Upper Respiratory, Head, and Neck Infections Pleuropulmonary and Bronchial Infections
Upper Respiratory, Head, and Neck Infections James C. Pile, MD Infectious Diseases Division, Department of Medicine, National Naval Medical Center, 8901 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20889-5600, USA.
Medical Matrix: Otorhinolaryngology http://www.medmatrix.org/SPages/Otorhinolaryngology.asp Requires a one-time sign-in procedure. The site contains current news of head and neck disease (including ear, nose, and throat [ENT] News Online), a link to a full-text Internet ENT journal, and abstracts of major otorhinolaryngology journals. Also here are ENT practice guidelines of the Canadian Medical Association and the National Institutes of Heatlh (NIH), a collection of grand rounds/ case studies from several institutions, and a wealth of other information. All-in-all, a remarkably thorough and well-done compilation of head and neck disease resources.
Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology http://www.annals.com Home page for Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology, the official journal of the American Laryngological Association. The site contains the current issue, as well as archived issues with abstracts. The journal contains a variety of original investigations concerning ENT infections, along with useful supplements.
Index of Head and Neck Radiology http://www.cc.emory.edu/ANATOMY/Radiology/Head_and_Neck/ A collection of high-quality, well-labeled CT images of the head and neck. Particularly useful as a review tool for the infectious disease specialist consulting on deep space infections of the neck.
Infectious Diseases in Children http://www.slackinc.com/child/idc Contains information on the spectrum of pediatric infectious diseases, including many newspaperstyle articles on current and late-breaking subjects. Topics covered include upper respiratory infections, otitis media, and vaccine issues. A searchable index is also included. This site provides an efficient way for the physician caring chiefly for adults to keep abreast of pediatric infectious disease issues.
Newsedge Newspage: Upper Respiratory Disease http://www.newspage.com/browse/46610/46618/576/ Provides daily up-to-the-minute summaries of developments in upper respiratory disease, both infectious and noninfectious, with a focus on industry. Summaries from the preceding 7 days are available at any given time. Only some of these, however, are available without subscription to the premium service (which is available free for 30 days).
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PubMed with Research Methodology Filters http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/clinical.html PubMed with research filters serves as an excellent tool for focused Medline searches. Despite the potentially intimidating title, this site is geared to the busy clinician (and others). The number of “hits” is reduced through the use of one of four categories (therapy, diagnosis, etiology, or prognosis), and the scope of the search may be broadened or narrowed by selection of sensitivity or specificity, respectively. PubMed’s unfiltered site is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/.
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Online http://www.omfs.org Full-text manuscripts on a variety of oral and maxillofacial surgery topics. Papers in a recent issue, for example, covered oral cysticercosis and infections transmissible in the dental setting.
Medscape Infectious Diseases Home Page http://www.medscape.com/Home/Topics/ID/InfectiousDiseases.html While not specific for head and neck infections, this site contains a plethora of frequently-updated infectious disease information. Features include full-text infectious disease–related manuscripts from a variety of journals, conference reviews, and sections such as "Bug of the Month” and “AIDS Bulletin.” One of a handful of must-have bookmarks for the infectious diseases physician.
Pleuropulmonary and Bronchial Infections Michael S. Simberkoff, MD Department of Medicine, NYU School of Medicine and the Infectious Diseases Section, New York VA Medical Center, 423 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010, USA.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Home Page http://www.idsociety.org This site offers a wide spectrum of information about the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) organization and activities. It also provides information about meetings. The published abstracts of the most recent meeting are available online. Many of these abstracts deal with pleuropulmonary infections, bronchial infections, or the pathogens that cause them. For example, the 1998 IDSA meeting had 21 abstracts about pneumonia and 31 abstracts about pneumococcus or Streptococcus pneumoniae. The IDSA home page also displays career development and job opportunities for infectious diseases specialists, recognized infectious diseases training programs, IDSA’s Emerging Infections Network, HIV/AIDS, its vaccine initiative, and its published practice guidelines. The ID Training Programs link contains a state-by-state listing of approved ID programs. Each program lists its faculty, the major research interest of each faculty member, the requirements for and length of the fellowship, the types of patients that are seen, the sites for training, and the number of fellows accepted for training each year. The IDSA has published Practice Guidelines concerning a number of important issues. The guidelines are available through the Home Page. These include quality standards for immunization, treatment of bacteremia, and antimicrobial prophylaxis for surgical procedures. In addition, there are guidelines on use of antimicrobial agents in neutropenic patients with unexplained fever, diagnosis and management of group A streptococcal pharyngitis, community-based parenteral anti-infective therapy, management of community-acquired pneumonia in adults, and prevention of opportunistic infections in persons infected with HIV. The last two of these topics provide guidelines for treatment and prevention to clinicians interested in pleuropulmonary and bronchial infections. The IDSA home page has a members only link which, for the present, is open to anyone. This link contains the quarterly IDSA news bulletin and information on recent legislation affecting infectious diseases practitioners.
