AAD - Antibiotic Associated Diarrhea

If you think antibiotics are all cure, think again. It can cause serious diarrhea too.

THE most serious cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is Clostridium difficile; rod-shaped bacteria that compete with gut bacteria, or what remain of them, after recently wiped out by broad-spectrum antibiotics. These antibiotics include clindamycin, a drug for respiratory tract infections and skin and soft tissues infection as well.

A few people have Difficile residing normally in their gut. Others got it as patients in a health facility (e.g. hospital, nursing home). But as its population explodes, it results in the overproduction of toxins. They overrun the gut, and cause a painful diarrhea that can become severe.

The specie is nosocomial, known to cause diarrhea in hospitals worldwide. It developed clindamycin-resistant strains detected in outbreaks in New York, Arizona, Florida and Massachusetts from 1989 to 1992. Fluroquinolone-resistant strains appeared in North America in 2005.

AAD can lead to pseudomembranous colitis, a severe inflammation of the colon (large intestine) where the colon lining bleeds. Symptoms include abdominal cramps, bloody stools, fever, urge to defecate, and watery diarrhea (usually five to 10 times a day).

The three most common antibiotics associated with this disease in children are... [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 23 May 2012.

Comments

Sex Industry Weathers Financial Crises

Varmus Christopher Forbes.com 12/29/08 14:00:05 GMT The sex industry traces back to 500 B.C., when traders from the Greek port of Miletus sold olisbos, an early version of the dildo. Today, the business of sex (including pornography) now runs into the tens of billions of dollars. (No official estimates are available; Wall Street analysts don't tend to track this stuff.) And while print and video sales are ebbing, as more free adult content has become available online, sales of un-reproducible sexual aids are still healthy. "Of course, there's concern about the economy, but right now our sales are growing," says Michael Trygstad, founder of Wet, a lubricant manufacturer in Van Nuys, Calif. "We've grown 30% this year alone. We've had to completely automate our factories to meet the tremendous demand. People are deciding to stay at home and engage in inexpensive entertainment.'' Slick marketing--and the ability to shop anonymously online--helps, too...

The "Lungs" of Our Homes

As trees slowly disappear with growing urbanization, the Rooseveltian lungs are replaced with more dangerous electrical lungs at home, many of which can damage the genetic materials of the human lungs. FRANKLIN Roosevelt said: “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.” In Cebu today, however, people may have given up “fresh strength” for the material conveniences of an urbanized province. Even the more far-flung towns in the province of Cebu have already shown signs of urbanization. And it will not be long when even forests will cease to be. Nonetheless, the “lungs” have been replaced with electric air fresheners, with all the varied approaches to freshen the air—at least in the cities and the suburbs. But four Japanese researchers—three from the Iwate University (Ueda, Morioka, Iwate) Department of Veterinary Medicine and one from the National Institute of Health Services (K...

Death By Heat Stroke in the Philippines

The hotter and earlier-onset El Niño phenomenon this year 2010 poses a threat to the Filipino lives. How much life it took? See incidence that reached the news. UPDATE On 19 May 2010, candidate army soldier Ericson Pascua (22) came on his first day of training in Isabela when he collapsed after a series of strenous exercise. Although rushed to the hospital immediately, he died shortly afterwards (around 11 a.m.) due to heat stroke. That day Isabela peaked at 38.2 degrees Celsius. Sixteen others were rushed to the hospital for dehydration and heat exhaustion. (Check report ) On 28 April 2010, a veteran Cavite cop, PO3 Florencio Gamana Alivio (48), succumbed to cardiac arrest as a result to heatstroke while having tae bo with his colleagues at the Cavite Police Provincial Office (CPPO) grounds in Camp General Pantaleon. He reached the Imus MEdical Center but pronounced dead at 5:15 PM. (Check report ) In Batangas, former governor Amando Sanchez (57)di...

Breakthroughs Today

Search This Blog