192-659: Tuberculosis ( TB ), also known colloquially as the " white death ", or historically as consumption , is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) bacteria . Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs , but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in which case it is known as latent tuberculosis . Around 10% of latent infections progress to active disease that, if left untreated, kill about half of those affected. Typical symptoms of active TB are chronic cough with blood-containing mucus , fever , night sweats , and weight loss . Infection of other organs can cause
384-656: A shmirah (guarding) after death as the corpse could be a vessel for evil spirits. In 1645, the Greek librarian of the Vatican, Leo Allatius , produced the first methodological description of the Balkan beliefs in vampires (Greek: vrykolakas) in his work De Graecorum hodie quorundam opinationibus ("On certain modern opinions among the Greeks"). Vampires properly originating in folklore were widely reported from Eastern Europe in
576-523: A malevolent spirit possessing a corpse or by being bitten by a vampire. Belief in such legends became so pervasive that in some areas it caused mass hysteria and even public executions of people believed to be vampires. It is difficult to make a single, definitive description of the folkloric vampire, though there are several elements common to many European legends. Vampires were usually reported as bloated in appearance, and ruddy, purplish, or dark in colour; these characteristics were often attributed to
768-456: A prion . The benefits of identification, however, are often greatly outweighed by the cost, as often there is no specific treatment, the cause is obvious, or the outcome of an infection is likely to be benign . The diagnosis is aided by the presenting symptoms in any individual with an infectious disease, yet it usually needs additional diagnostic techniques to confirm the suspicion. Some signs are specifically characteristic and indicative of
960-422: A runny nose . In certain cases, infectious diseases may be asymptomatic for much or even all of their course in a given host. In the latter case, the disease may only be defined as a "disease" (which by definition means an illness) in hosts who secondarily become ill after contact with an asymptomatic carrier . An infection is not synonymous with an infectious disease, as some infections do not cause illness in
1152-673: A transmissible disease or communicable disease , is an illness resulting from an infection. Infections can be caused by a wide range of pathogens , most prominently bacteria and viruses . Hosts can fight infections using their immune systems . Mammalian hosts react to infections with an innate response, often involving inflammation , followed by an adaptive response. Specific medications used to treat infections include antibiotics , antivirals , antifungals , antiprotozoals , and antihelminthics . Infectious diseases resulted in 9.2 million deaths in 2013 (about 17% of all deaths). The branch of medicine that focuses on infections
1344-461: A weakened immune system and young children. In those with HIV, this occurs in more than 50% of cases. Notable extrapulmonary infection sites include the pleura (in tuberculous pleurisy), the central nervous system (in tuberculous meningitis ), the lymphatic system (in scrofula of the neck), the genitourinary system (in urogenital tuberculosis ), and the bones and joints (in Pott disease of
1536-446: A bestial form within their graves. Ubırs possess the ability to shape-shift, assuming the forms of both humans and various animals. Furthermore, they can seize the soul of a living being and exert control over its body. Someone inhabited by a vampire constantly experiences hunger, becoming increasingly aggressive when unable to find sustenance, ultimately resorting to drinking human blood. Many myths surrounding vampires originated during
1728-588: A bullet through the coffin was taken. For resistant cases, the body was dismembered and the pieces burned, mixed with water, and administered to family members as a cure. In Saxon regions of Germany, a lemon was placed in the mouth of suspected vampires. Tales of supernatural beings consuming the blood or flesh of the living have been found in nearly every culture around the world for many centuries. The term vampire did not exist in ancient times. Blood drinking and similar activities were attributed to demons or spirits who would eat flesh and drink blood; even
1920-515: A chronic illness and cause extensive scarring in the upper lobes of the lungs. The upper lung lobes are more frequently affected by tuberculosis than the lower ones. The reason for this difference is not clear. It may be due to either better air flow, or poor lymph drainage within the upper lungs. In 15–20% of active cases, the infection spreads outside the lungs, causing other kinds of TB. These are collectively denoted as extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Extrapulmonary TB occurs more commonly in people with
2112-425: A colonization is often only a matter of circumstance. Non-pathogenic organisms can become pathogenic given specific conditions, and even the most virulent organism requires certain circumstances to cause a compromising infection. Some colonizing bacteria, such as Corynebacteria sp. and Viridans streptococci , prevent the adhesion and colonization of pathogenic bacteria and thus have a symbiotic relationship with
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#17327800179782304-567: A common ancestor, remains unclear. A comparison of the genes of M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) in humans to MTBC in animals suggests humans did not acquire MTBC from animals during animal domestication, as researchers previously believed. Both strains of the tuberculosis bacteria share a common ancestor, which could have infected humans even before the Neolithic Revolution . Skeletal remains show some prehistoric humans (4000 BC ) had TB, and researchers have found tubercular decay in
2496-469: A disease and are called pathognomonic signs; but these are rare. Not all infections are symptomatic. In children the presence of cyanosis , rapid breathing, poor peripheral perfusion, or a petechial rash increases the risk of a serious infection by greater than 5 fold. Other important indicators include parental concern, clinical instinct, and temperature greater than 40 °C. Many diagnostic approaches depend on microbiological culture to isolate
2688-399: A disease. This amplification of nucleic acid in infected tissue offers an opportunity to detect the infectious agent by using PCR. Third, the essential tools for directing PCR, primers , are derived from the genomes of infectious agents, and with time those genomes will be known if they are not already. Thus, the technological ability to detect any infectious agent rapidly and specifically
2880-491: A door (in some cultures, vampires do not have a reflection and sometimes do not cast a shadow, perhaps as a manifestation of the vampire's lack of a soul or their weakness to silver). This attribute is not universal (the Greek vrykolakas/tympanios was capable of both reflection and shadow), but was used by Bram Stoker in Dracula and has remained popular with subsequent authors and filmmakers. Some traditions also hold that
3072-604: A general treatise on vampirism and the Marquis d'Argens cites local cases. Theologians and clergymen also address the topic. Some theological disputes arose. The non-decay of vampires' bodies could recall the incorruption of the bodies of the saints of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Indeed, vampires were traditionally considered highly problematic within Christianity, as their apparent immortal existence ran against
3264-487: A hole in the back of her neck, with which she sucked the blood of children. Filling the hole with her hair would drive her off. Corpses had their mouths filled with glass beads, eggs under each armpit, and needles in their palms to prevent them from becoming langsuir. This description would also fit the Sundel Bolongs . In Vietnam , the word used to translate Western vampires, "ma cà rồng", originally referred to
3456-423: A hospital stay. Lastly, a community-acquired infection is one in which the infection is acquired from a whole community. One manner of proving that a given disease is infectious, is to satisfy Koch's postulates (first proposed by Robert Koch ), which require that first, the infectious agent be identifiable only in patients who have the disease, and not in healthy controls, and second, that patients who contract
3648-531: A host with depressed resistance ( immunodeficiency ) or if they have unusual access to the inside of the body (for example, via trauma ). Opportunistic infection may be caused by microbes ordinarily in contact with the host, such as pathogenic bacteria or fungi in the gastrointestinal or the upper respiratory tract , and they may also result from (otherwise innocuous) microbes acquired from other hosts (as in Clostridioides difficile colitis ) or from
3840-502: A host. As bacterial and viral infections can both cause the same kinds of symptoms, it can be difficult to distinguish which is the cause of a specific infection. Distinguishing the two is important, since viral infections cannot be cured by antibiotics whereas bacterial infections can. There is a general chain of events that applies to infections, sometimes called the chain of infection or transmission chain . The chain of events involves several steps – which include
4032-434: A link between virulence and transmissibility. Diagnosis of infectious disease sometimes involves identifying an infectious agent either directly or indirectly. In practice most minor infectious diseases such as warts , cutaneous abscesses , respiratory system infections and diarrheal diseases are diagnosed by their clinical presentation and treated without knowledge of the specific causative agent. Conclusions about
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#17327800179784224-540: A mass hysteria throughout much of Europe. The panic began with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which spread to other localities. The first infamous vampire case involved the corpses of Petar Blagojević from Serbia. Blagojević was reported to have died at the age of 62, but allegedly returned after his death asking his son for food. When
4416-770: A mixture of French and African Vodu or voodoo . The term Rougarou possibly comes from the French loup-garou (meaning "werewolf") and is common in the culture of Mauritius . The stories of the Rougarou are widespread through the Caribbean Islands and Louisiana in the United States. Similar female monsters are the Soucouyant of Trinidad , and the Tunda and Patasola of Colombian folklore , while
