Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases (IDs) are the number one cause of death in the world. Identifying pathogens and the infections they cause and treating these diseases are the goals of our ID services.

Our ID staff has extensive experience in the management of a broad scope of infections—bacterial, mycobacterial, viral, and parasitic—of all organ systems. These include:

• Simple respiratory tract infections, e.g. pharyngitis,tonsillitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, sinusitis
• Genitourinary tract infections
• Gastrointestinal infections,including acute and chronic forms of hepatitis
• Central nervous system infections, e.g. meningitis,encephalitis
• Endocarditis
• Catheter and prosthetic device-associated infections
• Skin/soft tissue infections
• Bone/joint and prosthetic joint infections
• Post-surgical infections
• Infections in immunocompromised patients, including:
• Pre-travelcounseling/vaccinations
• Treatment of travel-related infections, tropical diseases,tick-borne infections
  • In patients with chronic medicalconditions, e.g. diabetes, liver disease, and heart disease
  • In patients with underlyingmalignancies
  • In patients receivingchemotherapy or steroid treatments
  • In patients with solid organ andhematopoietic stem cell transplants
  • HIV/AIDS

Our ID staff works in close collaboration with our outpatient clinics, inpatient services, Emergency Medicine Department, and Infection Control team to assist with diagnosis and treatment of infections and establish appropriate patient-specific treatment plans (including choice of antimicrobials, duration of treatment, etc.). Our objective is to provide the most appropriate treatment, minimize any possible complications of therapy, and do our part in stemming the worldwide overuse of antimicrobials, which has led to increasing pathogen resistance to the drugs we use to fight them. It is important to know when antimicrobials are needed and when they are not.