the recruitment of an immune response that, whilst attempting to rid the body of the infection, can also damage the nervous system. Many, if not all, infections mediate their effect through a number of different mechanisms, one of which usually predominates. For clarity, these separate processes are discussed individually with reference to specific disease examples.Less
Infectious agents can cause a host of disorders within the nervous system, from fulminant bacterial meningitis to slow viral infections that underlie some neurodegenerative conditions. This chapter concentrates on the main pathogenic mechanisms of infective disorders rather than their neuropathological findings. These mechanisms involve direct invasion and damage by the infective organism, exotoxins, and the recruitment of an immune response that, whilst attempting to rid the body of the infection, can also damage the nervous system. Many, if not all, infections mediate their effect through a number of different mechanisms, one of which usually predominates. For clarity, these separate processes are discussed individually with reference to specific disease examples.
Janet R. Gilsdorf
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190677312
- eISBN:
- 9780190677343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677312.003.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
Before the advent of antibiotics, meningitis was a dreadful infection by any standard; many of its victims were young children, and almost all died, succumbing to the disease from days to six weeks, ...
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Before the advent of antibiotics, meningitis was a dreadful infection by any standard; many of its victims were young children, and almost all died, succumbing to the disease from days to six weeks, or sometimes longer, after the onset of their illness. Incredibly, patients occasionally survived but were often left with varying degrees of neurologic damage. Before the first spinal tap, the diagnosis of meningitis was based on clinical signs and symptoms and could be confirmed only by pathologic examination of the brains of deceased patients during an autopsy. Since the advent of the spinal tap, the diagnosis of meningitis rests on examination of the cerebrospinal fluid. Treatment of meningitis depends on which bacteria cause the infection. Helen Keller may be a famous surviving victim of this disease.Less
Before the advent of antibiotics, meningitis was a dreadful infection by any standard; many of its victims were young children, and almost all died, succumbing to the disease from days to six weeks, or sometimes longer, after the onset of their illness. Incredibly, patients occasionally survived but were often left with varying degrees of neurologic damage. Before the first spinal tap, the diagnosis of meningitis was based on clinical signs and symptoms and could be confirmed only by pathologic examination of the brains of deceased patients during an autopsy. Since the advent of the spinal tap, the diagnosis of meningitis rests on examination of the cerebrospinal fluid. Treatment of meningitis depends on which bacteria cause the infection. Helen Keller may be a famous surviving victim of this disease.
Janet R. Gilsdorf
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190677312
- eISBN:
- 9780190677343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677312.003.0011
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
The success of the conjugate Hib vaccines has been spectacular. Prior to their introduction, an estimated 10,000 cases of Hib meningitis occurred annually in the United States, which was ...
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The success of the conjugate Hib vaccines has been spectacular. Prior to their introduction, an estimated 10,000 cases of Hib meningitis occurred annually in the United States, which was approximately 1 in 300 children. It was even higher among native Alaskan and American Indian children. Since the widespread use of the vaccine, the disease has nearly disappeared in the United States, with only 40 cases in children under age 5 years reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014. Thus, bacterial meningitis, once a scourge that killed and damaged too many American children is, for the most part, now a bad memory.Less
The success of the conjugate Hib vaccines has been spectacular. Prior to their introduction, an estimated 10,000 cases of Hib meningitis occurred annually in the United States, which was approximately 1 in 300 children. It was even higher among native Alaskan and American Indian children. Since the widespread use of the vaccine, the disease has nearly disappeared in the United States, with only 40 cases in children under age 5 years reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014. Thus, bacterial meningitis, once a scourge that killed and damaged too many American children is, for the most part, now a bad memory.
Janet R. Gilsdorf
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190677312
- eISBN:
- 9780190677343
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677312.003.0002
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
For decades, scientists puzzled over which influenza virus was actually responsible for the Russian pandemic. Finally, in 2014, phylogenetic techniques (examining evolutionary patterns of the virus ...
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For decades, scientists puzzled over which influenza virus was actually responsible for the Russian pandemic. Finally, in 2014, phylogenetic techniques (examining evolutionary patterns of the virus genes) and seroarcheologic techniques (measuring antibodies likely present in people at various points in time) were applied to the question of which virus caused the Russian flu of 1889–1892. Thus, Pfeiffer’s proclamation that his bacillus caused influenza was finally proven wrong. His identification of Bacillus influenzae in the respiratory tract, however, was a major contribution to the scientific understanding of bacterial infections and moved the field of bacteriology forward in allowing other investigators to unearth its full potential as an important human pathogen. Further, in the course of his studies of B. influenzae, Pfeiffer pioneered the field of nutritional requirements of bacteria. Finally, Pfeiffer’s identification of Haemophilus influenzae launched subsequent studies of the causes of bacterial meningitis and initiated in-depth explorations of bacterial meningitis-causing pathogens that ground our concepts of pathogenesis, and guide our management, of the infection.Less
For decades, scientists puzzled over which influenza virus was actually responsible for the Russian pandemic. Finally, in 2014, phylogenetic techniques (examining evolutionary patterns of the virus genes) and seroarcheologic techniques (measuring antibodies likely present in people at various points in time) were applied to the question of which virus caused the Russian flu of 1889–1892. Thus, Pfeiffer’s proclamation that his bacillus caused influenza was finally proven wrong. His identification of Bacillus influenzae in the respiratory tract, however, was a major contribution to the scientific understanding of bacterial infections and moved the field of bacteriology forward in allowing other investigators to unearth its full potential as an important human pathogen. Further, in the course of his studies of B. influenzae, Pfeiffer pioneered the field of nutritional requirements of bacteria. Finally, Pfeiffer’s identification of Haemophilus influenzae launched subsequent studies of the causes of bacterial meningitis and initiated in-depth explorations of bacterial meningitis-causing pathogens that ground our concepts of pathogenesis, and guide our management, of the infection.
