Medical malpractice can be caused by a failure to diagnose an infectious disease. Doctors and other medical providers have unprecedented ability to recognize and treat the overwhelming majority of infectious diseases. In many cases, treatment of an infectious disease is effective in limiting the duration and severity of an illness, with the result that the patient eventually gets better. However, when an infectious disease is not diagnosed, the infection festers, which can lead to prolonged illness and in some cases even death.
Newborn babies are especially vulnerable to infection because they have not yet built up immunities to many infectious diseases. This is especially true during childbirth when an infection can easily be passed from the mother to the baby. Modern medicine has given us the knowledge and ability to check the mother for infections and to treat her infectious disease prior to childbirth. Failure to check and treat an infectious disease in these circumstances is often a clear-cut example of medical malpractice.
Other examples of frequent medical malpractice include failing to monitor for infectious diseases following surgery and failing to prescribe or administer the correct antibiotics when an infectious disease is diagnosed.