4608-518: A number of basic dyes due to the electrostatic attraction between negatively charged cellular molecules and the positive charge on the dye. A cell is normally transparent under a microscope, and using a stain increases the contrast of a cell with its background. Staining a cell with a dye such as Giemsa stain or crystal violet allows a microscopist to describe its size, shape, internal and external components and its associations with other cells. The response of bacteria to different staining procedures
4800-404: A particular pathogen at all (no matter how little) but also is often used in a sense implying a clinically apparent infection (in other words, a case of infectious disease). This fact occasionally creates some ambiguity or prompts some usage discussion; to get around this it is common for health professionals to speak of colonization (rather than infection ) when they mean that some of
4992-493: A pathogen from the appropriate clinical specimen. In a microbial culture, a growth medium is provided for a specific agent. A sample taken from potentially diseased tissue or fluid is then tested for the presence of an infectious agent able to grow within that medium. Many pathogenic bacteria are easily grown on nutrient agar , a form of solid medium that supplies carbohydrates and proteins necessary for growth, along with copious amounts of water. A single bacterium will grow into
5184-429: A pathogen. A fluorescence microscope is then used to detect fluorescently labeled antibodies bound to internalized antigens within clinical samples or cultured cells. This technique is especially useful in the diagnosis of viral diseases, where the light microscope is incapable of identifying a virus directly. Other microscopic procedures may also aid in identifying infectious agents. Almost all cells readily stain with
5376-432: A patient's blood or other body fluids for antigens or antibodies that indicate presence of a specific pathogen that the doctor suspects. Other techniques (such as X-rays , CAT scans , PET scans or NMR ) are used to produce images of internal abnormalities resulting from the growth of an infectious agent. The images are useful in detection of, for example, a bone abscess or a spongiform encephalopathy produced by
5568-470: A persistent infection by infecting different cells of the body. Some viruses once acquired never leave the body. A typical example is the herpes virus, which tends to hide in nerves and become reactivated when specific circumstances arise. Persistent infections cause millions of deaths globally each year. Chronic infections by parasites account for a high morbidity and mortality in many underdeveloped countries. For infecting organisms to survive and repeat
5760-559: A person's soul (魄 pò ) fails to leave the deceased's body. Jiangshi are usually represented as mindless creatures with no independent thought. This monster has greenish-white furry skin, perhaps derived from fungus or mould growing on corpses. Jiangshi legends have inspired a genre of jiangshi films and literature in Hong Kong and East Asia. Films like Encounters of the Spooky Kind and Mr. Vampire were released during
5952-562: A popular explanation, a pagan worship of upyri was already recorded in Old Russian in the 11-13th century. Some claim an origin from Lithuanian . Oxford and others maintain a Turkish origin (from Turkish uber, meaning "witch" ), which passed to English via Hungarian and French derivation. In addition, others sustain that the modern word "Vampire" is derived from the Old Slavic and Turkic languages form "онпыр (onpyr)", with
Tuberculosis - Misplaced Pages Continue
6144-692: A pre-existing folk belief in Southeastern and Eastern Europe that in some cases resulted in corpses being staked and people being accused of vampirism. Local variants in Southeastern Europe were also known by different names, such as shtriga in Albania , vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania , cognate to Italian strega , meaning ' witch '. In modern times, the vampire
6336-518: A record of oak in Silesia . Aspen was also used for stakes, as it was believed that Christ's cross was made from aspen (aspen branches on the graves of purported vampires were also believed to prevent their risings at night). Potential vampires were most often staked through the heart, though the mouth was targeted in Russia and northern Germany and the stomach in north-eastern Serbia. Piercing
6528-403: A result of an infectious disease with immunosuppressive activity (such as with measles , malaria or HIV disease ). Primary pathogens may also cause more severe disease in a host with depressed resistance than would normally occur in an immunosufficient host. While a primary infection can practically be viewed as the root cause of an individual's current health problem, a secondary infection
6720-471: A result of their presence or activity within the normal, healthy host, and their intrinsic virulence (the severity of the disease they cause) is, in part, a necessary consequence of their need to reproduce and spread. Many of the most common primary pathogens of humans only infect humans, however, many serious diseases are caused by organisms acquired from the environment or that infect non-human hosts. Opportunistic pathogens can cause an infectious disease in
6912-411: A severe illness affecting the brain, remain undiagnosed, despite extensive testing using the standard of care ( microbiological culture ) and state-of-the-art clinical laboratory methods. Metagenomic sequencing-based diagnostic tests are currently being developed for clinical use and show promise as a sensitive, specific, and rapid way to diagnose infection using a single all-encompassing test. This test
7104-400: A small decrease in case numbers. Some countries have legislation to involuntarily detain or examine those suspected to have tuberculosis, or involuntarily treat them if infected. The only available vaccine as of 2021 is bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). In children it decreases the risk of getting the infection by 20% and the risk of infection turning into active disease by nearly 60%. It
7296-417: A specific identification of an infectious agent only when such identification can aid in the treatment or prevention of the disease, or to advance knowledge of the course of an illness prior to the development of effective therapeutic or preventative measures. For example, in the early 1980s, prior to the appearance of AZT for the treatment of AIDS , the course of the disease was closely followed by monitoring
7488-477: A stake to be driven through his heart. Later, his corpse was also beheaded. From 1679, Philippe Rohr devotes an essay to the dead who chew their shrouds in their graves, a subject resumed by Otto in 1732, and then by Michael Ranft in 1734. The subject was based on the observation that when digging up graves, it was discovered that some corpses had at some point either devoured the interior fabric of their coffin or their own limbs. Ranft described in his treatise of
7680-427: A tradition in some parts of Germany, that to prevent the dead from masticating they placed a mound of dirt under their chin in the coffin, placed a piece of money and a stone in the mouth, or tied a handkerchief tightly around the throat. In 1732 an anonymous writer writing as "the doctor Weimar" discusses the non-putrefaction of these creatures, from a theological point of view. In 1733, Johann Christoph Harenberg wrote
7872-477: A tuberculosis infection does become active, it most commonly involves the lungs (in about 90% of cases). Symptoms may include chest pain and a prolonged cough producing sputum. About 25% of people may not have any symptoms (i.e., they remain asymptomatic). Occasionally, people may cough up blood in small amounts, and in very rare cases, the infection may erode into the pulmonary artery or a Rasmussen aneurysm , resulting in massive bleeding. Tuberculosis may become
Tuberculosis - Misplaced Pages Continue
8064-469: A type of demon that haunts modern-day Phú Thọ Province , within the communities of the Tai Dam ethnic minority . The word was first mentioned in the chronicles of 18th-century Confucian scholar Lê Quý Đôn , who spoke of a creature that lives among humans, but stuffs its toes into its nostrils at night and flies by its ears into houses with pregnant women to suck their blood. Having fed on these women,
8256-483: A vampire cannot enter a house unless invited by the owner; after the first invitation they can come and go as they please. Though folkloric vampires were believed to be more active at night, they were not generally considered vulnerable to sunlight . Reports in 1693 and 1694 concerning citings of vampires in Poland and Russia claimed that when a vampire's grave was recognized, eating bread baked with its blood mixed into
8448-530: A vampiric being came across a sack of rice, it would have to count every grain; this is a theme encountered in myths from the Indian subcontinent , as well as in South American tales of witches and other sorts of evil or mischievous spirits or beings. Many rituals were used to identify a vampire. One method of finding a vampire's grave involved leading a virgin boy through a graveyard or church grounds on
8640-523: A virgin stallion—the horse would supposedly balk at the grave in question. Generally a black horse was required, though in Albania it should be white. Holes appearing in the earth over a grave were taken as a sign of vampirism. Corpses thought to be vampires were generally described as having a healthier appearance than expected, plump and showing little or no signs of decomposition. In some cases, when suspected graves were opened, villagers even described
8832-432: A visible mound on the surface of the plate called a colony , which may be separated from other colonies or melded together into a "lawn". The size, color, shape and form of a colony is characteristic of the bacterial species, its specific genetic makeup (its strain ), and the environment that supports its growth. Other ingredients are often added to the plate to aid in identification. Plates may contain substances that permit
9024-468: A wide range of symptoms. Tuberculosis is spread from one person to the next through the air when people who have active TB in their lungs cough, spit, speak, or sneeze . People with latent TB do not spread the disease. Active infection occurs more often in people with HIV/AIDS and in those who smoke . Diagnosis of active TB is based on chest X-rays , as well as microscopic examination and culture of bodily fluids. Diagnosis of latent TB relies on
9216-509: Is a sequela or complication of that root cause. For example, an infection due to a burn or penetrating trauma (the root cause) is a secondary infection. Primary pathogens often cause primary infection and often cause secondary infection. Usually, opportunistic infections are viewed as secondary infections (because immunodeficiency or injury was the predisposing factor). Other types of infection consist of mixed, iatrogenic , nosocomial , and community-acquired infection. A mixed infection
