Recrudescence is the revival of material or behavior that had previously been stabilized, settled, or diminished. In

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

, it is usually defined as the recurrence of

symptom Signs and symptoms are the observed or detectable signs, and experienced symptoms of an illness, injury, or condition. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature than normal, raised or lowered blood pressure or an abnormality showi ...

s after a period of

remission Remission often refers to: *Forgiveness Remission may also refer to: Healthcare and science *Remission (medicine), the state of absence of disease activity in patients with a chronic illness, with the possibility of return of disease activity *R ...

quiescence Quiescence (/kwiˈɛsəns/) is a state of quietness or inactivity. It may refer to: * Quiescence search, in game tree searching (adversarial search) in artificial intelligence, a quiescent state is one in which a game is considered stable and unl ...

, in which sense it can sometimes be synonymous with

relapse In internal medicine, relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, multiple sclerosis and malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes very long periods of dormancy, followed by relapse or ...

. In a narrower sense, it can also be such a recurrence with higher severity than before the remission. "Relapse" conventionally has a specific (albeit somewhat illogical) meaning when used in relation to malaria (see below).

Malaria

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...

, recurrence can take place due to ''recrudescence''; or ''relapse''; or ''re-infection'' (via mosquito transmission). ''Relapse'' means that a recurrence has been precipitated by a dormant stage in the liver called a "hypnozoite". Thus, ''relapse'' is applied only for those plasmodial species that have hypnozoites in the life cycle, such as ''Plasmodium vivax'' and ''P. ovale''. On the other hand, ''recrudescence'' means that circulating, multiplying parasites are detected after having persisted in the bloodstream (or elsewhere) at undetectable levels for a period of time, as merozoites (as opposed to hypnozoites). This term is applied for ''Plasmodium'' species that are not associated with hypnozoite-mediated recurrences, such as ''P. falciparum'', ''P. malariae'', and ''P. knowlesi''. ''Recrudescence'' is also used for malarial recurrence caused by drug-resistant strains of ''P. vivax'' and ''P. ovale'' where parasites remained in the bloodstream despite treatment.

Melioidosis

melioidosis Melioidosis is an infectious disease caused by a gram-negative bacterium called ''Burkholderia pseudomallei''. Most people exposed to ''B. pseudomallei'' experience no symptoms; however, those who do experience symptoms have signs and symptoms ...

, a recurrent infection can be due to ''re-infection'' and ''relapse''. ''Re-infection'' is a recurrence of symptoms due to an infection with a new strain of ''Burkholderia pseudomallei'' following the eradication therapy of melioidosis. Meanwhile, ''relapse'' are those who presented with melioidosis symptoms due to failure to clear the infection in the bloodstream after completion of eradication therapy. On the other hand, ''recrudescence'' is the recurrence of melioidosis symptoms during the eradication therapy.

Bovine viral diarrhoea

The bovine viral diarrhoea virus (

bovine virus diarrhea Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), bovine viral diarrhoea (UK English) or mucosal disease, and previously referred to as bovine virus diarrhea (BVD), is an economically significant disease of cattle that is found in the majority of countries throughout ...

) is said to be recrudescent for some time after clinical signs have abated, because antibodies plateau c. weeks 10–12, and are not lifelong, auto infection may potentially occur in the acutely infected non-pregnant animal.

Others

Other diseases that may recur following a short or long period of quiescence include

shingles Shingles, also known as zoster or herpes zoster, is a viral disease characterized by a painful skin rash with blisters in a localized area. Typically the rash occurs in a single, wide mark either on the left or right side of the body or fac ...

(after

chicken pox Chickenpox, also known as varicella, is a highly contagious disease caused by the initial infection with varicella zoster virus (VZV). The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which eventually scab ...

oral herpes Gingivostomatitis is a combination of gingivitis and stomatitis, or an inflammation of the oral mucosa and gingiva. Herpetic gingivostomatitis is often the initial presentation during the first ("primary") herpes simplex infection. It is of greater ...

and

genital herpes Genital herpes is an infection by the herpes simplex virus (HSV) of the genitals. Most people either have no or mild symptoms and thus do not know they are infected. When symptoms do occur, they typically include small blisters that break open ...

, and

Brill–Zinsser disease Brill–Zinsser disease is a delayed relapse of epidemic typhus, caused by ''Rickettsia prowazekii''. After a patient contracts epidemic typhus from the fecal matter of an infected louse (''Pediculus humanus''), the rickettsia can remain latent an ...

(after epidemic typhus).

References

Parasitology {{symptom-stub