Patient Data

Age: 66 years

Sex: female

Race: African American

Marital status: Married

Occupation: Pensioner (Retired teacher)

Subjective Data

The patient presents with symptoms similar to those observed in malaria infection. The patient narrates that over the last two days she has experienced symptoms such as vomiting, abdominal pain, nausea, fever, diarrhea, chills, and headaches. The presence of blood spots in her stool prompted the patient to seek medical attention. Salmonella infection severity depends on how fast the patient seeks medical intervention. Untreated Salmonella infection cases may progress into severe infection within three days (MacFadden, Bogoch, & Andrews, 2016). However, the diseases can be managed if the patient seeks early medical intervention. The patient’s timing was poor as she only sought medical care after the infection had progressed to a severe case to the point of causing blood in her stool. Associated manifestations include fever and chills that can be confused with malaria infection.

The associated systems include the poor sanitation where the patient resides. The patient reports that she is fond of eating unwashed fruits that she buys in the market. Salmonella infection can spread faster in areas with poor sanitation especially through the eating of raw/uncooked foodstuffs. Therefore, cleanliness plays a critical role in spreading of salmonella infection. The diagnosis identified poor hygiene as the main associated system.

The patient’s Past medical history (PMH) suggests that the patient had has a chronic heart condition and has been treating stomach ulcers for the past one year. The patient also reports that she is currently treating tuberculosis. The patients’ medical history suggests that her immune system is weak. The patient’s family history shows that her mother died of a chronic heart condition and stroke. Recently, the patient’s blood pressure has been high, and she suspects that it could be the same condition that her mother had. The patient reported no significant allergies. However, the current medication she is undertaking is that of tuberculosis.

3) Objective Data

The patient’s vital signs that were examined include blood pressure, breathing, and pulse, besides, the height and weight were measured.

The patient systems that were measured indicated that the patient was doing well, for instance, the blood pressure was 99/80 mmHg, breathing was taken at 15 breaths per minute while the pulse was 70 beats per minute.

Upon the analysis of the patient’s stool, the patient was positive for salmonella infection. Abnormality identified was the presence of blood traces in the patient’s stool

4) Assessment

The assessment of the patient based on the reported signs and symptoms lead to the suspicion of typhoid. The subsequent level of diagnoses involved requesting laboratory diagnoses where malaria, typhoid, and cholera were tested. The laboratory report showed that the patient had a salmonella infection after getting a positive salmonella result from stool analysis.

5) Plan

The teaching, healthcare maintenance and counseling for malaria, typhoid and cholera are that there is a need to clearly distinguish the signs and symptoms of the diseases as they sometimes resemble each other. Therefore, clinicians should educate the patients and counsel them on how to differentiate the symptoms. It is also important for healthcare workers to inform the public on how to prevent diseases such as malaria by sleeping under a treated mosquito net. On the other hand, both cholera and typhoid can be prevented through the maintenance of a high level of sanitation. Pharmacological measures that are key to the treatment of typhoid is the activity of the antimicrobials used in the treatment and how they interact with other drugs used by the patient for blood pressure management (Humphries & Linscott, 2015).

References

Humphries, R. M., & Linscott, A. J. (2015). Laboratory diagnosis of bacterial gastroenteritis. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 28(1), 3–31.

MacFadden, D. R., Bogoch, I. I., & Andrews, J. R. (2016). Advances in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of invasive Salmonella infections. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases, 29(5), 453–458.