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The Infectious Diseases Society of America Links http://www.idsociety.org/links/index.html The IDSA home page provides links to related sites. Through this link, one can access the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR) and Emerging Infectious Diseases plus the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Weekly Epidemiolgic Record.
ID Societies Home Pages The Canadian Infectious Disease Society (La Société Canadienne de Maladies Infectieuses) http://cids.medical.org/main/html Infectious Disease Association of California http://home.idac.org/idac Anaerobe Society of the Americas http://www.anaerobe.org International Society of Chemotherapy http://www.elsevier/homepage/sah/isc Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Inc. (SHEA) http://www.medscape.com/affiliates/shea These Home Pages provide information about the society’s activities and meetings plus links to Web sites of particular interest to members. SHEA has published guidelines for preventing nosocomial pleuropulmonary infections.
The Infectious Disease WebLink http://pages.prodigy.net/pdeziel/ This site proclaims itself to be “an infectious disease specialty supersite.” Indeed, this may be true. The ID WebLink was created and is maintained by Paul Deziel, PA-C, from the Detroit Medical Center, Grace Hospital, Wayne State University School of Medicine. This site provides access to a host of government and nongovernment ID sites, microbiology Web sites, university-affiliated ID sites, ID images, the MMWR, CDC, WHO, National Institutes of Health (NIH), IDSA, health care communications, the National Library of Medicine (NLM), and to pharmaceutical companies. Another interesting feature of the ID WebLink is the clinical images in infectious diseases. At the time of this writing, six images (case histories with relevant photographs, radiographs, or CT scans) are featured. One of these shows the case history of a 36-year-old woman with pneumonia and empyema caused by S. pneumoniae. A chest radiograph and CT scan are also available. These are an excellent teaching tool. Readers are encouraged to add new cases with associated visual materials.
CDC Publications MMWR http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/mmwr.html Provides easy access to MMWR, the MMWR recommendations and reports, the MMWR surveillance summaries, and the MMWR supplements. Included among these are annual recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for prevention and control of influenza, reports on outbreaks and the epidemiology of influenza, ACIP recommendations for prevention of pneumococcal infections, reports on outbreaks and the epidemiology of S. pneumoniae infection, and ACIP recommendations for prevention of other respiratory infections, as well as reports of outbreaks and epidemiology of these infections.
CDC Publications Selected CDC Publications, Software, and Slide Sets http://www.cdc.gov/publications.htm Provides access to selected CDC publications, software, and slide sets. Slide sets for tuberculosis, epidemiology and prevention of viral hepatitis A–E, and HIV/AIDS are among those available via this Web site. CDC’s software is also available. Epi Info, the CDC’s superb computer program for handling and analyzing epidemiologic data can be downloaded from this Web site. Other software pro-
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grams, including Epi Map (a program to display data using geographic or other maps), and Epi Meta (a program to perform meta analysis), are available as well.
CDC Travel Information http://www.cdc.gov/travel/index.htm This site, providing information for travelers, is particularly useful for clinicians with patients who travel outside of the United States and Western Europe. For example, if a patient is traveling to East Africa, one can obtain detailed information about the endemic diseases (including malaria) in these countries and the vaccinations or other health documents that are required. In addition, recommendations for vaccination, prophylaxis, and steps for remaining healthy and avoiding illness while traveling can be downloaded and printed for the patient.
Additional CDC Information http://www.cdc.gov/scientific.htm Additional CDC scientific data, surveillance, health statistics, and laboratory information are available at this address.
The AIDS Clinical Trials Information Service (ACTIS) http://www.actis.org Provides access to information on federally and privately funded clinical trials for adults and children. Published data on active and completed trials and drugs can be accessed. In addition, the reader can obtain AIDS data sets that have been submitted to the National Technical Information Service for public use.
American Lung Association’s Pneumonia Page http://www.lungusa.org/diseases/lungpneumoni.html This site provides information on the causes of pneumonia, bacterial pneumonia, viral pneumonia, mycoplasma pneumonia, and other kinds of pneumonia. The symptoms of these infections are described in relatively simple terms. In addition, the Pneumonia Page contains information about treating pneumonia, preventing pneumonia (pneumococcal vaccine), and advice to lay-persons about when to seek medical attention.
National Library of Medicine Internet Grateful Med http://igm.nlm.nih.gov Perhaps the most useful Web site for ID clinicians is the NLM. By using a search system such as Internet Grateful Med, ID clinicans can gain access to the journals and articles indexed and abstracted in Medline, AIDSline, AIDSDRUGS, and so forth. Essentially all of the infectious diseases literature is at your fingertips. This includes the entire spectrum of published literature on pleuropulmonary infections, bronchial infections, and the pathogens that cause them. For example, Medline recently listed approximately 50,000 articles about pneumonia and 20,000 about S. pneumoniae.
