Lost In Beauty-

Saturday, March 31, 2007

YOYOYO.
hahaha. first day of hols. hmmm. not too bad. woke up at like 7 unlike my usual 5am wake ups. hahaha. but i needed to catch up on sleep. hehehe.
so i looked through my science book and found some really interesting bio topics that i looked up. again, you don't have to read it. i'm being a nerd. hehehe. but it IS interesting. :P

TYPHOID FEVER:

Typhoid fever is an illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella Typhi (S. Typhi). Common worldwide, it is transmitted by ingestiong of food or water contaminated with faeces from an infected person. The bacteria then multiply in the blood stream of the infected person and are absorbed into the digestive tract and elimiated with the waste.

SYMPTOMS:
A sustained fever as high as 39-40 degrees Celsius.
feel weak or have gastroenteritis, headache, diarrohea and anorexia. In some cases, patients have rash of flat, rose-coloured spots. The only way to know for sure if an illness is typhoid fever, is to have samples of stool or blood tested for the presence of S. Typhi.
Tyhpoid fever has an insidious onset characterized by fever, headache, constipation, malaise, chills and myalgia with few clinical features that reliably distinguish it from a variety of other infectious diseases, Diarrohea is uncommon, and vomiting is not usually severe. Confusion, delirium, intestinal perforation, and death may occur in severe cases.

TREATMENT:
Typhoiod fever can be fatal.
Antibiotics, such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ciprofloxacin, have been commonly used to treat typhoid fever in developed countries. Prompt treatment of the disease with antibiotics reduces the case-fatality rate to approximately 1%.
when untreated, typhoid fever persists for three weeks to a month. Death occurs in between 10% and 30% of untreated cases.

TRANSMISSION:
Flying insects feeding on faeces may occasionally transfer the bacteria through poor hygiene habits and public sanitation conditions. Public education campaigns encouraging people to wash their hands after toileting and before handling food are an important component in controlling spread of the disease.

HISTORY:
around 430-426(4 years), a devastating plague, which some believe to have been typhoid fever, killed one third of the population of Athens, including their leader Pericles. The balance of power shifted from Athens to sparta, ending the golden Age of Pericles that marked Athenian dominance in the ancient world.

PERTUSSIS:( i got the vaccine for this yesterday! :D )
Pertussis, aka whooping cough is a highly contagious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. pertussis is one of the leading causes of vaccine-preventable deaths world-wide. Most deaths occur in young infants who are either unvaccinated or incompletely vaccinated.

SYMPTOMS:
after a 7 to 10 day incubation period, pertussis in infants and young children is characterized initially by mild respiratory infection symptoms such as cough, sneezing, and runny nose. After one to two weeks, the cough changes character with paroxyms of coughing followed by an inspiratory "whooping" sound. Coughing fits may be followed by vomiting due to the sheer violence of the fit. In severe cases, the vomiting induced by coughing fits can lead to malnutrition. The fits that do occur on their own can also be triggered by yawning, stretching, laughing, or yelling. Coughing fits gradually diminish over one to two months during the convalescent stage. Other complications of the disease include pneumonia, encephalitis, pulmonay hypertension and secondary bactrial superinfection.

TRANSMISSION:
Adults and adolescents are the primary reservoir for pertussis. Pertussis is spread by contact with airborne discharges from the mucous membranes of infected people, who are most contagious during the catarrhal stage. Because the symptoms during this stage are nonspecific, pertussis is uaully not diagnosed until the appearnce of the characteristic cough of the paroxysmal stage.

TREATMENT:
Treatment with an effective antibiotic shortens the infectious period but does not generally alter the outcome of the disease; however, when treatment is initiated during the catarrhal stage, symptoms may be less severe.

LEPROSY:
aka Hansen's Disease is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves, mucosa of the upper respiratory tract, and skin lesions. if left untreated, there can be progressive and permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes.

TRANSMISSION:
the exact mechanism transimission of leprosy is not known. M. leprae has never been grown in the laboratory; as a result it has been difficult to study the pathogenic mechanisms. there is evidence that not all people who are infected with M. leprae develop leprosy, and genetic factors have long been thought to play a rold, due to the observation of clustering of leprosy around certain families. malnutrition and exposure to other environmental mycobacteria may play a role in development of the overt disease.

TETANUS:( i also got vaccinated for this! :D )
Tetanus is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The clinical manifestations of tetanus are caused when tetanus toxin blocks inhibitory nerve impulses, by interfering with the release of neurotransmitters. This leads to unopposed muscle contraction and spasm. Seizures may occur and the autonomic nervous system may be affected.

SYMPTOMS:
Tetanus affects skeletal muscle( striated muslce).
muscle spasms in the jaw develop, hence common name, lockjaw. followewd by diffiuclt swallowing and general muscle stiffness and spasms in other parts of the body. Infection generally occurs through wound contamination and often involves a cut or deep puncture wound.
tetany refers to sustained muscle contraction that is NOT caused by tetanus.

TREATMENT:
The wound mus be cleaned. Dead and infected tissue should be removed surgically.

hahaha. okay. that was fun. hehehe. listening to 'girlfriend' by avril lavigne now. hahaha. so NICE. hahahaha. HEY HEY YOU YOU I DON'T LIKE YOUR GIRLFRIEND!! :D

the beauty exposed ;