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diphtheria

(Encyclopedia)diphtheria dĭfthērˈēə [key], acute contagious disease caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae (Klebs-Loffler bacillus) bacteria that have been infected by a bacteriophage. It begins as a soreness o...

emphysema

(Encyclopedia)emphysema ĕmfĭsēˈmə [key], pathological or physiological enlargement or overdistention of the air sacs of the lungs. A major cause of pulmonary insufficiency in chronic cigarette smokers, emphyse...

Health and Human Services, United States Department of

(Encyclopedia)Health and Human Services, United States Department of, federal executive department charged with administering government health programs. Successor to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfar...

catecholamine

(Encyclopedia)catecholamine kătˌəkôlˈəmēn [key], any of several compounds occurring naturally in the body that serve as hormones or as neurotransmitters in the sympathetic nervous system. The catecholamines ...

West Nile virus

(Encyclopedia)West Nile virus, microorganism and the infection resulting from it, which typically produces no symptoms or a flulike condition. The virus is a flavivirus and is related to a number of viruses that ca...

virology

(Encyclopedia)virology, study of viruses and their role in disease. Many viruses, such as animal RNA viruses and viruses that infect bacteria, or bacteriophages, have become useful laboratory tools in genetic studi...

fungal infection

(Encyclopedia)fungal infection, infection caused by a fungus (see Fungi), some affecting animals, others plants. Serious damage is done to crops each year by fungal infections of plants such as smuts, rusts, ergo...

Reed, Walter

(Encyclopedia)Reed, Walter, 1851–1902, American army surgeon, b. Gloucester co., Va. In 1900 he was sent to Havana as head of an army commission to investigate an outbreak of yellow fever among American soldiers....

Pinel, Philippe

(Encyclopedia)Pinel, Philippe fēlēpˈ pēnĕlˈ [key], 1745–1826, French physician, M.D. Univ. of Toulouse, 1773. After moving to Paris in 1778, he was appointed (1793) director of the Bicêtre hospital and sho...

Sydenham, Thomas

(Encyclopedia)Sydenham, Thomas, 1624–89, English physician, called “the English Hippocrates.” He studied at Oxford and Montpellier, and practiced in London. His conceptions of the causes and treatments of epi...
 

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