Infectology
Infectology private practice
Infectology is one of the areas of internal medicine, which as an independent discipline focuses on the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases.
The treatment of more serious bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections is the responsibility of the infectologist. Since this type of disease often affects the entire body, treatment often requires collaboration with other disciplines.
In addition to being a very rapidly developing discipline, infectology has many larger areas, such as the treatment of tropical diseases pre-travel prevention, epidemiology or zoonosis.
The Lotusz At the Medical Center's private infectious disease clinic, the best in the field perform the examinations in order to shed light on the background of infectious diseases with an empathic attitude and using the latest research results.
When you should consult with an infectious disease specialist?
The diseases related to infectology are very complex pathologies that can cause a wide variety of symptoms.
For this reason, it is very difficult to talk about typical complaints that justify an appearance at a specialist's office, but in the case of the following symptoms, it is often suspected that an infectious problem is lurking in the background:
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persistent or regularly recurring infections;
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diarrhea lasting for days, with bloody stools;
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persistent rise in temperature or high fever;
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swelling of the neck lymph nodes, which is accompanied by fever, fatigue, depression, sweating;
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frequent, sometimes chronic cough or tonsillitis;
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persistent indigestion, typically associated with diarrhea;
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jaundice;
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skin symptoms, febrile condition, lymph node swelling after a tick or other insect bite;
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symptoms of liver-related infectious diseases (hepatitis);
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skin symptoms of unknown origin, rashes, swellings, red spots;
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rash or fever following contact with animals;
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complaints of colds or infections after visiting tropical countries.
Prevention in infectology
An infectious disease specialist not only with existing symptoms , but also with the aim of prevention!
Infectology helps to prevent more serious diseases by administering various vaccines, for example a viral infection during an epidemic, and a tropical disease during travel.
Most infections that spread in tropical countries (such as malaria, dengue fever, leishmaniasis or chikungunya fever) can be prevented with vaccinations before travel, but Lotusz Patients traveling to exotic regions can even request counseling at the Medical Center.
We also need to talk about epidemiology in connection with infectology. The branch, also known as epidemiology, ensures that infectious diseases are stopped as soon as possible through research, study of the spread patterns of infectious diseases and epidemiological measures.
The Lotusz Medical Center assigns an important role to vaccine research and community immunization,in the future, because during the Covid epidemic we already experienced what happens if there is not enough and adequate quality vaccine when a pandemic breaks out.
What happens during an infectology examination?
Anamnesis
Infectology tests are carried out with the greatest possible precautions. The first step in every case is to take an anamnesis, as part of which the specialist patiently listens to the patient's complaints.
Since it is very important for the specialist to ascertain the circumstances of the possible infection, he will ask several questions about where the person has been and with whom he has been in contact in the past few weeks, but it may also be necessary to collect information about animal bites, insect bites, and even sexual intercourse in certain cases.
Physical examination
If the patient who comes to the infectious disease clinic comes with visible or palpable symptoms, the attending physician will study them carefully, while observing the appropriate precautions.
He looks for rashes or other skin symptoms, and palpates various nodule or swollen lymph nodes, while asking the patient additional questions.
Laboratory tests
If the infectologist is convinced that the complaints are caused by a disease or infection related to his specialty, then a thorough laboratory examination will be the next step.
Based on the laboratory results, it is possible to get closer to the background of the problem, but this alone is often not enough. In many cases, microbiological and serological tests are also needed, which can reveal exactly which pathogens may have caused the infection.
Treatment
After the diagnosis, the treatment of the disease can begin. Most of the time, drug therapy is needed, but for skin symptoms, it may be necessary to use externally applied ointments for a speedy recovery.
Antimicrobial treatment is the most common, when antibiotics are used to control the infection, but this typically depends on the diagnosis received. The goal is to eliminate resistant pathogens from the body. Luckily many drugs are now available to doctors.
The most common diseases in infectology
As we have already described several times above, infectology is a very complex field, so it is difficult to mention all the diseases that this branch deals with.
In the following, we have therefore only mentioned the most common areas and the diseases found within them, which help to better define the boundaries of the scope of duties of infectology.
Endemic diseases
Endemic diseases, in contrast to pandemics, occur only in certain areas, continents, countries or regions, but elsewhere less often or not at all.
Typical endemic problems are tropical diseases such as malaria, hepatitis, Dengue fever, Leishmaniasis, Chikungunya fever or Chagas disease.
Contrary to popular belief, there are also endemic diseases in Hungary. These include Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis, leptospirosis, rabbit plague ( tularemia ), some types of hepatitis or diseases spread by mosquitoes.
Zoonoses
Zoonoses are typically infections associated with animals. It can be spread by insects, birds, but also mammals. Lyme disease is the most well-known in our country, but bird flu from the rest of the world can also be classified into this category.
Immune deficiency diseases
The diagnosis and treatment of various immunodeficiency diseases is often the task of infectology. This includes several autoimmune diseases, but also opportunistic infections in patients with weak immune systems, such as HIV.
Nosocomial infections
Most hospital-acquired infections are also treated by an infectious disease specialist. The specialty is particularly important in cases such as nosocomial infections, infections caused by flesh-eating bacteria or blood infections.
Since hygiene is the basis of everything, infectology can help and even give guidance to healthcare institutions in the development of hygiene protocols and sterilization, so that the infections in question can be prevented.
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