9408-630: Is a common example; a branch of wild rose and hawthorn are sometimes associated with causing harm to vampires, and in Europe, mustard seeds would be sprinkled on the roof of a house to keep them away. Other apotropaics include sacred items, such as crucifix , rosary , or holy water . Some folklore also states that vampires are unable to walk on consecrated ground , such as that of churches or temples, or cross running water. Although not traditionally regarded as an apotropaic, mirrors have been used to ward off vampires when placed, facing outwards, on
9600-487: Is a growing problem, with increasing rates of multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). In 2018, one quarter of the world's population was thought to have a latent infection of TB. New infections occur in about 1% of the population each year. In 2022, an estimated 10.6 million people developed active TB, resulting in 1.3 million deaths, making it the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease after COVID-19 . As of 2018, most TB cases occurred in
9792-1129: Is a significant cause of tuberculosis in parts of Africa. M. bovis was once a common cause of tuberculosis, but the introduction of pasteurized milk has almost eliminated this as a public health problem in developed countries. M. canettii is rare and seems to be limited to the Horn of Africa , although a few cases have been seen in African emigrants. M. microti is also rare and is seen almost only in immunodeficient people, although its prevalence may be significantly underestimated. Other known pathogenic mycobacteria include M. leprae , M. avium , and M. kansasii . The latter two species are classified as " nontuberculous mycobacteria " (NTM) or atypical mycobacteria. NTM cause neither TB nor leprosy , but they do cause lung diseases that resemble TB. When people with active pulmonary TB cough, sneeze, speak, sing, or spit, they expel infectious aerosol droplets 0.5 to 5.0 μm in diameter. A single sneeze can release up to 40,000 droplets. Each one of these droplets may transmit
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#17327800179789984-459: Is able to reproduce inside the macrophage and will eventually kill the immune cell. The primary site of infection in the lungs, known as the Ghon focus , is generally located in either the upper part of the lower lobe, or the lower part of the upper lobe . Tuberculosis of the lungs may also occur via infection from the blood stream. This is known as a Simon focus and is typically found in the top of
10176-507: Is active but does not produce noticeable symptoms may be called inapparent, silent, subclinical , or occult . An infection that is inactive or dormant is called a latent infection . An example of a latent bacterial infection is latent tuberculosis . Some viral infections can also be latent, examples of latent viral infections are any of those from the Herpesviridae family. The word infection can denote any presence of
10368-422: Is also an Albanian surname. Cultural practices often arose that were intended to prevent a recently deceased loved one from turning into an undead revenant. Burying a corpse upside-down was widespread, as was placing earthly objects, such as scythes or sickles , near the grave to satisfy any demons entering the body or to appease the dead so that it would not wish to arise from its coffin. This method resembles
10560-417: Is an extremely slow rate compared with other bacteria, which usually divide in less than an hour. Mycobacteria have an outer membrane lipid bilayer. If a Gram stain is performed, MTB either stains very weakly "Gram-positive" or does not retain dye as a result of the high lipid and mycolic acid content of its cell wall. MTB can withstand weak disinfectants and survive in a dry state for weeks. In nature,
10752-423: Is an infection that is caused by two or more pathogens. An example of this is appendicitis , which is caused by Bacteroides fragilis and Escherichia coli . The second is an iatrogenic infection. This type of infection is one that is transmitted from a health care worker to a patient. A nosocomial infection is also one that occurs in a health care setting. Nosocomial infections are those that are acquired during
10944-422: Is an initial site of infection from which organisms travel via the bloodstream to another area of the body. Among the many varieties of microorganisms , relatively few cause disease in otherwise healthy individuals. Infectious disease results from the interplay between those few pathogens and the defenses of the hosts they infect. The appearance and severity of disease resulting from any pathogen depend upon
11136-462: Is another medieval example of an undead creature with similarities to vampires. Vampiric beings were rarely written about in Jewish literature; the 16th-century rabbi David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra (Radbaz) wrote of an uncharitable old woman whose body was unguarded and unburied for three days after she died and rose as a vampiric entity, killing hundreds of people. He linked this event to the lack of
11328-510: Is currently available. The only remaining blockades to the use of PCR as a standard tool of diagnosis are in its cost and application, neither of which is insurmountable. The diagnosis of a few diseases will not benefit from the development of PCR methods, such as some of the clostridial diseases ( tetanus and botulism ). These diseases are fundamentally biological poisonings by relatively small numbers of infectious bacteria that produce extremely potent neurotoxins . A significant proliferation of
11520-440: Is difficult, as is diagnosing the disease in those who have a weakened immune system. A diagnosis of TB should, however, be considered in those with signs of lung disease or constitutional symptoms lasting longer than two weeks. A chest X-ray and multiple sputum cultures for acid-fast bacilli are typically part of the initial evaluation. Interferon-γ release assays (IGRA) and tuberculin skin tests are of little use in most of
11712-431: Is generally held to be a fictitious entity, although belief in similar vampiric creatures (such as the chupacabra ) still persists in some cultures. Early folk belief in vampires has sometimes been ascribed to the ignorance of the body's process of decomposition after death and how people in pre-industrial societies tried to rationalize this, creating the figure of the vampire to explain the mysteries of death. Porphyria
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#173278001797811904-503: Is injured. All multicellular organisms are colonized to some degree by extrinsic organisms, and the vast majority of these exist in either a mutualistic or commensal relationship with the host. An example of the former is the anaerobic bacteria species, which colonizes the mammalian colon , and an example of the latter are the various species of staphylococcus that exist on human skin . Neither of these colonizations are considered infections. The difference between an infection and
12096-467: Is not an enzyme and has no metabolic function. Serological methods are highly sensitive, specific and often extremely rapid tests used to identify microorganisms. These tests are based upon the ability of an antibody to bind specifically to an antigen. The antigen, usually a protein or carbohydrate made by an infectious agent, is bound by the antibody. This binding then sets off a chain of events that can be visibly obvious in various ways, dependent upon
12288-486: Is often used to screen people at high risk for TB. Those who have been previously immunized with the Bacille Calmette-Guerin vaccine may have a false-positive test result. The test may be falsely negative in those with sarcoidosis , Hodgkin's lymphoma , malnutrition , and most notably, active tuberculosis. Interferon gamma release assays , on a blood sample, are recommended in those who are positive to
12480-419: Is poor as of 2019. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stopped recommending yearly testing of health care workers without known exposure in 2019. Tuberculosis prevention and control efforts rely primarily on the vaccination of infants and the detection and appropriate treatment of active cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) has achieved some success with improved treatment regimens, and
12672-425: Is referred to as infectious diseases . Infections are caused by infectious agents ( pathogens ) including: The signs and symptoms of an infection depend on the type of disease. Some signs of infection affect the whole body generally, such as fatigue , loss of appetite, weight loss, fevers , night sweats, chills, aches and pains. Others are specific to individual body parts, such as skin rashes , coughing , or
12864-404: Is referred to as colonization. Most humans are not easily infected. Those with compromised or weakened immune systems have an increased susceptibility to chronic or persistent infections. Individuals who have a suppressed immune system are particularly susceptible to opportunistic infections . Entrance to the host at host–pathogen interface , generally occurs through the mucosa in orifices like
13056-417: Is remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and provided the basis of the modern vampire legend, even though it was published after fellow Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu 's 1872 novel Carmilla . The success of this book spawned a distinctive vampire genre , still popular in the 21st century, with books, films , television shows, and video games. The vampire has since become a dominant figure in
13248-501: Is similar to current PCR tests; however, an untargeted whole genome amplification is used rather than primers for a specific infectious agent. This amplification step is followed by next-generation sequencing or third-generation sequencing , alignment comparisons , and taxonomic classification using large databases of thousands of pathogen and commensal reference genomes . Simultaneously, antimicrobial resistance genes within pathogen and plasmid genomes are sequenced and aligned to
13440-459: Is termed caseous necrosis . If TB bacteria gain entry to the blood stream from an area of damaged tissue, they can spread throughout the body and set up many foci of infection, all appearing as tiny, white tubercles in the tissues. This severe form of TB disease, most common in young children and those with HIV, is called miliary tuberculosis. People with this disseminated TB have a high fatality rate even with treatment (about 30%). In many people,
13632-439: Is that microbial colonization is very common even in environments that humans think of as being nearly sterile . Because it is normal to have bacterial colonization, it is difficult to know which chronic wounds can be classified as infected and how much risk of progression exists. Despite the huge number of wounds seen in clinical practice, there are limited quality data for evaluated symptoms and signs. A review of chronic wounds in
