Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) croup kro͞op [key], acute obstructive laryngitis in young children, usually between the ages of three and six. The manifestations are a high-pitched cough and difficulty in breathing, owing to a spas...

(Encyclopedia) wart, circumscribed outgrowth of the skin caused by a filterable virus that is readily transmitted. Warts may appear anywhere on the skin but are most common on the hands. Sexually transmitted disease...

(Encyclopedia) thrips, minute, agile insects of the order Thysanoptera. Thrips have piercing-and-sucking mouthparts and cup-shaped feet from which bladderlike adhesive organs may be extended. Some species are wingle...

(Encyclopedia) trichomoniasis trĭkˌəmənīˈəsĭs [key], sexually transmitted disease caused by the parasitic protozoan Trichomonas vaginalis. In women, it can cause urinary tract infection and a painful, malodo...

(Encyclopedia) pleurisy plo͝orˈĭsē [key], inflammation of the pleura (the membrane that covers the lungs and lines the chest cavity). It is sometimes accompanied by pain and coughing. The inflammation may be dry...

(Encyclopedia) Alter, Harvey James, 1935–, American virologist, b. New York City, M.D. Univ. of Rochester, 1960. He has been a researcher at the National Institutes of Health since 1969. The 2020 Nobel Prize in Ph...

(Encyclopedia) Lwoff, André äNdrāˈ ləwôfˈ [key], 1902–94, French microbiologist, b. Ainay-le-Château, Allier dept., central France, of Russian-Polish origin. He was educated in France and in 1925 began a l...

(Encyclopedia) Northrop, John Howard, 1891–1987, American chemist, b. Yonkers, N.Y., Ph.D. Columbia, 1915. He was a researcher at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller Univ.) from 1916 un...

(Encyclopedia) Blumberg, Baruch Samuel, 1925–2011, American biochemist and medical anthropologist, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., B.S. Union College, Schenectady, N.Y., 1946, M.D. Columbia, 1951, Ph.D. Oxford, 1957. From 1957...

(Encyclopedia) hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), infectious viral disease that most commonly occurs in children under five years of age. Symptoms include fever, poor appetite, and a sore throat, followed by pain...