Encephalopathy can present a very broad spectrum of symptoms that range from mild, such as some memory loss or subtle personality changes, to severe, such as dementia, seizures, coma, or death.
The causes of encephalopathy are both numerous and varied. Examples of causes of encephalopathy include:
These examples do not cover all of the potential causes of encephalopathy but are listed to demonstrate the wide range of causes.
Although numerous causes of encephalopathy are known, the majority of cases arise from several major categories (some examples in parentheses):
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive brain condition that's thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head and repeated episodes of concussion. It's particularly associated with contact sports, such as boxing or American football.
Most of the available studies are based on ex-athletes.
Alcohol may cause swelling and inflammation in your liver, or something called hepatitis. Over time, this can lead to scarring and cirrhosis of the liver, which is the final phase of alcoholic liver disease. The damage caused by cirrhosis is unfortunately irreversible.
Can you test positive for TB but not have it?
Persons with latent TB infection (LTBI) do not feel sick and do not have any symptoms, but usually have a positive reaction to the tuberculin skin test or TB blood test. They are infected with TB bacteria, but do not have TB disease. Persons with LTBI are not infectious and cannot spread TB infection to others.
Will latent TB show up on xray?
Image result for quantiferon gold positive but negative chest x-ray
Chest Radiograph
Lesions may appear anywhere in the lungs and may differ in size, shape, density, and cavitation. These abnormalities may suggest TB, but cannot be used to definitively diagnose TB.Apr 18, 2016
A person has latent TB infection if they have a positive TB skin test and a normal (negative) chest x-ray. This means the person has breathed in the TB germs, but his or her body has been able to fight the germs. People with latent TB infection do not feel sick and do not have signs of TB disease.
copy from https://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/infectioncontrol/TBhealthCareSettings.htm
A tuberculosis (TB) infection control plan is part of a general infection control program designed to ensure the following:
In all health care settings, particularly those in which people are at high risk for exposure to TB, policies and procedures for TB control should be developed, reviewed periodically, and evaluated for effectiveness to determine the actions necessary to minimize the risk for transmission of TB.
The TB infection control program should be based on a three-level hierarchy of control measures and include:
On May 17, 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Tuberculosis Controllers Association (NTCA) released updated recommendations on the frequency of TB screening, testing, and treatment for health care personnel. For guidance on facility risk assessments and infection control practices please continue to refer to the Guidelines for Preventing the Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Health-Care Settings, 2005.
Administrative controls are the first and most important level of the hierarchy. These are management measures that are intended to reduce the risk or exposure to persons with infectious TB. These control measures consist of the following activities:
Many people born outside of the United States have been given a vaccine called BCG.
People who were previously vaccinated with BCG may receive a TB skin test to test for TB infection. Vaccination with BCG may cause a false positive reaction to a TB skin test.
A positive reaction to a TB skin test may be due to the BCG vaccine itself or due to infection with TB bacteria.
TB blood tests (IGRAs), unlike the TB skin test, are not affected by prior BCG vaccination and are not expected to give a false-positive result in people who have received BCG.
TB blood tests are the preferred method of TB testing for people who have received the BCG vaccine.
Why does BCG vaccine cause false-positive TB test?
Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection (RSV)
reference and copy from : https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/about/symptoms.html
Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-uhl) virus, or RSV, is a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms. Most people recover in a week or two, but RSV can be serious, especially for infants and older adults.
RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the small airways in the lung) and pneumonia (infection of the lungs) in children younger than 1 year of age in the United States.
People infected with RSV usually show symptoms within 4 to 6 days after getting infected. Symptoms of RSV infection usually include
These symptoms usually appear in stages and not all at once. In very young infants with RSV, the only symptoms may be irritability, decreased activity, and breathing difficulties.
Almost all children will have had an RSV infection by their second birthday.
However, repeat infections may occur throughout life, and people of any age can be infected. Infections in healthy children and adults are generally less severe than among infants and older adults with certain medical conditions. People at highest risk for severe disease include
In the United States and other areas with similar climates, RSV circulation generally starts during fall and peaks in the winter. The timing and severity of RSV circulation in a given community can vary from year to year.
People infected with RSV are usually contagious for 3 to 8 days and may become contagious a day or two before they start showing signs of illness.
Call your healthcare professional if you or your child is having difficulty breathing, not drinking enough fluids, or experiencing worsening symptoms.
RSV can also cause more severe infections such as bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the small airways in the lung, and pneumonia, an infection of the lungs. It is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children younger than 1 year of age.
Healthy adults and infants infected with RSV do not usually need to be hospitalized. But some people with RSV infection, especially older adults and infants younger than 6 months of age, may need to be hospitalized if they are having trouble breathing or are dehydrated.
In the most severe cases, a person may require additional oxygen, or IV fluids (if they can’t eat or drink enough), or intubation (have a breathing tube inserted through the mouth and down to the airway) with mechanical ventilation (a machine to help a person breathe). In most of these cases, hospitalization only lasts a few days.
Learn more about people at high risk for severe RSV infection.
There are steps you can take to help prevent the spread of RSV. Specifically, if you have cold-like symptoms you should