13824-415: Is the most widely used vaccine worldwide, with more than 90% of all children being vaccinated. The immunity it induces decreases after about ten years. As tuberculosis is uncommon in most of Canada, Western Europe, and the United States, BCG is administered to only those people at high risk. Part of the reasoning against the use of the vaccine is that it makes the tuberculin skin test falsely positive, reducing
14016-588: Is used in the taxonomic classification of microbes as well. Two methods, the Gram stain and the acid-fast stain, are the standard approaches used to classify bacteria and to diagnosis of disease. The Gram stain identifies the bacterial groups Bacillota and Actinomycetota , both of which contain many significant human pathogens. The acid-fast staining procedure identifies the Actinomycetota genera Mycobacterium and Nocardia . Biochemical tests used in
14208-508: The karkanxholl (a lycanthropic creature with an iron mail shirt) or the lugat (a water-dwelling ghost or monster). The dhampir sprung of a karkanxholl has the unique ability to discern the karkanxholl ; from this derives the expression the dhampir knows the lugat . The lugat cannot be seen, he can only be killed by the dhampir, who himself is usually the son of a lugat. In different regions, animals can be revenants as lugats; also, living people during their sleep. Dhampiraj
14400-525: The Betsileo people of Madagascar tell of the ramanga , an outlaw or living vampire who drinks the blood and eats the nail clippings of nobles. In colonial East Africa, rumors circulated to the effect that employees of the state such as firemen and nurses were vampires, known in Swahili as wazimamoto . The Rougarou is an example of how a vampire belief can result from a combination of beliefs, here
14592-622: The Empusae , the Lamia , the Mormo and the striges . Over time the first two terms became general words to describe witches and demons respectively. Empusa was the daughter of the goddess Hecate and was described as a demonic, bronze -footed creature. She feasted on blood by transforming into a young woman and seduced men as they slept before drinking their blood. The Lamia preyed on young children in their beds at night, sucking their blood, as did
14784-605: The Journal of the American Medical Association 's "Rational Clinical Examination Series" quantified the importance of increased pain as an indicator of infection. The review showed that the most useful finding is an increase in the level of pain [likelihood ratio (LR) range, 11–20] makes infection much more likely, but the absence of pain (negative likelihood ratio range, 0.64–0.88) does not rule out infection (summary LR 0.64–0.88). Disease can arise if
14976-535: The Lilu from Hebrew demonology . Lilitu was considered a demon and was often depicted as subsisting on the blood of babies, and estries , female shapeshifting, blood-drinking demons, were said to roam the night among the population, seeking victims. According to Sefer Hasidim , estries were creatures created in the twilight hours before God rested . An injured estrie could be healed by eating bread and salt given to her by her attacker. Greco-Roman mythology described
15168-577: The Mapuche of southern Chile have the bloodsucking snake known as the Peuchen . Aloe vera hung backwards behind or near a door was thought to ward off vampiric beings in South American folklore. Aztec mythology described tales of the Cihuateteo , skull-faced spirits of those who died in childbirth who stole children and entered into sexual liaisons with the living, driving them mad. During
15360-540: The Middle Ages , the Christian Churches reinterpreted vampires from their previous folk existence into minions of Satan , and used an allegory to communicate a doctrine to Christians : "Just as a vampire takes a sinner's very spirit into itself by drinking his blood, so also can a righteous Christian by drinking Christ's blood take the divine spirit into himself." The interpretation of vampires under
15552-549: The Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718, officials noted the local practice of exhuming bodies and "killing vampires". These reports, prepared between 1725 and 1732, received widespread publicity. The notion of vampirism has existed for millennia. Cultures such as the Mesopotamians , Hebrews , Ancient Greeks , Manipuri and Romans had tales of demons and spirits which are considered precursors to modern vampires. Despite
15744-699: The Visayan Manananggal ("self-segmenter"). The mandurugo is a variety of the aswang that takes the form of an attractive girl by day, and develops wings and a long, hollow, threadlike tongue by night. The tongue is used to suck up blood from a sleeping victim. The manananggal is described as being an older, beautiful woman capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge batlike wings and prey on unsuspecting, sleeping pregnant women in their homes. They use an elongated proboscis-like tongue to suck fetuses from these pregnant women. They also prefer to eat entrails (specifically
15936-516: The Ziehl–Neelsen stain and the Kinyoun stain , which dye acid-fast bacilli a bright red that stands out against a blue background. Auramine-rhodamine staining and fluorescence microscopy are also used. The M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) includes four other TB-causing mycobacteria : M. bovis , M. africanum , M. canettii , and M. microti . M. africanum is not widespread, but it
16128-458: The ancient Greek practice of placing an obolus in the corpse's mouth to pay the toll to cross the River Styx in the underworld. The coin may have also been intended to ward off any evil spirits from entering the body, and this may have influenced later vampire folklore. This tradition persisted in modern Greek folklore about the vrykolakas , in which a wax cross and piece of pottery with
16320-403: The buttocks or away from the body. This act was seen as a way of hastening the departure of the soul, which in some cultures was said to linger in the corpse. The vampire's head, body, or clothes could also be spiked and pinned to the earth to prevent rising. Romani people drove steel or iron needles into a corpse's heart and placed bits of steel in the mouth, over the eyes, ears and between
16512-526: The devil was considered synonymous with the vampire. Almost every culture associates blood drinking with some kind of revenant or demon, or in some cases a deity. In India tales of vetālas , ghoulish beings that inhabit corpses, have been compiled in the Baitāl Pacīsī ; a prominent story in the Kathāsaritsāgara tells of King Vikramāditya and his nightly quests to capture an elusive one. Piśāca ,
16704-596: The gelloudes or Gello . Like the Lamia, the striges feasted on children, but also preyed on adults. They were described as having the bodies of crows or birds in general, and were later incorporated into Roman mythology as strix , a kind of nocturnal bird that fed on human flesh and blood. In Turkic mythology , an ubır is a vampiric creature characterized by various regional depictions. According to legends, individuals heavily steeped in sin and practitioners of black magic transform into ubırs upon their death, taking on
16896-439: The heart and the liver ) and the phlegm of sick people. The Malaysian Penanggalan is a woman who obtained her beauty through the active use of black magic or other unnatural means, and is most commonly described in local folklore to be dark or demonic in nature. She is able to detach her fanged head which flies around in the night looking for blood, typically from pregnant women. Malaysians hung jeruju (thistles) around
17088-577: The horror genre. The exact etymology is unclear. The term "vampire" is the earliest recorded in English, Latin and French and they refer to vampirism in Russia, Poland and North Macedonia. The English term was derived (possibly via French vampyre ) from the German Vampir , in turn, derived in the early 18th century from the Serbian вампир ( vampir ). Though this being
17280-477: The incorruption of the bodies of saints was the effect of a divine intervention, all the phenomena attributed to vampires were purely natural or the fruit of "imagination, terror and fear". In other words, vampires did not exist. In the early 18th century, despite the decline of many popular folkloric beliefs during the Age of Enlightenment , there was a dramatic increase in the popular belief in vampires, resulting in
17472-452: The ma cà rồng then returns to its house and cleans itself by dipping its toes into barrels of sappanwood water. This allows the ma cà rồng to live undetected among humans during the day, before heading out to attack again by night. Jiangshi , sometimes called "Chinese vampires" by Westerners, are reanimated corpses that hop around, killing living creatures to absorb life essence ( qì ) from their victims. They are said to be created when
17664-442: The medieval period . With the arrival of Christianity in Greece , and other parts of Europe , the vampire "began to take on decidedly Christian characteristics." As various regions of the continent converted to Christianity , the vampire was viewed as "a dead person who retained a semblance of life and could leave its grave-much in the same way that Jesus had risen after His death and burial and appeared before His followers." In
17856-468: The oral cavity , nose, eyes, genitalia, anus, or the microbe can enter through open wounds. While a few organisms can grow at the initial site of entry, many migrate and cause systemic infection in different organs. Some pathogens grow within the host cells (intracellular) whereas others grow freely in bodily fluids. Wound colonization refers to non-replicating microorganisms within the wound, while in infected wounds, replicating organisms exist and tissue
18048-447: The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method will become nearly ubiquitous gold standards of diagnostics of the near future, for several reasons. First, the catalog of infectious agents has grown to the point that virtually all of the significant infectious agents of the human population have been identified. Second, an infectious agent must grow within the human body to cause disease; essentially it must amplify its own nucleic acids to cause
18240-414: The tuberculin skin test (TST) or blood tests. Prevention of TB involves screening those at high risk, early detection and treatment of cases, and vaccination with the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine. Those at high risk include household, workplace, and social contacts of people with active TB. Treatment requires the use of multiple antibiotics over a long period of time. Antibiotic resistance
18432-403: The "strep test", they can be inexpensive. Complex serological techniques have been developed into what are known as immunoassays . Immunoassays can use the basic antibody – antigen binding as the basis to produce an electro-magnetic or particle radiation signal, which can be detected by some form of instrumentation. Signal of unknowns can be compared to that of standards allowing quantitation of
