Infectious Diseases

Types of Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases are caused by organisms that cause infection and are most often due to viruses or bacteria. These infections are often misdiagnosed and undetected, largely because the symptoms associated with infection are common to many other medical conditions...for example: pain, inflammation, fatigue, or just not feeling well. Without performing the proper tests, it can be difficult for a physician to make an accurate diagnosis. Physicians, on the other hand, are continually under pressure to cut health care costs and so are reluctant to run many lab tests needed to rule out infectious diseases. As a result, patients are often frustrated as they try one treatment after another, get bounced from one specialist to another, and often suffer unwanted and unnecessary side effects of medications that they do not need, but are given to them as the physicians try to figure out what is causing the illness. Perhaps the most well known example of this is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. For years it was thought to be a psychological problem, as physicians were frustrated with their inability to properly diagnose the underlying infectious agent causing the disease. Many patients were thought to be simply depressed, and anti-depressants were often doled out in order to treat an infection! It was later found that the Epstein-Barr Virus is the most likely causative agent in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Another striking example is AIDS, which was originally thought to be caused by Human T cell Lymphoma Virus (HTLV), but later found to be caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

Fortunately, as science and medicine is progressing, there are more vaccines being developed to protect us against infectious diseases. However, even though vaccination has occurred, the person may not be immunized. Receiving a vaccine (vaccination) does not always result in immunization for your entire life. Just because a vaccine works on most people, does not mean that it worked on you. Furthermore, some vaccines can wear off over time and become no longer effective. This is the reason why we have booster shots, and why titers (lab tests) are frequently performed.

The best way to understand if a vaccine is still working in you is to have the appropriate vaccine titer lab test performed. Titers measure the current level of antibody response in your body to a particular infectious agent. The Measles, Mumps, Rubella Immunity Profile offered by LabSafe is able to understand if you still have immunity to these infectious agents, even though you may have received your vaccination when you were a child. Other LabSafe tests check for immunity to a variety of infections agents, such as Hepatitis B and Chickenpox.

Herpes Testing and Tests for Other Infectious Diseases

One in five adults in the United States has genital herpes. A herpes test can uncover this common viral infection that affects some 80 million people in America.

Confidential Herpes Tests

The more information you have about herpes, the easier it is to manage. But the first step is being tested. At LabSafe you can get a herpes test done by a certified, conveniently located lab, without first going to a doctor. This saves you time and money. Plus, since the results are only released to you, you control who acquires this confidential information.

Tests

Arboviral Encephalitis Antibodies Profile, IgG

Arbovirus, Encephalitis set of tests checks for the presence of antibodies to the California encephalitis virus, Eastern equine encephalitis virus, St Louis encephalitis virus, and Western equine ence…