Medical News Blog Information

A great way to spread gastrointestinal viruses?

Readers of this blog will have read my comments about those occasions when we get virus infections that do not make us sick - so-called "asymptomatic" infections.It won't take a great leap of understanding then to see the potential for contact, droplet and aerosolized spread of such infections from a person who is suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea due to another cause.

In this instance, read the story Crawford Kilian posted on over-eating as a cause for hospitalisation during Ramadan. Given that we know respiratory viruses (it's a given that gastrointestinal viruses are!) can end up being shed through the intestine on occasion, and we know that viruses can reside and be transmitted through droplets and aerosol (which can remain suspended in a room for some time, with their tiny passengers remaining infectious), this could be an inadvertent cause of new infections, especially among healthcare workers but also other in- and outpatients visiting hospitals that may already be over-crowded.

With incubation times extending up to 12-days or so, these sites in the Persian Gulf States may see a spike in such infections in less than a fortnight.

Related Posts:

  • MGH/MRRH OB/GYN Collaboration: Mbarara Uganda (Sep-Oct 2013)I can�t say that I was shocked when I got to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.  I had been there before, so to speak,  only in a different… Read More
  • Antenatal Ultrasound Training in Resource-Limited Regions of Western Kenya  Maternal mortality continues to be a significant public health proble… Read More
  • EMERGENCY NEEDS ASSESSMENT IN WESTERN KENYAAfter the first few weeks performing a needs assessment in and around Kisumu, Kenya, I'm getting the handle… Read More
  • OB/GYN MGH/MRRH CollaborationI�m now almost at the end of my first trip to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital. It�s been quite the whirlwind and time always flies so fast.  A… Read More
  • Western Kenya - Maternal Ultrasound Screening ProgramsThis morning I landed in Kisumu, Kenya on a beautiful summer day. Kisumu is the third largest city in the country, located in Western Kenya on Lake Vi… Read More

Like Us

Blog Archive