Janet R. Gilsdorf
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- November 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190677312
- eISBN:
- 9780190677343
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677312.001.0001
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This book explores the lives and work of scientists who unraveled the mysteries of meningitis and describes the steps (and sometimes missteps) they used to accomplish their splendid achievements. ...
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This book explores the lives and work of scientists who unraveled the mysteries of meningitis and describes the steps (and sometimes missteps) they used to accomplish their splendid achievements. Although symptoms of meningitis were recorded as early as the time of Hippocrates, its origin remained obscure. Then, in 1892, one of the bacteria that cause meningitis in children, Haemophilus influenzae, was discovered when Richard Pfeiffer saw it in material coughed up by a patient with influenza. Pfeiffer mistakenly thought the bacteria caused influenza, and it has carried that unfortunate, erroneous name since that time. Discovery, however, marched forward, and Quincke discovered how to obtain spinal fluid by inserting a needle between two bones in the patient’s back. Pittman discovered the sugar overcoat that protects H. influenzae from being eaten by white blood cells. Flexner managed epidemics of meningitis with serum from a horse. Griffith unknowingly stumbled on DNA, the master of all life. Weech gave the first antibiotic used in America to a little girl with meningitis. Alexander learned why antibiotics sometimes fail in such patients. Smith won the Nobel Prize for showing how DNA invades bacteria, the right conclusion for the wrong reasons. And four scientists, in two teams, vied to be the first to create the best vaccine to prevent meningitis in infants.Less
This book explores the lives and work of scientists who unraveled the mysteries of meningitis and describes the steps (and sometimes missteps) they used to accomplish their splendid achievements. Although symptoms of meningitis were recorded as early as the time of Hippocrates, its origin remained obscure. Then, in 1892, one of the bacteria that cause meningitis in children, Haemophilus influenzae, was discovered when Richard Pfeiffer saw it in material coughed up by a patient with influenza. Pfeiffer mistakenly thought the bacteria caused influenza, and it has carried that unfortunate, erroneous name since that time. Discovery, however, marched forward, and Quincke discovered how to obtain spinal fluid by inserting a needle between two bones in the patient’s back. Pittman discovered the sugar overcoat that protects H. influenzae from being eaten by white blood cells. Flexner managed epidemics of meningitis with serum from a horse. Griffith unknowingly stumbled on DNA, the master of all life. Weech gave the first antibiotic used in America to a little girl with meningitis. Alexander learned why antibiotics sometimes fail in such patients. Smith won the Nobel Prize for showing how DNA invades bacteria, the right conclusion for the wrong reasons. And four scientists, in two teams, vied to be the first to create the best vaccine to prevent meningitis in infants.
Bethany Spielman
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199917907
- eISBN:
- 9780199332878
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199917907.003.0016
- Subject:
- Law, Medical Law
This chapter uses the Kano, Nigeria, pediatric trials of the oral antibiotic Trovan and the litigation it produced to explore the remedies available to individuals suing U.S.-based multinational ...
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This chapter uses the Kano, Nigeria, pediatric trials of the oral antibiotic Trovan and the litigation it produced to explore the remedies available to individuals suing U.S.-based multinational corporations and the foreign states that host their clinical drug trials. It concentrates on litigation under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). In 2001 families of children with bacterial meningitis filed lawsuits against Pfizer in the United States under ATS for violating a norm of customary international law prohibiting nonconsensual medical experimentation. The allegation of nonconsensual medical experimentation on human subjects had stated a claim under the ATS for a violation of the law of nations. Litigation under the ATS may continue to be the only path through which pharmaceutical corporations will be held accountable for nonconsensual experimentation. It is noted that these corporations will continue outsourcing some experiments from the United States to relatively poor nations.Less
This chapter uses the Kano, Nigeria, pediatric trials of the oral antibiotic Trovan and the litigation it produced to explore the remedies available to individuals suing U.S.-based multinational corporations and the foreign states that host their clinical drug trials. It concentrates on litigation under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). In 2001 families of children with bacterial meningitis filed lawsuits against Pfizer in the United States under ATS for violating a norm of customary international law prohibiting nonconsensual medical experimentation. The allegation of nonconsensual medical experimentation on human subjects had stated a claim under the ATS for a violation of the law of nations. Litigation under the ATS may continue to be the only path through which pharmaceutical corporations will be held accountable for nonconsensual experimentation. It is noted that these corporations will continue outsourcing some experiments from the United States to relatively poor nations.
Alex Trompeter and David Elliott (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198749059
- eISBN:
- 9780191916977
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198749059.003.0028
- Subject:
- Clinical Medicine and Allied Health, Professional Development in Medicine