Systemic infections

In medical and dental practice, a sizeable proportion of patients seeking consultations include those with systemic infections. The majority of systemic infections in the developed world fall into three categories: bacterial, viral and fungal. In the developing world, in addition to these infections, protozoal and helminthic infections also pose serious threats to health. In this chapter, common symptoms of infectious disease and investigations carried out for their diagnosis are briefly discussed. This is followed by a brief discussion on systemic infections of dental interest. These include scarlet fever, methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), legionnaires' disease, rheumatic fever, typhoid fever (enteric fever), infective endocarditis, pneumonia, tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhoea, actinomycosis, acute necrotising ulcerative gingivitis and noma, influenza, dengue fever, infectious mononucleosis, HIV disease, measles, mumps, rubella, herpes simplex virus infections, human papillomavirus infections, Coxsackie virus infections, chickenpox, shingles (herpes zoster), candidiasis (candidosis), aspergillosis, histoplasmosis, rhinosporidiosis, malaria, amoebiasis, and helminthic diseases. Antibiotic resistance is also briefly discussed in this chapter.