VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENTS TO PREVENT/TREAT COVID?

I can always hear radio advertisements regarding Vitamin D3 supplementation in preventing diseases especially COVID patients. In fact, I have one patient before who had been prescribed by another doctor of Vitamin D3. I have come upon a good video in you tube wherein it discusses the merit of using vitamin D3 supplementation as a treatment for COVID and cites good, credible clinical trials and medical studies about it. (I will link the said youtube video below:)

VITAMIN D AND COVID NEW STUDIES - EVIDENCE FOR A PROTECTIVE ROLE OF VITAMIN D IN COVID BY DR. MIKE HANSEN

So regarding Vitamin D supplementation: according to studies, vitamin D insufficiency MAY INCREASE THE RISK of COVID and Covid complications BUT vitamin D supplementation IS ONLY VALUABLE TO THOSE WHO ARE VITAMIN D DEFICIENT. Meaning Vitamin D supplementation for those who are Not Vitamin D Deficient may not be of great value.

GROUP-A BETA HEMOLYTIC STREP (GABHS) PHARYNGITIS

Photo Credit: Dr. James Heilman from Wikipedia

PHARYNGITIS

: MC caused (30-60%) by viral infection in adults – rhinovirus

: caused by bacterial infection in adults in only in 5-10% - GABHS

: accounts for 30-40% of case in children

: prevents rheumatic fever – by starting antibiotics 10 days after onset of symptoms

: SORE THROAT from Epstein-Barr virus (82%) – found in pxs with Infectious Mononucleosis –

• Tx mostly consist of

1. Supportive care

2. Rest

3. Antipyretics

4. Analgesics

 

GABHS-PHARYNGITIS

: MC pathogen responsible for most case of bacterial pharyingitis – BUT accounts only 10% of adult cases

            : Symptoms – usually rapid onset:

- Severe sore throat

- Odynophagia

- Cervical lymphadenopathy

- Fever

- Chills

- Malaise

- Headache

- Mild neck stiffness

- Anorexia

Typhoid Fever

Typhoid fever, also known as enteric fever, is a potentially fatal multisystemic illness caused primarily by Salmonella typhi. The protean manifestations of typhoid fever make this disease a true diagnostic challenge. The classic presentation includes fever, malaise, diffuse abdominal pain, and constipation. Untreated, typhoid fever is a grueling illness that may progress to delirium, obtundation, intestinal hemorrhage, bowel perforation, and death within one month of onset. Survivors may be left with long-term or permanent neuropsychiatric complications.

GI Tuberculosis

PhotoCredit: http://granuloma.homestead.com

Each year, tuberculosis (TB) results in the death of 3 million people globally. In 2000-2020, an estimated 1 billion people will be infected, 200 million people will become sick, and 35 million will die from TB, if control is not strengthened.

Overall, one third of the world's population is infected with the TB bacillus, but not all infected individuals have clinical disease. The bacteria cause the disease when the immune system is weakened, as in older patients and in patients who are HIV positive. The control of TB has been challenging because of the natural history of the disease and the varying pattern in which it manifests in different groups.

Syphilis

Syphilis is an infectious venereal disease caused by the spirocheteTreponema pallidum. Syphilis is transmissible by sexual contact with infectious lesions, from mother to fetus in utero, via blood product transfusion, and occasionally through breaks in the skin that come into contact with infectious lesions. If untreated, it progresses through 4 stages: primary, secondary, latent, and tertiary.

Acute Rheumatic Fever

The incidence of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) has declined in most developed countries, and many physicians have little or no practical experience with the diagnosis and management of this condition. Occasional outbreaks in the United States make complacency a threat to public health.

Diagnosis rests on a combination of clinical manifestations that can develop in relation to group A streptococcal pharyngitis. These include chorea, carditis, subcutaneous nodules, erythema marginatum, and migratory polyarthritis. Because the inciting infection is completely treatable, attention has been refocused on prevention.

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Dengue Fever

Dengue, the most common arboviral illness transmitted worldwide, is caused by infection with 1 of the 4 serotypes of dengue virus, family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus (single-stranded nonsegmented RNA viruses). Dengue is transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Aedes,which are widely distributed in subtropical and tropical areas of the world, and is classified as a major global health threat by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Initial dengue infection may be asymptomatic (50%-90%), may result in a nonspecific febrile illness, or may produce the symptom complex of classic dengue fever (DF). A small percentage of persons who have previously been infected by one dengue serotype develop bleeding and endothelial leak upon infection with another dengue serotype. This syndrome is termed dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), although dengue vasculopathy has been proposed as a better term, as fluid loss into tissue spaces can lead to prolonged shock and complications, including gastrointestinal bleeding, a greater fatality risk than bleeding per se. Some patients with dengue hemorrhagic fever develop shock (dengue shock syndrome [DSS]), which may cause death.

