from Section III - Care of the Elderly by Organ System
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 June 2022
As the population in the United States continues to age, familiarity with the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of the major serious infections of elderly individuals becomes an increasingly critical component of general medicine and primary care. While modern medicine has significantly reduced early death due to infection, diseases caused by infectious pathogens remain a major cause of illness and death among elderly persons. This chapter reviews the immunology of the elder host and environmental factors that make older adults uniquely vulnerable to infectious diseases. We propose an approach to the elderly patient with suspected infectious disease and highlight the differences in clinical presentation among older and younger patients, as well as addressing diagnosis and management of common and serious infectious diseases of older adults including urinary tract infection, bacterial pneumonia, influenza, herpes zoster, and Clostridioides difficile.
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