18624-524: The Christian Churches established connotations that are still associated in the vampire genre today. For example, the "ability of the cross to hurt and ward off vampires is distinctly due to its Christian association." The 12th-century British historians and chroniclers Walter Map and William of Newburgh recorded accounts of revenants, though records in English legends of vampiric beings after this date are scant. The Old Norse draugr
18816-492: The Christian belief that all true believers may look forward to an eternal existence with body and soul as they were resurrected , but only at the end of time when Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead . Those who are resurrected as immortal before this are thus in no way part of the divine plan of salvation. The imperfect state of the vampire body and how they, in spite of their immortal nature, still needed to feed of
19008-477: The Empress passed laws prohibiting the opening of graves and the desecration of bodies, thus ending the vampire epidemic. Other European countries followed suit. Despite this condemnation, the vampire lived on in artistic works and in local folklore. Beings having many of the attributes of European vampires appear in the folklore of Africa, Asia, North and South America, and India. Classified as vampires, all share
19200-693: The Mantoux test. These are not affected by immunization or most environmental mycobacteria , so they generate fewer false-positive results. However, they are affected by M. szulgai , M. marinum , and M. kansasii . IGRAs may increase sensitivity when used in addition to the skin test, but may be less sensitive than the skin test when used alone. The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has recommended screening people who are at high risk for latent tuberculosis with either tuberculin skin tests or interferon-gamma release assays . While some have recommend testing health care workers, evidence of benefit for this
19392-504: The US , up to 35% of those affected by TB were also infected by HIV. Handling of TB-infected patients in US hospitals was known to create airborne TB that could infect others, especially in unventilated spaces. Infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens , their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease , also known as
19584-512: The United States test positive via the tuberculin test. Tuberculosis has been present in humans since ancient times . Tuberculosis has existed since antiquity . The oldest unambiguously detected M. tuberculosis gives evidence of the disease in the remains of bison in Wyoming dated to around 17,000 years ago. However, whether tuberculosis originated in bovines, then transferred to humans, or whether both bovine and human tuberculosis diverged from
19776-614: The WHO regions of South-East Asia (44%), Africa (24%), and the Western Pacific (18%), with more than 50% of cases being diagnosed in seven countries: India (27%), China (9%), Indonesia (8%), the Philippines (6%), Pakistan (6%), Nigeria (4%), and Bangladesh (4%). By 2021, the number of new cases each year was decreasing by around 2% annually. About 80% of people in many Asian and African countries test positive, while 5–10% of people in
19968-576: The West; these are distinct from the original local words for the creature). In Albanian the words lu(v)gat and dhampir are used; the latter seems to be derived from the Gheg Albanian words dham 'tooth' and pir 'to drink'. The origin of the modern word Vampire ( Upiór means Hortdan , Vampire or witch in Turkic and Slavic myths.) comes from the term Ubir-Upiór, the origin of
20160-435: The ability of that pathogen to damage the host as well as the ability of the host to resist the pathogen. However, a host's immune system can also cause damage to the host itself in an attempt to control the infection. Clinicians, therefore, classify infectious microorganisms or microbes according to the status of host defenses – either as primary pathogens or as opportunistic pathogens . Primary pathogens cause disease as
20352-678: The active disease. Use of certain medications, such as corticosteroids and infliximab (an anti-αTNF monoclonal antibody), is another important risk factor, especially in the developed world . Other risk factors include: alcoholism , diabetes mellitus (3-fold increased risk), silicosis (30-fold increased risk), tobacco smoking (2-fold increased risk), indoor air pollution , malnutrition, young age, recently acquired TB infection, recreational drug use, severe kidney disease, low body weight, organ transplant, head and neck cancer, and genetic susceptibility (the overall importance of genetic risk factors remains undefined). Tobacco smoking increases
20544-749: The addition of the "v" sound in front of the large nasal vowel (on), characteristic of Old Bulgarian. Parallels are found in virtually all Slavic and Turkic languages: Bulgarian and Macedonian вампир ( vampir ), Turkish : Ubır, Obur, Obır , Tatar language : Убыр ( Ubır ), Chuvash language : Вупăр ( Vupăr ), Bosnian : вампир ( vampir ), Croatian vampir , Czech and Slovak upír , Polish wąpierz , and (perhaps East Slavic -influenced) upiór , Ukrainian упир ( upyr ), Russian упырь ( upyr' ), Belarusian упыр ( upyr ), from Old East Slavic упирь ( upir' ) (many of these languages have also borrowed forms such as "vampir/wampir" subsequently from
20736-519: The archaic verb vpeřit means 'to thrust violently') as an etymological background, and thus translates upír as 'someone who thrusts, bites'. The term was introduced to German readers by the Polish Jesuit priest Gabriel Rzączyński in 1721. The word vampire (as vampyre ) first appeared in English in 1732, in news reports about vampire "epidemics" in eastern Europe. After Austria gained control of northern Serbia and Oltenia with
20928-456: The arrival of streptomycin and other antibiotics, although the disease remained a significant threat. In 1946, the development of the antibiotic streptomycin made effective treatment and cure of TB a reality. Prior to the introduction of this medication, the only treatment was surgical intervention, including the " pneumothorax technique", which involved collapsing an infected lung to "rest" it and to allow tuberculous lesions to heal. Because of
21120-440: The bacterium can grow only within the cells of a host organism, but M. tuberculosis can be cultured in the laboratory . Using histological stains on expectorated samples from phlegm (also called sputum), scientists can identify MTB under a microscope. Since MTB retains certain stains even after being treated with acidic solution, it is classified as an acid-fast bacillus . The most common acid-fast staining techniques are
21312-423: The bacterium is enveloped by the macrophage and stored temporarily in a membrane-bound vesicle called a phagosome. The phagosome then combines with a lysosome to create a phagolysosome. In the phagolysosome, the cell attempts to use reactive oxygen species and acid to kill the bacterium. However, M. tuberculosis has a thick, waxy mycolic acid capsule that protects it from these toxic substances. M. tuberculosis
21504-458: The basis of a biochemical diagnosis of an infectious disease. For example, humans can make neither RNA replicases nor reverse transcriptase , and the presence of these enzymes are characteristic., of specific types of viral infections. The ability of the viral protein hemagglutinin to bind red blood cells together into a detectable matrix may also be characterized as a biochemical test for viral infection, although strictly speaking hemagglutinin
21696-462: The belief that the government was colluding with vampires. Fears and violence recurred in late 2017, with 6 people accused of being vampires killed. In early 1970, local press spread rumours that a vampire haunted Highgate Cemetery in London. Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the cemetery. Several books have been written about the case, notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who
21888-412: The blood of the living, further reflected the problematic aspect of the vampires. Contrary to how the incorruptible saints foreshadowed the immortality promised all true Christians at the end of time, the immortality of the undead vampires was thus not a sign of salvation, but of perdition. The unholy dimension of vampirism may also be reflected in how, in parts of Russia, the very word heretic , eretik ,
22080-463: The case of viral identification, a region of dead cells results from viral growth, and is called a "plaque". Eukaryotic parasites may also be grown in culture as a means of identifying a particular agent. In the absence of suitable plate culture techniques, some microbes require culture within live animals. Bacteria such as Mycobacterium leprae and Treponema pallidum can be grown in animals, although serological and microscopic techniques make
22272-425: The cattle and human tuberculosis diseases were similar, which delayed the recognition of infected milk as a source of infection. During the first half of the 1900s, the risk of transmission from this source was dramatically reduced after the application of the pasteurization process. Koch announced a glycerine extract of the tubercle bacilli as a "remedy" for tuberculosis in 1890, calling it "tuberculin". Although it
22464-476: The causative agent, Trypanosoma cruzi in a patient, which therefore makes it difficult to definitively make a diagnosis. In this case, xenodiagnosis involves the use of the vector of the Chagas agent T. cruzi , an uninfected triatomine bug, which takes a blood meal from a person suspected of having been infected. The bug is later inspected for growth of T. cruzi within its gut. Another principal tool in
22656-481: The cause of pulmonary tuberculosis. J. L. Schönlein first published the name "tuberculosis" (German: Tuberkulose ) in 1832. Between 1838 and 1845, John Croghan, the owner of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky from 1839 onwards, brought a number of people with tuberculosis into the cave in the hope of curing the disease with the constant temperature and purity of the cave air; each died within a year. Hermann Brehmer opened
22848-436: The cause of the disease are based upon the likelihood that a patient came in contact with a particular agent, the presence of a microbe in a community, and other epidemiological considerations. Given sufficient effort, all known infectious agents can be specifically identified. Diagnosis of infectious disease is nearly always initiated by medical history and physical examination. More detailed identification techniques involve
23040-431: The composition of patient blood samples, even though the outcome would not offer the patient any further treatment options. In part, these studies on the appearance of HIV in specific communities permitted the advancement of hypotheses as to the route of transmission of the virus. By understanding how the disease was transmitted, resources could be targeted to the communities at greatest risk in campaigns aimed at reducing
