TIL: Kwashiorkor, which literally means "first-second" disease, or disease of the displaced child. The name describes how it is seen in the first child in a family when a second child is born. Suddenly there isn't enough food for everyone and the older child is often the one left to suffer through malnutrition.
Malnourished children can look merely unremarkably thin due to the masking effect of swelling (edema) from diminished albumin production. Albumin is the most important protein for controlling the osmotic pressure of blood. Its low rate of production would cause more water to leak out of the circulation into the surrounding tissues.
| Flag sign of malnutrition |
Relatedly, malnutrition can also manifest as a "flag sign" from lack of protein. This is when long hair changes color and/or texture for the period of the malnutrition, leading to a broad stripe in the hair.
Pseudomonas is naturally resistant to most antibiotics by living in the soil, which contains many other organisms that have learned to combat these organisms just like we have over the eons.
Haemophilus influenzae does not cause influenza (the flu virus does). H. influenzae does cause similar symptoms, though.
Legionnaires disease, and the bacterium found to cause it, is named for a conference of the American Legion at which the first outbreak was reported.
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