The complication of coinfection.
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: Infectious disease remains one of the largest burdens on humankind. Even with modern medical and public health standards, infectious disease remained the No. 1 killer worldwide at the turn of the century. Often, the most costly disease burdens come from multiple infections at once, i.e., coinfection. Influenza, an annual infection often considered relatively harmless, can increase susceptibility to both deadly bacterial pneumonia and childhood ear infections. Major health threat HIV rarely kills a patient on its own, but instead allows for opportunistic infections and re-emergence of infections such as tuberculosis. What generates these unique relationships is not well understood; herein, we examine in detail three types of coinfection and the unique interactions between infectious agents as well as with the host in each setting. We also begin to address how we may aid further understanding of coinfection and what questions need to be addressed to help direct future treatments.
Source: Europe PMC (PubMed Central)
Author: Lesley Pasman
Institution: Yale University
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1752378154