How fast do infections spread

Why wait, there is nothing to gain see a dentist asap. Thomas Stelmach answered. Cosmetic Dentistry 39 years experience. Very fast: It depends on a lot of factors such as how strong your immune system is, how agressive the bacteria are, and the location of the tooth.

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Connect with a doctor now. Get help now: Ask doctors free Educational text. Similar questions A year-old member asked:. Theodore Davantzis answered. Very quickly: Although rare, if the infection is invasive enough and enters your circulatory system , it can spread to other parts of your body within minutes. Infections can also spread between muscle layers, down your neck, and into your chest. Please treat asap.

If we magnify the period to one thousand times its actual size see far left , a nearby Pseudomonas aeruginosa , the bacterium that causes hospital-acquired pneumonia and bloodstream infections, becomes visible. If, in turn, we magnify Pseudomonas 75 more times, or to 75, times its actual size, an adjacent influenza virus particle also becomes visible. Infection does not necessarily lead to disease. Infection occurs when viruses, bacteria, or other microbes enter your body and begin to multiply.

Disease, which typically happens in a small proportion of infected people, occurs when the cells in your body are damaged as a result of infection, and signs and symptoms of an illness appear. In response to infection, your immune system springs into action. White blood cells, antibodies, and other mechanisms go to work to rid your body of the foreign invader. Indeed, many of the symptoms that make a person suffer during an infection—fever, malaise, headache, rash—result from the activities of the immune system trying to eliminate the infection from the body.

Pathogenic microbes challenge the immune system in many ways. Viruses make us sick by killing cells or disrupting cell function. Many bacteria make us sick the same way, but they also have other strategies at their disposal. Sometimes bacteria multiply so rapidly they crowd out host tissues and disrupt normal function. Sometimes they kill cells and tissues outright.

Turn recording back on. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Search term. I How Infection Works. Figure From the moment we are born, microbes begin to colonize our bodies. Figure Lactobacillus bacteria, which produce lactic acid to help with digestion. Types of Microbes There are five major categories of infectious agents: Viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and helminths.

Viruses Viruses are tiny, ranging in size from about 20 to nanometers in diameter see page 9. Figure An electron micrograph of an influenza virus particle, showing details of its structure. Bacteria Bacteria are 10 to times larger than viruses and are more self-sufficient. Figure E. Other Infectious Agents The other three major types of infectious agents include fungi spore-forming organisms that range from bread mold to ringworm to deadly histoplasmosis , protozoa such as the agents behind malaria and dysentery , and helminths parasitic worms like those that cause trichinosis, hookworm, and schistosomiasis.

Figure Grand Prismatic Spring, a geothermal hot spring in Yellowstone and home to microbes that have adapted to this extreme environment. Encountering Microbes Microbes have inhabited the earth for billions of years and may be the earliest life forms on the planet. New Meeting Places Any changes that create new intersections between microbes and people pave the way for disease-causing agents to enter our species. Entering the Human Host Microorganisms capable of causing disease—pathogens—usually enter our bodies through the mouth, eyes, nose, or urogenital openings, or through wounds or bites that breach the skin barrier.

Figure Evidence for why it is important to cover your mouth when you sneeze. Trichinella spiralis , the helminth that causes trichinosis, enters the body encased in cysts residing in undercooked meat. Pepsin and hydrochloric acid in our bodies help free the larvae in the cysts to enter the small intestine, where they molt, mature, and ultimately produce more larvae that pass through the intestine and into the bloodstream.

At that point they are free to reach various organs. Those that reach skeletal muscle cells can survive and form new cysts, thus completing their life cycle. Histoplasma capsulatum , a fungus that transmits histoplasmosis, grows in soil contaminated with bird or bat droppings. Spores of the fungus emerge from disturbed soil and, once inhaled into the lungs, germinate and transform into budding yeast cells.

In its acute phase, the disease causes coughing and flu-like symptoms. Sometimes histoplasmosis affects multiple organ systems and can be fatal unless treated. The protozoa that cause malaria, which are members of the genus Plasmodium , have complex life cycles. Sporozoites, a cell type that infects new hosts, develop in the salivary glands of Anopheles mosquitos.

Cells infected with sporozoites eventually burst, releasing another cell form, merozoites, into the bloodstream. CNN -- One look at her photo, and you can't help but ask: How could someone so young and vibrant die so quickly from an infection?

Brazilian model Mariana Bridi da Costa was a healthy year-old when doctors told her she had a urinary tract infection, her family says. The infection spread, and after amputating her feet, doctors thought they had the situation under control, according to a blog run by a family friend.

She has a full and beautiful life ahead. Sepsis -- the body's inflammatory response to an infection -- really can kill that quickly, according to Dr. Sepsis usually starts out as an infection in just one part of the body, such as a skin wound or a urinary tract infection, Tracey says. For example, Muppets creator Jim Henson died in from a case of sepsis that started out as pneumonia, an inflammation of the lungs. He was Most of the time, simple, localized infections remain just that: easy to treat and in one part of the body.

Why some infections rage out of control and shut down vital organs is a mystery, but experts say it rarely happens in young, healthy people, like da Costa. Watch more on avoiding septicemia ». It might be about her genetics. The Mayo Clinic sees about cases a year of young, healthy people who develop sepsis, says Dr.

Priya Sampathkumar, an infectious disease specialist at Mayo.