Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Infectious diseases (medical specialty)
Summary
Infectious diseases or ID, also known as infectiology, is a medical specialty dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of infections. An infectious diseases specialist's practice consists of managing nosocomial (healthcare-acquired) infections or community-acquired infections. An ID specialist investigates the cause of a disease to determine what kind of Bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi the disease is caused by. Once the pathogen is known, an ID specialist can then run various tests to determine the best antimicrobial drug to kill the pathogen and treat the disease. While infectious diseases have always been around, the infectious disease specialty did not exist until the late 1900s after scientists and physicians in the 19th century paved the way with research on the sources of infectious disease and the development of vaccines.
Infectious diseases specialists typically serve as consultants to other physicians in cases of complex infections, and often manage patients with HIV/AIDS and other forms of immunodeficiency. Although many common infections are treated by physicians without formal expertise in infectious diseases, specialists may be consulted for cases where an infection is difficult to diagnose or manage. They may also be asked to help determine the cause of a fever of unknown origin.
Specialists in infectious diseases can practice both in hospitals (inpatient) and clinics (outpatient). In hospitals, specialists in infectious diseases help ensure the timely diagnosis and treatment of acute infections by recommending the appropriate diagnostic tests to identify the source of the infection and by recommending appropriate management such as prescribing antibiotics to treat bacterial infections. For certain types of infections, involvement of specialists in infectious diseases may improve patient outcomes. In clinics, specialists in infectious diseases can provide long-term care to patients with chronic infections such as HIV/AIDS.
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related courses (7)
ChE-436: Pharmaceutical biotechnology
The course focuses on the development and application of biotechnology-based approaches to human diseases. It provides current information on the engineering and pharmaceutical production of highly sp
BIO-477: Infection biology
Infectious diseases (ID) are still a major problem to human health. But how do pathogens make us sick? How do they evolve and spread? The discovery and use of antibiotics and vaccination has changed t
BIO-413: Planetary health
This course provides an overview of global environmental change through the perspective of the planetary boundaries and examines how human health is interlinked with social and ecological contexts.