In a very broad sense, pediatric infectious disease (PID) refers to any illnesses in children that can be communicated to other people. This would include something as simple as chicken pox or as complex as the AIDs virus. Typically, when children see a PID specialist they do so to get treatment for certain types of pediatric infectious disease that would be more difficult to treat by general practitioners or pediatricians, or that have evaded the diagnosis of these doctors. When analyzed from this point of view there are several kinds of disease that might suggest referral to PID specialists who have training in pediatrics and infectious disease.
One of the types of pediatric infectious disease that gets treated by such specialists is HIV/AIDs. Given the possible complications of this autoimmune disorder, it needs additional care. Management of medicines is highly important, as are different kinds of testing to make certain the disease does not progress.
Sometimes a child has an illness that is not so clearly defined. A recurrent condition that isn’t responding to treatment by a general practitioner or pediatrician might cause that doctor to refer the child to a pediatric infectious disease specialist. Since that specialist has advanced training in identifying less common types of disease, he or she might be able to diagnose an illness that the average doctor cannot.
Certain infections may be classed as types of pediatric infectious diseases, whether these are viral, fungal, bacterial or parasitic. In most cases, what they have in common is that they resist routine treatment and need more extensive care than what is normally at the disposal of the general practitioner or pediatrician. For instance, infections like methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) could use the expertise of a PID doctor, as can certain parasitic illnesses that might be contracted abroad and are rare and difficult to diagnose and/or treat.
Some illnesses might always involve referral to a pediatric infectious disease specialist, such as tuberculosis. Other times, certain types of pediatric infectious diseases are so rare and potentially dangerous to the public that PID doctors are called in to consult on how to prevent disease spread. A case of wild polio, though such a case has not occurred in certain areas of the world for many years, might require the treatment and advice of PID doctors.
The term defines the types of pediatric infectious diseases. These are illnesses that can be spread from one person to another. They may be difficult to treat and need specialist care to avoid disease spread and to best control illness in each individual. Such conditions tend to be more rare or resist usual treatment and this definition could encompass a wide variety of diseases that appear resistant to regular care or that are so complex they require more specialized management.