June 6th, 2009 (Saturday) (continued)
A disease is any abnormal condition of the body or mind that causes discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to the person affected or those in contact with the person. Sometimes the term is used broadly to include injuries, disabilities, syndromes, symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts these may be considered distinguishable categories. Pathology is the study of diseases, the subject of systematic classification of diseases is referred to as nosology, and the broader body of knowledge about diseases and their treatments is medicine. Medical usage sometimes distinguishes a disease, which has a known specific cause or causes (its etiology), from a syndrome, which is a collection of signs or symptoms that occur together without an identifiable cause. However, many conditions have been identified, yet continue to be referred to as "syndromes" (ex.: Down's Syndrome), and numerous conditions of unknown etiology are referred to as "diseases" in many contexts.
For the purposes of this article, a disease is any discomfort, dysfunction, or distress to a person caused by infection by a bacterial or viral agent.
Bacteria are prokaryotic (nucleus-lacking) microscopic organisms, usually but not always unicellular, that are ubiquitous in soil, water, and as symbionts of other organisms. The first bacteria were observed by Antony van Leeuwenhoek in 1683 using a single-lens microscope of his own design. The name bacterium was introduced much later, by German scientist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg in 1828, derived from the Greek word βακτήÏιον (baktÄ“rion) ("small stick"). Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and Robert Koch (1843-1910) described the role of bacteria as pathogens (conveyors and causes of disease).
A virus is a small particle which can infect other biological organisms. Viruses are capable of reproduction only by invading and taking over other cells, as they lack the cellular machinery for self reproduction. The term virus usually refers specifically to those particles which infect eukaryotes (multi-celled organisms and many single-celled organisms), whereas the term bacteriophage (or phage) is used to describe those infecting prokaryotes (such as bacteria). The word comes from the Latin virus, referring to poison and other noxious things.
Antibiotics are used to fight bacterial infections; the first effective antibiotic substance is penicillin, discovered by French physician Ernest Duchesne in 1896; Alexander Fleming later accidentally discovered penicillin's antibacterial properties in 1928. (In 1888, German scientist E. de Freudenreich isolated pyocyanase, which retarded the growth of or killed several types of bacteria, but was itself highly unstable and toxic to most all life and so was not an effective antibiotic.) The first viral vaccine was developed by Edward Jenner in 1796, by using cowpox fluid as an inoculation against smallpox -- the subject's own immune system was able to fight off the comparatively weaker cowpox, and the antibodies created in the host's body proved effective against smallpox, which is molecularly similar to cowpox (the word vaccination comes from the Latin word for "cow," vaca).
Anthrax
Anthrax is a bacterial disease that most commonly occurs in wild and domestic herbivores, though it can also occur in humans when they are exposed to infected animals, tissue from infected animals, or high concentrations of anthrax spores. Anthrax mans “coal†in Greek, used because victims develop black skin lesions where the spores contact their skin. Other symptoms include gastrointestinal difficulty, vomiting of blood, and severe diarrhea, coupled with cold or flu-like symptoms and severe respiratory problems. Anthrax is generally not contagious from person to person. It was the first bacterium ever to be shown to cause disease, by Robert Koch in 1877.
Bubonic Plague
Bubonic Plague is a terrible and nearly always fatal bacterial disease spread by fleas. The most prominent symptom is a swelling in the lymph nodes, especially around the groin and armpits, sometimes into the size of oranges. These rounded swellings -- buboes -- often oozed pus or blood. Bubonic plague can progress to septicemic plague, leading to additional bleeding of the organs and under the skin lead to dark blotches covering the victim. Victims also experience chills, delirium, fever, and headaches. Bubonic plague is believed to be the main culprit of the Black Death that spread through Europe in the mid-14th century, a devastating epidemic that killed approximately one-third of the population of Europe. Plague is almost 100% fatal is left untreated, but fortunately modern antibiotics can reduce the mortality rate to around 15%.
Hantavirus
Hantavirus is a virus spread by rodents (carried in their saliva, urine and feces) that causes the disease known as Korean hemorrhagic fever or hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). Hantavirus targets the kidneys, lungs, pulmonary system and heart; symptoms include hemorrhagic (bleeding) fever, renal failure, hypotension (abnormally low blood pressure), chills, and shock. The Hantavirus name is derived from the Hantaan River of Korea, where the virus was first isolated. Hantaviruses are a relatively newly discovered class of virus, first recognized by Western medicine during the Korean War (1950-1953).
Hate Plague
This is a variant of the rabies virus (Lyssavirus genus), inducing and exacerbating hatred and destructive impulses in anyone it infects. The contagion is also highly infectious, spread by any fluid transmission, and the infected tend to bite and drool a lot. Eerily, the infected's eyes glow red, due to spiked blood pressure making blood vessels in the eye burst and the virus causing blood cells to create a bioluminescent byproduct.