Dengue fever–like illnesses were described in Chinese medical writings dating back to 265 AD. Outbreaks of febrile illnesses compatible with dengue fever have been recorded throughout history, with the first epidemic described in 1635 in the West Indies. In 1789, Benjamin Rush, MD, published an account of a probable dengue fever epidemic that had occurred in Philadelphia in 1780. Rush coined the term breakbone fever to describe the intense symptoms reported by one of his patients. Probable outbreaks of dengue fever occurred sporadically every 10-30 years until after World War II. The socioeconomic disruptions caused by World War II resulted in increased worldwide spread of dengue viruses.

The first epidemic of dengue hemorrhagic fever was described in Manila in 1953. After that, outbreaks of dengue fever became more common. A pattern developed in which dengue fever epidemics occurred with increasing frequency and were associated with occasional dengue hemorrhagic fever cases. Subsequently, dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemics occurred every few years. Eventually, dengue hemorrhagic fever epidemics occurred yearly, with major outbreaks occurring approximately every 3 years. This pattern has repeated itself as dengue fever has spread to new regions.

Although initial epidemics were located in urban areas, increased dengue spread has involved suburban and rural locales in Asia and Latin America. The only continents that do not experience dengue transmission include Europe and Antarctica. In the 1950s, 9 countries reported dengue outbreaks; today, the geographic distribution includes more than 100 countries worldwide. Several of these countries had not previously reported dengue, and many had not reported dengue in 20 years.

Dengue transmission spread from Southeast Asia into surrounding subtropical and tropical Asian countries, southern China and southern Taiwan, the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, and down the island nations of Malaysia, the Philippines, New Guinea, northeastern Australia, and several Pacific islands, including Tahiti, Palau, Tonga, and the Cook Islands. Nepal has not reported dengue transmission. Hyperendemic transmission is reported in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Dengue continues to extend its range.

Currently, dengue hemorrhagic fever is one of the leading causes of hospitalization and death in children in many Southeast Asian countries, with Indonesia reporting the majority of dengue hemorrhagic fever cases. Of interest and significance in prevention and control, 3 surveillance studies in Asia report an increasing age among infected patients and increasing mortality rate. Since 1982 in Singapore, more than 50% of deaths have occurred in individuals older than 15 years. In Indonesia, young adults in Jakarta and provincial areas make up a larger percentage of infected patients. During the 2000 epidemic in Bangladesh, up to 82% of hospitalized patients were adults, and all deaths occurred in patients older than 5 years.

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Ascariasis

Ascariasis is the most common helminthic infection, with an estimated worldwide prevalence of 25% (0.8-1.22 billion people). Usually asymptomatic, ascariasis is most prevalent in children of tropical and developing countries, where they are perpetuated by contamination of soil by human feces or use of untreated feces as fertilizer. (For more information on ascariasis in children. Symptomatic ascariasis may manifest as growth retardation, pneumonitis, intestinal obstruction, or hepatobiliary and pancreatic injury. In developing countries, ascariasis may exist as a zoonotic infection in pigs, but little evidence has shown transmission of porcine ascariasis to humans.

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Amebiasis

Amebiasis is caused by Entamoeba histolytica, a protozoan found worldwide. Although most cases of amebiasis are asymptomatic, dysentery and invasive extraintestinal disease can occur. Amebic liver abscess is the most common manifestation of invasive amebiasis, but other organs can also be involved, including pleuropulmonary, cardiac, cerebral, renal, genitourinary, and cutaneous sites. In developed countries, amebiasis primarily affects migrants from and travelers to endemic regions, men who have sex with men, and immunosuppressed or institutionalized individuals.

E histolytica is transmitted via ingestion of the cystic form (infective stage) of the protozoa. Viable in the environment for weeks to months, cysts can be found in fecally contaminated soil, fertilizer, or water or on the contaminated hands of food handlers. Fecal-oral transmission can also occur in the setting of anal sexual practices or direct rectal inoculation through colonic irrigation devices. Excystation then occurs in the terminal ileum or colon, resulting in trophozoites (invasive form). The trophozoites can penetrate and invade the colonic mucosal barrier, leading to tissue destruction, secretory bloody diarrhea, and colitis resembling inflammatory bowel disease. In addition, the trophozoites can spread hematogenously via the portal circulation to the liver or even to more distant organs.

Amebic infection was first described by Fedor Losch in 1875 in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1890, Sir William Osler reported the first North American case of amebiasis, when he observed amebae in stool and abscess fluid from a physician who previously resided in Panama. The species name E histolytica was first coined by Fritz Schaudin in 1903. In 1913, in the Philippines, Walker and Sellards documented the cyst as the infective form of E histolytica. The life cycle was then established by Dobell in 1925.

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