Malaria by Ricky Hussey

Malaria is one of the most common infectious diseases and an enormous public-health problem. The disease is caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium. The most serious forms of the disease are caused by Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax, but other related species (Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium malariae, and sometimes Plasmodium knowlesi) can also infect humans. This group of human-pathogenic Plasmodium species is usually referred to as malaria parasites. Malaria is a health problem in many tropical countries. It's also a problem for people visiting these countries. Your chance of getting malaria is highest when you travel in New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, African countries south of the Sahara Desert and some remote places in southeast Asia.

Many of the diseases that affect the human body today are bad if not terrible. The last two decades have seen a lot of publicity about Aids with television coverage, and pop concerts yet Malaria goes by without a mention. Each year it is estimated that over 600 million people and children will suffer from Malaria, and at a guess the death rate is something up to 3 million. This figure cannot be accurate as many people that suffer will never even see a Doctor as they live out in poor communities far away from medical help.

How do you get Malaria?

* Malaria is transmitted to people by a particular type of mosquito called Anopheles, which is found mainly in tropical and sub-tropical areas.

* An infected Anopheles mosquito bites a person and injects the malaria parasites (microscopic organisms) into the blood. How is malaria transmitted?

As is well known, malaria is transmitted to people by mosquitos. The scientific name of the particular type of mosquito is Anopheles. An infected Anopheles mosquito bites a person and injects the malaria parasites into the blood. The malaria parasites then travel through the bloodstream to the liver and eventually infect the red blood cells.

Symptoms

Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs. In many parts of the world, the parasites have developed resistance to a number of malaria medicines.

Treatment

Doctors treat malaria with anti-malarial drugs, such as chloroquine or quinine, given by mouth, by injection, or intravenously (into the veins). Depending on the type of parasite causing the malaria, a person can be treated as an outpatient over a few days or may require hospitalization with IV medication. Doctors also watch for signs of dehydration, convulsions, anemia, and other complications that can affect the brain, kidneys, or spleen. The patient may require fluids, blood transfusions, and breathing assistance.

Prevention

For prevention you must get the most up to date information from your Doctor who will advise what precaution as far as different vaccines. You must also make sure you have the right sort of netting for your bedding, and be sure to have some form of replant.Check with your doctor before visiting any tropical or subtropical area at high risk for malaria. Your doctor can give your family anti-malarial drugs to prevent the disease.

Epilepsy Does Not Stand Forever by Vasili Vasilovitch

Epilepsy can last a few months, years, or be life-long. It varies among individuals. And approximately six people out of 1,000 have epilepsy. Epilepsy can begin at any age. It most commonly begins in children and in older adults. Most commonly we use medicine to treat epilepsy. If medicines fail, and epilepsy surgery is not an option, some patients opt for the vagus nerve stimulator, an electrical device implanted under the skin like a pacemaker. The gamma knife has primarily been used to treat irreparable vascular malformations and tumors, and if the seizures are being caused by those things then the gamma knife may help treat the seizures also. Research is being done on treating other forms of epilepsy with the gamma knife, but this is experimental at the present time. Resection surgery (removing the area where seizures come from) is still the most common surgical treatment of epilepsy. The tests are done to see where the seizures are coming from and if that area can be safely removed. Most centers perform an EEG recording of seizures (called video EEG) and MRI scan, and a test of brain function known as neuropsychological testing. Other tests include PET and SPECT scans, magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional MRI (fMRI). These are tests that measure the brain's function.

Infantile spasms are a type of seizure that occur in young children (6-12 months old). Most often they are treated with a medicine called ACTH, but they are often difficult to control and may evolve into other severe forms of epilepsy.

If absence seizures go undiagnosed these could happen:

The possibilities include

1) affecting school performance such as learning,

2) absence seizures are occasionally associated with other seizure types, such as convlusive seizures, and

3) absence seizures can go away on their own.

About 2% of children with febrile seizures will eventually develop epileptic seizures. The odds are slightly higher if the child has a long febrile seizure, the seizure primarily affects one side of the body or multiple seizures occur with a single febrile illness. Most children with febrile convulsions do not develop epilepsy. There is a diet known as the ketogenic diet that can treat certain types of epilepsy, mostly occurring in children. There has been some recent evidence from a small study that a modified version of the Atkins diet may help treat seizures, but this needs to be confirmed with a larger study. In general, I advise healthy diet and not skip meals.

If a person has inherited epilepsy, a sibling who has not yet had a seizure then by definition they do not have epilepsy. And as additional info, please don't EEG on a family member that does not have seizures.

And below some first aid if you see someone having a bystander:

1) Helping the person lie down and taking them away from any dangerous objects like stoves; 2) Rolling them onto their side so they do not choke if they vomit;

3) Loosening any tight clothing such as neck ties;

4) Reassuring them as they are coming out of the seizure as they may be confused; and

5) Calling an ambulance if it is the person's first seizure or if it is significantly longer than their usual seizure.

There are many different types of seizures. The two main types include

1) generalized seizures that affect the entire brain, and

2) partial seizures, that come from a part or region of the brain. There are many sub-types of generalized and partial seizures. The most important factor in diagnosis is a description of the seizures, not only from the person, but also from a witness to the seizures. A neurological examination is performed to look for any signs of brain dysfunction. Then we often use tests like the EEG or MRI to help us with the diagnosis. Also, there are a dozen medicines that are now used to control seizures. None of them, however, have been shown to cure epilepsy.