Influenza
Influenza (or, more commonly, the flu or the grippe) is a highly contagious viral infection that attacks the upper respiratory system. It is primarily transmitted from person to person via saliva droplets expelled while coughing. Symptoms include chills and fever, headache, muscular aches, weakness and confusion, dry or sore throat, cough, and runny nose. Major genetic changes in the virus have caused three influenza pandemics in the 20th century, killing many millions of people. Most people who get influenza will recover in one to two weeks, but others will develop life-threatening complications, such as pneumonia or bronchitis. An average of about 36,000 people per year in the United States die from influenza, and 114,000 per year are admitted to a hospital as a result of influenza. People age 65 years and older, people of any age with chronic medical conditions, and very young children are more likely to get complications from influenza. The flu can make chronic health problems worse. For example, people with asthma may experience asthma attacks while they have the flu, and people with chronic congestive heart failure may have worsening of this condition that is triggered by the flu. It is possible to get vaccinated against influenza, however, due to the high mutability of the virus a particular flu vaccine formulation usually only works for about a year. Studies have shown that Sambucol, a trademarked extract of elderberry, may aid in curing influenza once it has been contracted, though it has no notable preventative effect. The name comes from the old medical belief in unfavorable astrological influences as the cause of the disease.
Leprosy
Leprosy, now known as Hansen's disease (in honor of the discoverer of the bacillus that causes it), can take up to nearly two years to incubate. When it finally manifests, the victim‘s features coarsen, their voice becomes hoarse, and pale spots appear on the skin. These spots gradually turn into red raised nodules which are insensitive to cold, touch or pain. The victim eventually loses feeling in his extremities, and muscles weaken until total paralysis sets in. Blindness sometimes occurs. Contrary to popular belief, Hansen's disease does not cause rotting of the flesh; however, due to nerve damage, extremities may become numb which may lead to minor infected wounds being unnoticed until damage is permanent. It can take upwards of 20 years for a person to die from leprosy. It is caused by a bacillus which multiplies very slowly and mainly affects the skin, nerves, and mucous membranes. It is related to the bacillus that causes tuberculosis. The mode of transmission of Hansen's disease remains uncertain. Most investigators think it is usually spread from person to person in respiratory droplets. What is known is that the transmission rate is very low, and it appears that a majority of the population is naturally immune. Leprosy is curable with modern antibiotics. Only two creatures are known to be susceptible to leprosy: humans and armadillos.
Malaria
Malaria (formerly called ague or marsh fever) is a disease spread by mosquitoes which causes around 2 million deaths annually. It manifests as arthralgia (joint pain), a high fever which comes in waves every three or four days, shivering, convulsions, severe headaches, and profuse perspiration; complications include coma and death. Malaria is caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium. Infected female Anopheles mosquitoes carry Plasmodium sporozoites in their salivary glands. When they bite a person, the protozoa enter the person's body via the mosquito's saliva and migrate to the liver, where they multiply within hepatic liver cells. They then enter red blood cells, where they multiply further, periodically breaking out of the red blood cells. The classical description of waves of fever coming every three or four days arises from simultaneous waves of the protozoa breaking out of red blood cells during the same day. The parasite is relatively protected from attack by the body's immune system because it stays inside liver and blood cells, but circulating infected blood cells are killed in the spleen. To avoid this fate, the parasite produces certain surface proteins which infected blood cells express on their cell surface, causing the blood cells to stick to the walls of blood vessels. These surface proteins are highly variable and cannot serve as a reliable target for the immune system. The stickiness of the red blood cells is the main factor giving rise to hemorrhagic complications of malaria. Some of the protozoa turn into male and female gametocytes. If a mosquito bites the infected person and picks up gametocytes with the blood, fertilization occurs in the mosquito's gut, and new sporozoites develop and travel to the mosquito's salivary gland, completing the cycle. Pregnant women are especially attractive to the mosquitoes, and malaria in pregnant women is an important cause of still births and infant mortality. If diagnosed early, malaria can be treated, but prevention is always much better, and substances that inhibit the parasite are widely used by visitors to the tropics. Since the 17th century, quinine (an extract of the bark of the South American Cinchona tree, and a flavor component of tonic water) has been the prophylactic of choice for malaria, though the development of quinacrine, chloroquine, and primaquine in the 20th century has reduced the reliance on quinine. These anti-malarial medications can be taken preventively, which is recommended for travelers to affected regions. Carriers of the sickle cell anemia gene are protected against malaria because of their particular hemoglobin mutation. The protozoan cause of malaria was discovered by a French army doctor, Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 1907.