23232-479: The corpse as having fresh blood from a victim all over its face. Evidence that a vampire was active in a given locality included death of cattle, sheep, relatives or neighbours. Folkloric vampires could also make their presence felt by engaging in minor poltergeist -styled activity, such as hurling stones on roofs or moving household objects, and pressing on people in their sleep. Apotropaics —items able to ward off revenants—are common in vampire folklore. Garlic
23424-484: The culture of infectious agents isolated from a patient. Culture allows identification of infectious organisms by examining their microscopic features, by detecting the presence of substances produced by pathogens, and by directly identifying an organism by its genotype. Many infectious organisms are identified without culture and microscopy. This is especially true for viruses, which cannot grow in culture. For some suspected pathogens, doctors may conduct tests that examine
23616-453: The dead. The deadly disease tuberculosis , or "consumption" as it was known at the time, was believed to be caused by nightly visitations on the part of a dead family member who had died of consumption themselves. The most famous, and most recently recorded, case of suspected vampirism is that of nineteen-year-old Mercy Brown , who died in Exeter, Rhode Island in 1892. Her father, assisted by
23808-705: The declaration of a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1993. There is a popular misconception that tuberculosis is purely a disease of the lungs that manifests as coughing . Tuberculosis may infect many organs, even though it most commonly occurs in the lungs (known as pulmonary tuberculosis). Extrapulmonary TB occurs when tuberculosis develops outside of the lungs, although extrapulmonary TB may coexist with pulmonary TB. General signs and symptoms include fever, chills , night sweats, loss of appetite , weight loss, and fatigue . Significant nail clubbing may also occur. If
24000-400: The destruction of the virus. Instrumentation can be used to read extremely small signals created by secondary reactions linked to the antibody – antigen binding. Instrumentation can control sampling, reagent use, reaction times, signal detection, calculation of results, and data management to yield a cost-effective automated process for diagnosis of infectious disease. Technologies based upon
24192-632: The developing world. IGRA have similar limitations in those with HIV. A definitive diagnosis of TB is made by identifying M. tuberculosis in a clinical sample (e.g., sputum, pus , or a tissue biopsy ). However, the difficult culture process for this slow-growing organism can take two to six weeks for blood or sputum culture. Thus, treatment is often begun before cultures are confirmed. Nucleic acid amplification tests and adenosine deaminase testing may allow rapid diagnosis of TB. Blood tests to detect antibodies are not specific or sensitive , so they are not recommended. The Mantoux tuberculin skin test
24384-428: The diagnosis of infectious disease is microscopy . Virtually all of the culture techniques discussed above rely, at some point, on microscopic examination for definitive identification of the infectious agent. Microscopy may be carried out with simple instruments, such as the compound light microscope , or with instruments as complex as an electron microscope . Samples obtained from patients may be viewed directly under
24576-609: The disease became common among the urban poor. In 1815, one in four deaths in England was due to "consumption". By 1918, TB still caused one in six deaths in France. After TB was determined to be contagious, in the 1880s, it was put on a notifiable-disease list in Britain. Campaigns started to stop people from spitting in public places, and the infected poor were "encouraged" to enter sanatoria that resembled prisons. The sanatoria for
24768-616: The disease, since the infectious dose of tuberculosis is very small (the inhalation of fewer than 10 bacteria may cause an infection). People with prolonged, frequent, or close contact with people with TB are at particularly high risk of becoming infected, with an estimated 22% infection rate. A person with active but untreated tuberculosis may infect 10–15 (or more) other people per year. Transmission should occur from only people with active TB – those with latent infection are not thought to be contagious. The probability of transmission from one person to another depends upon several factors, including
24960-632: The doors and windows of houses, hoping the Penanggalan would not enter for fear of catching its intestines on the thorns. The Leyak is a similar being from Balinese folklore of Indonesia. A Kuntilanak or Matianak in Indonesia, or Pontianak or Langsuir in Malaysia, is a woman who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorising villages. She appeared as an attractive woman with long black hair that covered
25152-462: The emergence of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), surgery has been re-introduced for certain cases of TB infections. It involves the removal of infected chest cavities ("bullae") in the lungs to reduce the number of bacteria and to increase exposure of the remaining bacteria to antibiotics in the bloodstream. Hopes of eliminating TB ended with the rise of drug-resistant strains in the 1980s. The subsequent resurgence of tuberculosis resulted in
25344-445: The environment as a result of traumatic introduction (as in surgical wound infections or compound fractures ). An opportunistic disease requires impairment of host defenses, which may occur as a result of genetic defects (such as chronic granulomatous disease ), exposure to antimicrobial drugs or immunosuppressive chemicals (as might occur following poisoning or cancer chemotherapy ), exposure to ionizing radiation , or as
25536-462: The evidence for vampirism. Numerous readers, including both Voltaire (critical) and numerous demonologists (supportive), interpreted the treatise as claiming that vampires existed. The controversy in Austria ceased when Empress Maria Theresa sent her personal physician, Gerard van Swieten , to investigate the claims of vampiric entities. Van Swieten concluded that vampires did not exist and
25728-426: The expression of symptoms is often atypical, making a clinical diagnosis based on presentation more difficult. Thirdly, diagnostic methods that rely on the detection of antibodies are more likely to fail. A rapid, sensitive, specific, and untargeted test for all known human pathogens that detects the presence of the organism's DNA rather than antibodies is therefore highly desirable. There is usually an indication for
25920-624: The family physician, removed her from her tomb two months after her death, cut out her heart and burned it to ashes. Sarah Roberts (1872–1913) was an Englishwoman who died and was buried in Pisco, Peru . After her death, a legend evolved that she was a vampire and bride of Dracula. On June 9 1993, the 80th anniversary of her death, locals in Pisco feared she would come back to life and take her revenge. Vampires have appeared in Japanese cinema since
26112-402: The fingers at the time of burial. They also placed hawthorn in the corpse's sock or drove a hawthorn stake through the legs. In a 16th-century burial near Venice , a brick forced into the mouth of a female corpse has been interpreted as a vampire-slaying ritual by the archaeologists who discovered it in 2006. In Bulgaria , over 100 skeletons with metal objects, such as plough bits, embedded in
26304-493: The first TB sanatorium in 1859 in Görbersdorf (now Sokołowsko ) in Silesia . In 1865, Jean Antoine Villemin demonstrated that tuberculosis could be transmitted, via inoculation, from humans to animals and among animals. (Villemin's findings were confirmed in 1867 and 1868 by John Burdon-Sanderson .) Robert Koch identified and described the bacillus causing tuberculosis, M. tuberculosis , on 24 March 1882. In 1905, he
26496-518: The first genuine success in immunization against tuberculosis in 1906, using attenuated bovine-strain tuberculosis. It was called bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG). The BCG vaccine was first used on humans in 1921 in France, but achieved widespread acceptance in the US, Great Britain, and Germany only after World War II. By the 1950s mortality in Europe had decreased about 90%. Improvements in sanitation, vaccination, and other public-health measures began significantly reducing rates of tuberculosis even before
26688-663: The flour, or simply drinking it, granted the possibility of protection. Other stories (primarily the Arnold Paole case) claimed the eating of dirt from the vampire's grave would have the same effect. Methods of destroying suspected vampires varied, with staking the most commonly cited method, particularly in South Slavic cultures. Ash was the preferred wood in Russia and the Baltic states, or hawthorn in Serbia, with
26880-403: The growth of some bacteria and not others, or that change color in response to certain bacteria and not others. Bacteriological plates such as these are commonly used in the clinical identification of infectious bacterium. Microbial culture may also be used in the identification of viruses : the medium, in this case, being cells grown in culture that the virus can infect, and then alter or kill. In
27072-430: The host's immune system. Macrophages and dendritic cells in the granulomas are unable to present antigen to lymphocytes; thus the immune response is suppressed. Bacteria inside the granuloma can become dormant, resulting in latent infection. Another feature of the granulomas is the development of abnormal cell death ( necrosis ) in the center of tubercles . To the naked eye, this has the texture of soft, white cheese and
27264-484: The host's protective immune mechanisms are compromised and the organism inflicts damage on the host. Microorganisms can cause tissue damage by releasing a variety of toxins or destructive enzymes. For example, Clostridium tetani releases a toxin that paralyzes muscles, and staphylococcus releases toxins that produce shock and sepsis . Not all infectious agents cause disease in all hosts. For example, less than 5% of individuals infected with polio develop disease. On
27456-598: The host, preventing infection and speeding wound healing . The variables involved in the outcome of a host becoming inoculated by a pathogen and the ultimate outcome include: As an example, several staphylococcal species remain harmless on the skin, but, when present in a normally sterile space, such as in the capsule of a joint or the peritoneum , multiply without resistance and cause harm. An interesting fact that gas chromatography–mass spectrometry , 16S ribosomal RNA analysis, omics , and other advanced technologies have made more apparent to humans in recent decades
27648-527: The hunting and staking of vampires. The hysteria, commonly referred to as the "vampire controversy," continued for a generation. At least sixteen contemporary treatises discussed the theological and philosophical implications of the vampire epidemic. Dom Augustine Calmet , a French theologian and scholar, published a comprehensive treatise in 1751 titled Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants which investigated and analysed
