Tuesday 22 January 2013

Diabetes



Diabetes mellitus, or simply diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced.This high blood sugar produces the classical symptoms of polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst) and polyphagia (increased hunger).
Diabetes is a costly, complex, and devastating chronic illness that poses a major public health problem.  Diabetes affects over 475,000 adults and 4,500 children.

Monday 21 January 2013

Signs and symptoms of Diabetes :

The classic symptoms of untreated diabetes are loss of weight, polyuria (frequent urination), polydipsia (increased thirst) and polyphagia (increased hunger). Symptoms may develop rapidly (weeks or months) in type 1 diabetes, while they usually develop much more slowly and may be subtle or absent in type 2 diabetes.

Prolonged high blood glucose can cause glucose absorption in the lens of the eye, which leads to changes in its shape, resulting in vision changes. Blurred vision is a common complaint leading to a diabetes diagnosis; type 1 should always be suspected in cases of rapid vision change, whereas with type 2 change is generally more gradual, but should still be suspected[citation needed]. A number of skin rashes that can occur in diabetes are collectively known as diabetic dermadromes.





Learn About Hepatitis.

There are several types of Hepatitis:

  • Hepatitis "A"
  • Hepatitis "B"
  • Hepatitis "C"
  • Hepatitis "D"
  • Hepatitis "E"    

Spread .

Hepatitis can spread in a vartiety of ways. Here is a chart which summarizes some basic facts about viral hepatitis.

Sunday 20 January 2013

Threat of Influenza:

“The leaves will fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter woods.
Spring, summer, autumn and winter, every season has its specific features. As the seasonal change brings environmental change, it also brings some epidemics. Everyone should be well informed about the effects which seasonal change can have on routine life style of an individual.




How Is HIV Transmitted Through Body Fluids?



HIV is transmitted through body fluids in very specific ways:

  • During pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding:
Babies have constant contact with their mother’s body fluids-including amniotic fluid and blood-throughout pregnancy and childbirth. After birth, infants can get HIV from drinking infected breast milk.

  • As a result of injection drug use:
Injecting drugs puts you in contact with blood-your own and others, if you share needles and “works”. Needles or drugs that are contaminated with HIV-infected blood can deliver the virus directly into your body.

  • As a result of occupational exposure:
Healthcare workers have the greatest risk for this type of HIV transmission. If you work in a healthcare setting, you can come into contact with infected blood or other fluids through needle sticks or cuts. A few healthcare workers have been infected when body fluids splashed into their eyes, mouth, or into an open sore or cut.

  • As a result of a blood transfusion with infected blood or an organ transplant from an infected donor:
Screening requirements make both of these forms of HIV transmission very rare in the United States.

  • During sexual contact:
You need to know that it’s much easier to get HIV (or to give it to someone else), if you have a sexually transmitted disease (STD).

HIV AIDS Virus - Structure.





What is HIV AIDS?


To understand what HIV is, let’s break it down:
HHuman – This particular virus can only infect human beings.
IImmunodeficiency – HIV weakens your immune system by destroying important cells that fight disease and infection. A "deficient" immune system can't protect you.
VVirus – A virus can only reproduce itself by taking over a cell in the body of its host.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus is a lot like other viruses, including those that cause the "flu" or the common cold. But there is an important difference – over time, your immune system can clear most viruses out of your body. That isn't the case with HIV – the human immune system can't seem to get rid of it. Scientists are still trying to figure out why.
We know that HIV can hide for long periods of time in the cells of your body and that it attacks a key part of your immune system – your T-cells or CD4 cells. Your body has to have these cells to fight infections and disease, but HIV invades them, uses them to make more copies of itself, and then destroys them.
Over time, HIV can destroy so many of your CD4 cells that your body can't fight infections and diseases anymore. When that happens, HIV infection can lead to AIDS.

Signs and symptoms of Tuberculosis(TB)


 

About 5–10% of those without HIV, infected with tuberculosis, develop active disease during their lifetimes. In contrast, 30% of those coinfected with HIV develop active disease. Tuberculosis may infect any part of the body, but most commonly occurs in the lungs (known as pulmonary tuberculosis).Extrapulmonary TB occurs when tuberculosis develops outside of the lungs. Extrapulmonary TB may coexist with pulmonary TB as well.General signs and symptoms include fever, chills, night sweats, loss of appetite, weight loss, and fatigue, and significant finger clubbing may also occur.