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Fenugreek in Management of Immunological, Infectious, and Malignant Disorders
Published in Dilip Ghosh, Prasad Thakurdesai, Fenugreek, 2022
Rohini Pujari, Prasad Thakurdesai
Protozoal infections are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide for many years (Fletcher et al. 2012). One of the significant causes of protozoal infection is malnutrition, making the individual vulnerable to diarrheal diseases and enteric infections through various mechanisms (Berhe et al. 2020; Siddiqui, Belayneh, and Bhutta 2021). Infectious diarrhea is responsible for more deaths than other gastrointestinal tract diseases such as gastrointestinal cancers, peptic ulcers, or inflammatory bowel disease (Siciliano et al. 2020). However, the actual burden remains unknown as many of the incidences of enteric protozoa are often ignored as a cause of diarrheal illness and never reported (Fletcher et al. 2012).
Diarrhea and Malnutrition
Published in Fima Lifshitz, Childhood Nutrition, 2020
Andrea Maggioni, Fima Lifshitz
The major cause of diarrhea is infection.1 The morbidity of infectious diarrhea in less-developed countries includes infections with many organisms, the most frequent being rotavirus, Campylobacter, enterotoxigenic enteric bacteria, shigella, salmonella, giardia and other parasites (Table 1). These infections account for approximately 750 million episodes of diarrhea per year in children and for approximately 5 million deaths per year among the 3 billion people living in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Each of the world’s 338 million children under the age of 5 years suffers at least two or three episodes of diarrheal illnesses per year. In the developing world, over 7% of them die.3–4 In other words, every day diarrhea kills 12,600 children less than 5 years of age. A child living in the poorest areas of the world may have 3 to 10 episodes of diarrhea per year in the first 5 years of life, for a total of 15 to 50 episodes averaging 4 to 6 days each.5
Functional abdominal disorders
Published in Michael JG Farthing, Anne B Ballinger, Drug Therapy for Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases, 2019
Bernard Coulie, Michael Camilleri
There is epidemiological evidence that infectious diarrhea sometimes precedes the onset of IBS symptoms.74,110 In some series, up to one-quarter of patients with chronic IBS symptoms report such a history.74 It is not clear whether persistent symptoms reflect a physiological response to a previous infectious episode, even in the absence of demonstrable inflammation of the gut. Some have hypothesized that microscopic inflammatory changes such as infiltration of the enteric nervous system contribute to the development of IBS. Gwee et al.74 have shown that about one-quarter of patients with infectious diarrhea IBS continue to experience symptoms after 3 months. Nevertheless, it appears that the ‘mind’ plays a greater role than ‘matter’ since life-event stress and hypochondriasis are predictive factors in the persistence of IBS; in contrast, physiological parameters such as whole-gut transit time and sensory thresholds are not different in patients with or without IBS symptoms at 3 months after the episode of ‘infectious’ diarrhea.74 A confounding factor with interpretation of the predominant effect of psychological factors is the well-known presentation of the psychological disorder at the time of health-care seeking in IBS. Regrettably, the antecedent psychological profile is not available in these patients, and hence it cannot be concluded definitively that psychological trait determines postinfectious IBS.
Gut microbiota: what is its place in pharmacology?
Published in Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology, 2019
Aleksandra Tarasiuk, Jakub Fichna
Research to determine the bacterial strain(s) that positively affect(s) the absorption or activation of the drug in the future may contribute to the increase in the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy. However, there are already attempts to obtain better drug efficiency by a combination therapy with appropriate probiotic preparations containing specific and selected microbial species. Despite all, the influence of probiotic bacteria on the action, metabolism, and efficacy of drugs is still a topic not well known and subject to continuous observations. However, probiotic preparations are more and more popular among patients. In addition to administering probiotics during antibiotic therapy, to prevent the emergence of so-called antibiotic diarrhea, their use is recommended in various intestinal diseases, e.g. irritable bowel syndrome, infectious diarrhea, constipation, and as a natural metabolic regulator and GI function. Probiotics are recommended in conditions of reduced immunity, as long as they limit the development of pathogenic strains, and as a consequence, they are able to stimulate the immune system. In addition, GI microbiota in physiological conditions or maintained in order by probiotics contributes to lowering cholesterol levels, as well as it may have positive effect in obesity patients. It also has anti-carcinogenic properties and helps in the relief of allergic conditions.
Are Visitors Dangerous Carriers of Pathogens in The Hospital? an Observational Study in an University Hospital in Sicily
Published in Hospital Topics, 2019
Rosalia Ragusa, Gabriele Giorgianni, Giuseppina Faro, Antonio Lazzara, Maria Alessandra Bellia, Marina Marranzano
Hand washing by visitors remains a correct indication (Birnbach et al. 2012; Banach et al. 2015), but evidence confirms the possibility that the main source of hospital infections is patients themselves, and the major vehicle is health care professionals hands. Studies have demonstrated that several major nosocomial pathogens are shed by patients and contaminate hospital surfaces and be transferred to the hands of healthcare workers (Otter, Yezli, and French 2011). The most common cause of healthcare-associated infectious diarrhea is Clostridium difficile (CD). Proper handwashing among health care workers appears to be a key intervention for interrupting CD cross-infection, and compliance with hand hygiene is significantly inversely associated with the number of infection cases (Ragusa et al. 2018).
Risk of inflammatory bowel disease after Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter concisus infection: a population-based cohort study
Published in Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology, 2019
Hans Linde Nielsen, Michael Dalager-Pedersen, Henrik Nielsen
The main strengths of our study were the population-based design, long-term follow-up, complete registration of all cases, and the link to IBD data with a high validity [24]. This is also the first population-based study including a cohort of C. concisus positive patient. Our study also have limitations. Our cohort of C. jejuni positives were patients 15 years or older whereas the previous Danish studies did not have a lower age limit. Nevertheless, we also found an increased risk of IBD following positive C. jejuni in stools during the first year, but we did not find the same degree of long-term risk of IBD after C. jejuni infection. Differential detection subsequent to increased microbial diagnosis could bias effect estimates gives the overlap between IBD symptoms and those of acute gastroenteritis [37]. For differential diagnostic purposes, microbiological testing for infectious diarrhea is also recommended in the ECCO Guidelines [38]; however, we had no information of the clinical context, that is, suspicion of IBD or an acute gastroenteritis, in which stool cultures were obtained, and this precludes an assessment of potential differences, which might bias our findings. Lastly, we had no data describing an inappropriate host response to Campylobacter infection, which could be involved in the IBD pathogenesis. Both C. jejuni and C. concisus disrupts the epithelial tight junction that might lead to increased paracellular trafficking of luminal antigens across the epithelial barrier [39,40]. In some cases, this might prime an inappropriate mucosal immune response that could precede the mechanism of IBD pathogenesis.