27840-532: The identification of infectious agents include the detection of metabolic or enzymatic products characteristic of a particular infectious agent. Since bacteria ferment carbohydrates in patterns characteristic of their genus and species , the detection of fermentation products is commonly used in bacterial identification. Acids , alcohols and gases are usually detected in these tests when bacteria are grown in selective liquid or solid media. The isolation of enzymes from infected tissue can also provide
28032-399: The infected macrophages. When other macrophages attack the infected macrophage, they fuse together to form a giant multinucleated cell in the alveolar lumen. The granuloma may prevent dissemination of the mycobacteria and provide a local environment for interaction of cells of the immune system. However, more recent evidence suggests that the bacteria use the granulomas to avoid destruction by
28224-413: The infection cycle in other hosts, they (or their progeny) must leave an existing reservoir and cause infection elsewhere. Infection transmission can take place via many potential routes: The relationship between virulence versus transmissibility is complex; with studies have shown that there were no clear relationship between the two. There is still a small number of evidence that partially suggests
28416-611: The infection waxes and wanes. Tissue destruction and necrosis are often balanced by healing and fibrosis . Affected tissue is replaced by scarring and cavities filled with caseous necrotic material. During active disease, some of these cavities are joined to the air passages ( bronchi ) and this material can be coughed up. It contains living bacteria and thus can spread the infection. Treatment with appropriate antibiotics kills bacteria and allows healing to take place. Upon cure, affected areas are eventually replaced by scar tissue. Diagnosing active tuberculosis based only on signs and symptoms
28608-429: The infectious agent also develop the disease. These postulates were first used in the discovery that Mycobacteria species cause tuberculosis . Vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the vital essence (generally in the form of blood ) of the living. In European folklore , vampires are undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in
28800-399: The infectious agent does not occur, this limits the ability of PCR to detect the presence of any bacteria. Given the wide range of bacterial, viral, fungal, protozoal, and helminthic pathogens that cause debilitating and life-threatening illnesses, the ability to quickly identify the cause of infection is important yet often challenging. For example, more than half of cases of encephalitis ,
28992-402: The infectious agent, reservoir, entering a susceptible host, exit and transmission to new hosts. Each of the links must be present in a chronological order for an infection to develop. Understanding these steps helps health care workers target the infection and prevent it from occurring in the first place. Infection begins when an organism successfully enters the body, grows and multiplies. This
29184-492: The inscription " Jesus Christ conquers" were placed on the corpse to prevent the body from becoming a vampire. Other methods commonly practised in Europe included severing the tendons at the knees or placing poppy seeds, millet , or sand on the ground at the grave site of a presumed vampire; this was intended to keep the vampire occupied all night by counting the fallen grains, indicating an association of vampires with arithmomania . Similar Chinese narratives state that if
29376-436: The jiangshi cinematic boom of the 1980s and 1990s. In modern fiction, the vampire tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain . Vampire hunting societies still exist, but they are largely formed for social reasons. Allegations of vampire attacks swept through Malawi during late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one person to death and attacking at least four others, including Governor Eric Chiwaya , based on
29568-502: The late 17th and 18th centuries. These tales formed the basis of the vampire legend that later entered Germany and England, where they were subsequently embellished and popularized. An early recording of the time came from the region of Istria in modern Croatia , in 1672; Local reports described a panic among the villagers inspired by the belief that Jure Grando had become a vampire after dying in 1656, drinking blood from victims and sexually harassing his widow. The village leader ordered
29760-468: The late 18th and 19th centuries the belief in vampires was widespread in parts of New England , particularly in Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut . There are many documented cases of families disinterring loved ones and removing their hearts in the belief that the deceased was a vampire who was responsible for sickness and death in the family, although the term "vampire" was never used to describe
29952-601: The late 1950s; the folklore behind it is western in origin. The Nukekubi is a being whose head and neck detach from its body to fly about seeking human prey at night. Legends of female vampiric beings who can detach parts of their upper body also occur in the Philippines , Malaysia , and Indonesia . There are two main vampiric creatures in the Philippines: the Tagalog Mandurugo ("blood-sucker") and
30144-487: The life from the other family members. Although Richard Morton established the pulmonary form associated with tubercles as a pathology in 1689, due to the variety of its symptoms, TB was not identified as a single disease until the 1820s. Benjamin Marten conjectured in 1720 that consumptions were caused by microbes which were spread by people living close to each other. In 1819, René Laennec claimed that tubercles were
30336-425: The light microscope, and can often rapidly lead to identification. Microscopy is often also used in conjunction with biochemical staining techniques, and can be made exquisitely specific when used in combination with antibody based techniques. For example, the use of antibodies made artificially fluorescent (fluorescently labeled antibodies) can be directed to bind to and identify a specific antigens present on
30528-550: The lung. This hematogenous transmission can also spread infection to more distant sites, such as peripheral lymph nodes, the kidneys, the brain, and the bones. All parts of the body can be affected by the disease, though for unknown reasons it rarely affects the heart , skeletal muscles , pancreas , or thyroid . Tuberculosis is classified as one of the granulomatous inflammatory diseases. Macrophages , epithelioid cells , T lymphocytes , B lymphocytes , and fibroblasts aggregate to form granulomas, with lymphocytes surrounding
30720-481: The middle and upper classes offered excellent care and constant medical attention. What later became known as the Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip Disease (tuberculous arthritis) was opened in London in 1867. Whatever the benefits of the "fresh air" and labor in the sanatoria, even under the best conditions, 50% of those who entered died within five years ( c. 1916). Robert Koch did not believe
30912-486: The neighbourhoods which they inhabited while they were alive. They wore shrouds and were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark countenance, markedly different from today's gaunt, pale vampire which dates from the early 19th century. Vampiric entities have been recorded in cultures around the world ; the term vampire was popularized in Western Europe after reports of an 18th-century mass hysteria of
31104-453: The neighbours. The Blagojević and Čečar incidents were well-documented. Government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe. The problem was exacerbated by rural epidemics of so-called vampire attacks, undoubtedly caused by the higher amount of superstition that was present in village communities, with locals digging up bodies and in some cases, staking them. Even government officials engaged in
31296-590: The newly infected person becomes infectious enough to transmit the disease to others. A number of factors make individuals more susceptible to TB infection and/or disease. The most important risk factor globally for developing active TB is concurrent HIV infection; 13% of those with TB are also infected with HIV. This is a particular problem in sub-Saharan Africa , where HIV infection rates are high. Of those without HIV infection who are infected with tuberculosis, about 5–10% develop active disease during their lifetimes; in contrast, 30% of those co-infected with HIV develop
31488-597: The number of infectious droplets expelled by the carrier, the effectiveness of ventilation, the duration of exposure, the virulence of the M. tuberculosis strain , the level of immunity in the uninfected person, and others. The cascade of person-to-person spread can be circumvented by segregating those with active ("overt") TB and putting them on anti-TB drug regimens. After about two weeks of effective treatment, subjects with nonresistant active infections generally do not remain contagious to others. If someone does become infected, it typically takes three to four weeks before
31680-531: The number of new infections. The specific serological diagnostic identification, and later genotypic or molecular identification, of HIV also enabled the development of hypotheses as to the temporal and geographical origins of the virus, as well as a myriad of other hypothesis. The development of molecular diagnostic tools have enabled physicians and researchers to monitor the efficacy of treatment with anti-retroviral drugs . Molecular diagnostics are now commonly used to identify HIV in healthy people long before
31872-412: The occurrence of vampiric creatures in these ancient civilizations, the folklore for the entity known today as the vampire originates almost exclusively from early 18th-century southeastern Europe , when verbal traditions of many ethnic groups of the region were recorded and published. In most cases, vampires are revenants of evil beings, suicide victims, or witches , but they can also be created by
32064-455: The onset of illness and have been used to demonstrate the existence of people who are genetically resistant to HIV infection. Thus, while there still is no cure for AIDS, there is great therapeutic and predictive benefit to identifying the virus and monitoring the virus levels within the blood of infected individuals, both for the patient and for the community at large. Symptomatic infections are apparent and clinical , whereas an infection that
32256-514: The other hand, some infectious agents are highly virulent. The prion causing mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease invariably kills all animals and people that are infected. Persistent infections occur because the body is unable to clear the organism after the initial infection. Persistent infections are characterized by the continual presence of the infectious organism, often as latent infection with occasional recurrent relapses of active infection. There are some viruses that can maintain
