Why Should You Care About Malaria?

malaria parasite Colorized electron micrograph showing malaria parasite (right, blue) attaching to a human red blood cell. The inset shows a detail of the attachment point.

In June and July, eight locally acquired cases of malaria were diagnosed in the U.S.—seven in Florida and one at the southern tip of Texas. Cases in the two states appear to be unrelated, and all patients are recovering. In both geographic areas, it’s likely that malaria in people with travel-related cases was transmitted by local (U.S.) mosquitoes to the people who developed the locally acquired cases.

Malaria was endemic in this country until the early 1950s, when mosquito control programs and public health campaigns brought the disease under control. Since that time, virtually all cases in the U.S—now at almost 2000 per year—have been travel related.

Malaria transmission.

Malaria is caused by several species of the Plasmodium parasite, transmitted by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito infected by the parasite. In less than one percent of cases, transmission occurs congenitally or via transfusion, organ transplant, or unsafe needle sharing.

Why it matters.

If […]

2023-08-14T14:09:01-04:00August 14th, 2023|climate change, infectious diseases, Public health|0 Comments
Read More

The Legacy of the Asthma Nurse Who Really Listened to a Five-Year-Old

My mum tells me that when I was two years old, I would regularly go blue, particularly when I was walking my sister to school on a cold, windy day. Alongside this, I coughed incessantly. My parents took me to the doctor’s surgery multiple times, and their concerns were dismissed by the GPs, or a course of antibiotics given.

One day when I was particularly unwell, my mum was unable to get a doctor’s appointment but was able to see one of the practice nurses. The nurse identified intercostal recessions and immediately got a doctor to examine me. The doctor asked my mum how long I had been asthmatic; that was the point at which I finally received the diagnosis that linked me into a nurse-led clinic for long-term monitoring.

The nurse was Mr. Pierce*, a man who initially seemed to me scary, authoritative, and old. His voice boomed and filled his modest consulting room. He always pushed open the door to the patient waiting room with considerable energy and vigor, loudly announcing patient names, a habit which made me jump without fail.

Trusting the patient’s expertise.

Mr. Pierce was very much ahead of his time in terms of acknowledging patients’ expertise in their own health. He listened to my account of symptoms, asking my parents […]

2020-12-02T10:58:37-05:00December 2nd, 2020|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

Managing Movement Disorders: Spasticity, Clonus, and Muscle Tightness

Do you know how to help people with muscle tightness, spasticity, or clonus? And what if someone has more than one of these conditions at the same time?

Little information in the nursing literature.

 

In “Managing Movement Disorders: A Clinical Review,” their CE article in this month’s AJN, Rozina Bhimani and colleagues provide an excellent guide to the assessment and pathophysiology of, and treatment for, each of these conditions. There is very little in the nursing literature on their management, so this article by nurse experts who work with these symptoms every day is particularly enlightening and helpful.

The authors point out that muscle tightness, spasticity, and clonus are not always interpreted accurately by clinicians. This can lead to less-than-optimal treatment.

“Neuromuscular signs and symptoms occur across a multitude of diseases and injuries . . . . Successful symptom management requires effective communication about symptoms, yet there are often discrepancies between patient and provider descriptions of neuromuscular symptoms and manifestations.”

[…]

2018-12-06T14:36:23-05:00December 4th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

It’s Spring. Time to Think about Lyme Disease

Ticks Ixodes pacificus (shown here in CDC image) and Ixodes scapularis are known vectors of Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease)

National data confirm that diagnoses of Lyme disease begin to rise each year during the month of April, then rapidly reach their peak in June and July. Just in time for “Lyme season,” readers can learn more about the disease in “Lyme Disease: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention” in this month’s AJN.

Lyme disease was first recognized in 1975 in Lyme, Connecticut. From 492 confirmed cases in 1982 (the first year in which Lyme was a reportable disease) to more than 35,000 confirmed and probable cases in 2016, the causative organism, Borrelia burgdorferi, has continued to expand its geographic reach. The CE article notes that these numbers may be undercounts and cites analysis of laboratory and medical claims data from 2008 suggesting that the true number of annual diagnoses may actually be between 240,000 to 444,000.  […]

2018-04-04T09:11:38-04:00April 4th, 2018|climate change, infectious diseases, Nursing, Public health|0 Comments
Read More

Staying Current with Sepsis Tools, Definitions, and Practices

© Alamy Stock Photo.

Whatever happened to SIRS? Why don’t we use the term “severe sepsis” anymore? And what’s a qSOFA score?

Changing knowledge, changing practices.

Since the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine launched the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) in 2002, there has been an ongoing search for best practices.

Education campaigns have focused on early diagnosis and aggressive treatment. Best practices continue to evolve rapidly. As our understanding of sepsis pathophysiology has increased, definitions have changed and “sepsis bundle” interventions have been updated. […]

2018-02-09T09:57:19-05:00February 9th, 2018|guidelines, Nursing|0 Comments
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Go to Top