Necrotizing fasciitis
Necrotizing fasciitis (neck-row-tize-ing fash-e-i-tis) is a serious but rare infection of the deeper layers of skin and subcutaneous tissues (fascia). While many types of bacteria can cause necrotizing fasciitis, most cases result from streptococcal gangrene. The infection occasionally starts with a sore throat, but more often begins locally, at a site of trauma. The affected skin is very painful, red, hot and swollen. Skin color may progress to a dark purple and bloody blisters may form with subsequent necrosis (death) of subcutaneous tissues; patients also typically have a fever and appear very ill. More severe cases progress within hours, and the death rate is high. Early medical treatment (often including intravenous antibiotics) is critical. If necrotizing fasciitis is suspected, surgical exploration is always necessary, often resulting in aggressive debridement (removal of infected tissue); limb amputation may be necessary. This disease is one of the fastest spreading infections known, and tissue may be consumed at a rate of three centimeters per hour. For this reason, it is popularly called "flesh-eating disease" and, although rare, became well-known to the public in the 1990s. Even under the best care available today, necrotizing fasciitis has a mortality rate of around 20%; mortality is nearly 100% if not properly treated, and so correct diagnosis and early treatment of this disease is of paramount importance.
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is a term for most any infection involving the alveoli of the lungs; "pneumonia" is the Greek word for "lungs." It occurs in patients of all age groups, but young children and the elderly are especially at risk, as are people with compromised immune systems. Common symptoms include painful cough with green or yellow mucus, fever with shaking chills, sharp or stabbing chest pains which are worsened with deep breaths or coughs, rapid and shallow breathing, and fever of 103°F (39.5°C) and higher. Rarer symptoms include bloody mucus, migraine headache, excessive sweating and clammy skin, loss of appetite, excessive fatigue, and cyanosis (bluish coloration of the skin due to the presence of deoxygenated blood in vessels near the skin surface). Pneumonia can progress to sepsis ("blood poisoning" and deteriorated renal functioning) and acute respiratory distress syndrome if untreated; these are the main causes of death in patients with untreated pneumonia.
Salmonellosis
Salmonellosis is an infection with Salmonella bacteria, the most common contaminant of improperly prepared/stored poultry and eggs (though it can be found in any food contaminated with animal feces). Most persons infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most persons recover without treatment.
Smallpox
Smallpox is a highly contagious viral disease unique to humans. Many survivors are left blind in one or both eyes from corneal ulceration, and persistent skin scarring (pockmarks) is nearly universal. Smallpox was responsible for an estimated 300-500 million deaths in the 20th century. After successful vaccination campaigns, the World Health Organization declared the eradication of smallpox in 1979, though cultures of the virus are kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States and at the Institute of Virus Preparation in Siberia, Russia. Smallpox vaccination was discontinued in most countries in the 1970s, as the risks of vaccination include serious side effects, including death. Smallpox is one of the oldest-known diseases -- the first suspected smallpox epidemic was during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.E.) between Athens and Sparta, and it is described in the Ayurveda, a comprehensive system of medicine based on a holistic approach rooted in Vedic culture dating back 2,000 years. Initial symptoms are essentially similar to other viral diseases such as influenza and the common cold -- fever, muscle pain and stomach aches. The digestive tract is commonly involved, leading to vomiting. Smallpox virus preferentially attacks skin cells, causing the characteristic pus-filled “pimples†(pustules) associated with the disease, erupting first in the mouth, then the arms and the hands, and later the rest of the body. If the patient successfully fights off the infection, the pustules deflate and dry up, then flake off. If the patient cannot fight off the infection, bleeding will occur under the skin, making the skin look charred and black (this is known as black pox). Soon afterwards, bleeding begins in the organs, and death may occur from bleeding or from loss of fluid and entry of other infectious organisms, since the skin and intestine are no longer an effective barrier.
The Strain
The Strain is the name given to a virus (actually a viroid, something even more primitive than a virus) on a parallel world I discovered while testing my Pandimensional Scanner. It was released by Klash, a terrorist from approximately 2,000 years in the future of that world. It originally existed in two forms, Strain-1 and Strain-2, but later mutated into a third form, Strain-3; all were airborne agents.
Strain-1 and Strain-2 searched for the "x-factor" -- the sequence of mutant genes that gave a Metahuman their powers -- in a target. If it did not find an activated "x-factor" in the target, the viroid would die off, leaving the person completely unaffected. If, however, it did find the "x-factor" it would begin inserting introns (junk DNA sequences) into the transcription codings of the victim's m-RNA. The purpose was to so thoroughly mess up replication and transcription that end result would be that the victim would die when their body could no longer create healthy cells. Strain-1 attacked general transcription and replication of all cells, a messy and non-selective process that resulted in something akin to a fast-replicating cancer. Strain-2, however, was much closer to Klash's original template and more in tune to his desire to stir a species war between humans and Metahumans. Its attacks were selective, working only on the x-factor genes. The net result was that a victim would eventually lose control of their superhuman powers, in addition to developing (at a far slower rate) the skin lesions, fever, cough, and overall weakness characteristic of Strain-1.