32448-539: The pathogens are present but that no clinically apparent infection (no disease) is present. Different terms are used to describe how and where infections present over time. In an acute infection, symptoms develop rapidly; its course can either be rapid or protracted. In chronic infection, symptoms usually develop gradually over weeks or months and are slow to resolve. In subacute infections, symptoms take longer to develop than in acute infections but arise more quickly than those of chronic infections. A focal infection
32640-502: The recent drinking of blood, which was often seen seeping from the mouth and nose when one was seen in its shroud or coffin, and its left eye was often open. It would be clad in the linen shroud it was buried in, and its teeth, hair, and nails may have grown somewhat, though in general fangs were not a feature. Chewing sounds were reported emanating from graves. The causes of vampiric generation were many and varied in original folklore. In Slavic and Chinese traditions , any corpse that
32832-426: The returned spirits of evil-doers or those who died insane, also bear vampiric attributes. The Persians were one of the first civilizations to have tales of blood-drinking demons: creatures attempting to drink blood from men were depicted on excavated pottery shards. Ancient Babylonia and Assyria had tales of the mythical Lilitu , synonymous with and giving rise to Lilith ( Hebrew לילית) and her daughters
33024-430: The risk of developing active TB increases to nearly 10% a year. If effective treatment is not given, the death rate for active TB cases is up to 66%. TB infection begins when the mycobacteria reach the alveolar air sacs of the lungs, where they invade and replicate within endosomes of alveolar macrophages . Macrophages identify the bacterium as foreign and attempt to eliminate it by phagocytosis . During this process,
33216-411: The risk of infections (in addition to increasing the risk of active disease and death). Additional factors increasing infection susceptibility include young age. About 90% of those infected with M. tuberculosis have asymptomatic , latent TB infections (sometimes called LTBI), with only a 10% lifetime chance that the latent infection will progress to overt, active tuberculous disease. In those with HIV,
33408-464: The skin of the chest was a way of "deflating" the bloated vampire. This is similar to a practice of " anti-vampire burial ": burying sharp objects, such as sickles, with the corpse, so that they may penetrate the skin if the body bloats sufficiently while transforming into a revenant. Decapitation was the preferred method in German and western Slavic areas, with the head buried between the feet, behind
33600-403: The son refused, he was found dead the following day. Blagojević supposedly returned and attacked some neighbours who died from loss of blood. In the second case, Miloš Čečar , an ex-soldier-turned-farmer who allegedly was attacked by a vampire years before, died while haying . After his death, people began to die in the surrounding area; it was widely believed that Miloš had returned to prey on
33792-472: The spine), among others. A potentially more serious, widespread form of TB is called "disseminated tuberculosis"; it is also known as miliary tuberculosis . Miliary TB currently makes up about 10% of extrapulmonary cases. The main cause of TB is Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), a small, aerobic , nonmotile bacillus . The high lipid content of this pathogen accounts for many of its unique clinical characteristics. It divides every 16 to 20 hours, which
33984-547: The spines of Egyptian mummies dating from 3000 to 2400 BC. Genetic studies suggest the presence of TB in the Americas from about AD 100. Before the Industrial Revolution , folklore often associated tuberculosis with vampires . When one member of a family died from the disease, the other infected members would lose their health slowly. People believed this was caused by the original person with TB draining
34176-457: The target antigen. To aid in the diagnosis of infectious diseases, immunoassays can detect or measure antigens from either infectious agents or proteins generated by an infected organism in response to a foreign agent. For example, immunoassay A may detect the presence of a surface protein from a virus particle. Immunoassay B on the other hand may detect or measure antibodies produced by an organism's immune system that are made to neutralize and allow
34368-559: The taxonomically classified pathogen genomes to generate an antimicrobial resistance profile – analogous to antibiotic sensitivity testing – to facilitate antimicrobial stewardship and allow for the optimization of treatment using the most effective drugs for a patient's infection. Metagenomic sequencing could prove especially useful for diagnosis when the patient is immunocompromised . An ever-wider array of infectious agents can cause serious harm to individuals with immunosuppression, so clinical screening must often be broader. Additionally,
34560-462: The test's usefulness as a screening tool. Several vaccines are being developed. Intradermal MVA85A vaccine in addition to BCG injection is not effective in preventing tuberculosis. Public health campaigns which have focused on overcrowding, public spitting and regular sanitation (including hand washing) during the 1800s helped to either interrupt or slow spread which when combined with contact tracing, isolation and treatment helped to dramatically curb
34752-503: The test. For example, " Strep throat " is often diagnosed within minutes, and is based on the appearance of antigens made by the causative agent, S. pyogenes , that is retrieved from a patient's throat with a cotton swab. Serological tests, if available, are usually the preferred route of identification, however the tests are costly to develop and the reagents used in the test often require refrigeration . Some serological methods are extremely costly, although when commonly used, such as with
34944-602: The thirst for blood. Various regions of Africa have folktales featuring beings with vampiric abilities: in West Africa the Ashanti people tell of the iron-toothed and tree-dwelling asanbosam , and the Ewe people of the adze , which can take the form of a firefly and hunts children. The eastern Cape region has the impundulu , which can take the form of a large taloned bird and can summon thunder and lightning, and
35136-421: The torso have been discovered. Further measures included pouring boiling water over the grave or complete incineration of the body. In Southeastern Europe, a vampire could also be killed by being shot or drowned, by repeating the funeral service, by sprinkling holy water on the body, or by exorcism . In Romania, garlic could be placed in the mouth, and as recently as the 19th century, the precaution of shooting
35328-465: The transmission of both tuberculosis and other airborne diseases which led to the elimination of tuberculosis as a major public health issue in most developed economies. Other risk factors which worsened TB spread such as malnutrition were also ameliorated, but since the emergence of HIV a new population of immunocompromised individuals was available for TB to infect. During the HIV/AIDS epidemic in
35520-411: The use of live animals unnecessary. Viruses are also usually identified using alternatives to growth in culture or animals. Some viruses may be grown in embryonated eggs. Another useful identification method is Xenodiagnosis, or the use of a vector to support the growth of an infectious agent. Chagas disease is the most significant example, because it is difficult to directly demonstrate the presence of
35712-659: The word Ubir or Upiór is based on the regions around the Volga (Itil) River and Pontic steppes . Upiór myth is through the migrations of the Kipchak - Cuman people to the Eurasian steppes allegedly spread. The Bulgarian format is впир (vpir, other names: onpyr, vopir, vpir, upir, upierz). Czech linguist Václav Machek proposes Slovak verb vrepiť sa 'stick to, thrust into', or its hypothetical anagram vperiť sa (in Czech,
35904-564: Was among the first to suggest the existence of the " Highgate Vampire " and who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole nest of vampires in the area. In January 2005, rumours circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in Birmingham , England, fuelling concerns about a vampire roaming the streets. Local police stated that no such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be an urban legend . The chupacabra ("goat-sucker") of Puerto Rico and Mexico
36096-522: Was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for this discovery. In Europe, rates of tuberculosis began to rise in the early 1600s to a peak level in the 1800s, when it caused nearly 25% of all deaths. In the 18th and 19th century, tuberculosis had become epidemic in Europe , showing a seasonal pattern. Tuberculosis caused widespread public concern in the 19th and early 20th centuries as
36288-477: Was jumped over by an animal, particularly a dog or a cat, was feared to become one of the undead. A body with a wound that had not been treated with boiling water was also at risk. In Russian folklore , vampires were said to have once been witches or people who had rebelled against the Russian Orthodox Church while they were alive. In Albanian folklore , the dhampir is the hybrid child of
36480-420: Was linked with legends of vampirism in 1985 and received much media exposure, but has since been largely discredited. The charismatic and sophisticated vampire of modern fiction was born in 1819 with the publication of " The Vampyre " by the English writer John Polidori ; the story was highly successful and arguably the most influential vampire work of the early 19th century. Bram Stoker 's 1897 novel Dracula
36672-476: Was not effective, it was later successfully adapted as a screening test for the presence of pre-symptomatic tuberculosis. World Tuberculosis Day is marked on 24 March each year, the anniversary of Koch's original scientific announcement. When the Medical Research Council formed in Britain in 1913, it initially focused on tuberculosis research. Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin achieved
36864-484: Was synonymous with a vampire. Whoever denied God or his commandments became an eretik after his death, the improperly immortal figure that wandered the night in search of people to feed on. A paragraph on vampires was included in the second edition (1749) of De servorum Dei beatificatione et sanctorum canonizatione , On the beatification of the servants of God and on canonization of the blessed, written by Prospero Lambertini ( Pope Benedict XIV ). In his opinion, while
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