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Most fungi that pathogenically affect humans live in soil. If a person is not healthy, has an open wound, or is immunocompromised, a fungal infection can be very aggressive.
As many as 28% of hospitalized patients requiring mechanical ventilators to help them breathe (for more than 48 hours) will develop ventilator-associated pneumonia. Current therapy involves intravenous antibiotics, but new antibiotics that can be inhaled (and more directly treat the infection) are being developed.
The use of salicylates dates back 2,500 years to Hippocrates's recommendation of willow bark (from which a salicylate is derived) as an aid to the pains of childbirth. However, overdosage of salicylates can harm body fluids, electrolytes, the CNS, the GI tract, the ears, the lungs, the blood, the liver, and the kidneys and cause coma or death.
The longest a person has survived after a heart transplant is 24 years.
Addicts to opiates often avoid treatment because they are afraid of withdrawal. Though unpleasant, with proper management, withdrawal is rarely fatal and passes relatively quickly.
![An electrocardiogram (EKG) wave, a record of the electrical signal as it moves through the conductio](https://biology-forums.com/gallery/47/medium_14755_10_09_12_7_22_09_85211006.jpeg)
![Electrocardiography. (a) Electrodes are placed on the patient’s chest to record the electrical event](https://biology-forums.com/gallery/47/medium_14755_11_11_12_7_15_46_100311063.jpeg)