Strain-3 was a complete fluke, accidentally created in the body of the Metahuman woman known as Contaminatia. Her powers allowed her to scan and visualize the genetic structure of a living being, and then alter it according to her own whims; she was essentially a walking genetics laboratory. Contaminatia had herself been infected with the Strain, which her own powers tried to stave off. In doing so, they caused a replication error in the Strain-2 viroid that was killing her. The pre-coded conditioning which Strain-1 and -2 both had -- to search for an x-gene and, if none was found, not to infect -- was striped from the viroid. When her containment suit was opened (an act of compassion by a former foe-turned-friend, the Metahuman geneticist Critter; she had wanted one final look at the night sky), this new "free agent" strain was inadvertently released, which was capable of infecting any living being that fit within the parameters of its general original template (i.e. hominids only, not canines or felines or so on). One of that world's top geneticists was the first non-Metahuman human to be infected with Strain-3 (though the fact she had some decades prior given birth to a Metahuman may have altered herself enough to make her more susceptible).
She passed on the data she'd gathered to Critter, and he was able to devise a cure, though one that had a price. In order for the cure to be activated, it had to be injected into a healthy Metahuman, which would then cause their powers to overload and kill them, but in so doing release the "activated" cure into the atmosphere. The steel-skinned Koloss ("Colossus"), not wanting to see anyone else suffer as his sister Volshebstvo ("Magic") had, sacrificed himself for the cure, and within 24 hours all victims of the Strain (all variants) were miraculously and fully cured.
Tetanus
Tetanus is a serious and often fatal disease caused by a toxin secreted by an anaerobic bacteria. This bacteria can be found in soil and in the intestines and feces or numerous farm animals (horses, sheep, cattle, rats, dogs, cats, guinea pigs and chickens); spores of the bacterium have also been found in heroin. Tetanus was first documented by Hippocrates, and records dating back to the 5th century B.C.E. provide numerous clinical observations of the disease. However, the etiology (cause) of the disease was not discovered until 1884 by Carle and Rattone. Tetanus is contracted through open wounds, commonly caused by sharp objects in the ground such as rusty nails. However, it is not the rust that is the problem, but rather that the nail has been exposed to the environment for a long time (which caused the rust) and accumulating some of the tetanus bacteria from the soil. The first sign of tetanus is trismus ("lockjaw," a condition in which the mouth is locked shut by contractions of the jaw muscles), followed by stiffness of the neck and back, risus sardonicus (a painfully grinning face caused by facial muscle spasm), difficulty swallowing, and muscle rigidity in the abdomen. The stiffness and spasming of muscles eventually expands throughout the body. Typical signs of tetanus include an increase in body temperature by 3-7 F° (2-4 C°), diaphoresis (excessive sweating), an elevated blood pressure, and an episodic rapid heart rate. Complications of the disease include spasms of the larynx (vocal cords), accessory muscles (chest muscles used to aid in breathing), and the diaphragm (the primary breathing muscle); fractures of long bones secondary to violent muscle spasms; and hyperactivity of the autonomic nervous system. Spasms and muscle contraction last for 3-4 weeks, and complete recovery may take months. There are on average 150 cases annually in the USA, and about 30% of tetanus victims (mostly elderly patients) die; in developing countries, the mortality rate may be as high as 60%.
Typhoid Fever
Typhoid Fever is a bacterial disease spread through food or water contaminated with feces. It is marked by high fever, lack of appetite, diarrhea, stomach pains, headache, cough, exhaustion, delusion, confusion, and a rash of flat, rose-colored spots. Antibiotics are commonly used in treating Typhoid Fever. A person may become an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, suffering no symptoms, but capable of infecting others. In 1907, Mary Mallon (who came to be known as "Typhoid Mary") became the first American carrier to be identified and traced. According to the Centers for Disease Control. Approximately 5% of people who contract typhoid continue to carry the disease after they recover. When untreated, typhoid fever persists for three weeks to a month. Death occurs in between 10% and 30% of untreated cases. Vaccines for typhoid fever are available and are advised for persons traveling in regions where the disease is common.
West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus is a newly emergent virus, found in both tropical and temperate regions. It mainly infects birds, but is also the cause of a number of conditions in humans, horses, and some other mammals. It is transmitted by bites of infected mosquitoes. In most people (80%), infection causes no symptoms. In others, the virus causes mild flu-like symptoms (fever, nausea, muscle stiffness, etc.) known as West Nile fever. The virus is able to pass the blood-brain barrier, and the most serious effects (in 0.7% of the infected) are encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and meningitis (inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord), both of which can be fatal. In rare cases (first reported October 2002), patients develop sudden-onset paralysis.
