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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Inflammation is not a synonym for infection.

An infection can cause an inflammation but many infections do never cause symptoms of inflammation. Conversely many inflammations are not caused by any infection. In many cases an infection develops parallel or secondary to an inflammation.

Even in the case where the inflammation is caused by infection it is incorrect to use the terms as synonyms - they describe different aspects and symptoms of the problem. Often a doctor will prescribe anti-inflammatory medication to treat the inflammatory aspect of the problem and antibiotics or virostatica to treat the infection causing it.

For historical reasons many diseases caused by infections have names classifying them as inflammations, resulting in some confusion. Common examples are hepatitis and meningitis which by definition denote inflammations. In many cases this is because the exact cause of the disease became apparent long after it has been described - the term hepatitis meaning inflammation of the liver is very old while the viruses causing it were isolated much later. In the case of meningitis there is a variety of infectious organisms capable of causing it and cases not caused by infection are also known.

For certain types of inflammations it is necessary to determine on a case by case basis whether they are actually caused by an infection. In this context it is often difficult to distinguish whether infectious organism are merely accidental colonization, secondary infection or primary cause of an inflammation.

[edit] Naming schemes

Names for inflammations are formed by appending the -itis suffix to the name of affected organ. Examples: laryngitis, nephritis, oophoritis

Names for infections are often formed by appending an -sis or similar suffix to the name of the infectious organism. Examples: borreliosis (mostly called lyme disease), tuberculosis, campylobacteriosis.