Influenza

What is influenza (flu)?

Influenza (flu) is a viral infection. People often use the term "flu" to describe any kind of mild illness, such as a cold or a stomach virus, that has symptoms like the flu. But the real flu is different. Flu symptoms are usually worse than a cold and last longer. The flu usually does not cause vomiting or diarrhea.

Most flu outbreaks happen in late fall and winter.
What causes the flu?

The flu is caused by influenza viruses A and B. There are different strains, or types, of the flu virus every year.
What are the symptoms?

The flu causes a fever, body aches, a headache, a dry cough, and a sore or dry throat. You will probably feel tired and less hungry than usual. The symptoms usually are the worst for the first 3 or 4 days. But it can take 1 to 2 weeks to get completely better.

It usually takes 1 to 4 days to get symptoms of the flu after you have been around someone who has the virus.

Most people get better without problems. But sometimes the flu can lead to a bacterial infection, such as an ear infection, a sinus infection, or bronchitis. In rare cases, the flu may cause a more serious problem, such as pneumonia.

Certain people are at higher risk of problems from the flu. They include young children, pregnant women, older adults, and people with long-term illnesses or with impaired immune systems that make it hard to fight infection.
How is the flu diagnosed?

Your doctor will ask you about your symptoms and examine you. This usually gives the doctor enough information to find out if you have the flu, especially if many cases of a similar illness have occurred in the area and the local health department reports a flu outbreak.

In some cases, the doctor may do a blood test or take a sample of fluid from your nose or throat to find out what type of flu virus you have.
How is it treated?

Most people can treat flu symptoms at home. Home treatment includes resting, drinking plenty of fluids, and taking medicine to lower your fever.

If you think you have the flu, your doctor may be able to give you medicine that can make the symptoms milder. But you need to start taking it within 2 days of your first symptoms.
Can the flu be prevented?

You can help prevent the flu by getting the flu vaccine every year. The best time to get the vaccine is in October or November, just before the start of flu season. You can get the vaccine as a shot or in a spray that you breathe in through your nose.

Almost anyone over 6 months old can have the flu vaccine. The vaccine is especially important for people who are at higher risk of problems from the flu, including:1

* Children 6 months through 4 years of age.
* Adults ages 50 and older.
* Adults and children who have long-term health problems or an impaired immune system.
* Women who will be pregnant during the flu season.

The flu vaccine is also recommended for health care workers and anyone who lives or works with a person who is at higher risk of problems from the flu. Your doctor can help you decide if the flu vaccine is a good choice for you.

The vaccine usually prevents most cases of the flu. But even if you do get the flu after you've had the vaccine, your symptoms will be milder and you'll have less chance of problems from the flu. You cannot get the flu from the flu vaccine.

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What is Hepatitis?

Hepatitis means inflammation (itis) of the liver (hepar), an irritation or swelling of the liver cells. There are many causes of hepatitis which include viral infections A, B and C that most of us have heard of, but also the disease also includes auto-immune hepatitis, fatty liver hepatitis, alcoholic hepatitis and toxin induced hepatitis. Globally, it is estimated that around 250 million people are affected by hepatitis C. Moreover, an estimated 400 million people are chronic carriers of hepatitis B.

How Big is the Hepatitis Problem?
Hepatitis is an enormous health issue; so extensive in fact that there is a good chance you associate with at least one or more people with hepatitis. There is an equally high chance that you know nothing about them because with hepatitis comes a stigma. Often people with hepatitis find it easier to get on with their life by not informing others. This is mainly due to the difficulties they can experience due to the ignorance of others. The problem may however be compounded by the fact that some forms of hepatitis are infectious. However, people who know they have infectious hepatitis need only take a few basic precautions to avoid passing the infection around.

The Liver.
Hepatitis affects the liver. The liver is a wedge shaped organ located on the upper right side of the body, lying beneath the rib cage. The largest organ it makes up 2 to 3 per cent of the body’s total weight. Unlike the heart or stomach, the liver has no one function. Doctors specialising in the liver, hepatologists, believe that it has over 140 functions. These include producing bile needed for digestion, storing minerals and vitamins, assisting in blood clotting (vitamin K), neutralising poisons, producing amino acids to build healthy muscles, regulating energy, maintaining hormonal balance, processing drugs. When someone gets hepatitis the function of the liver is compromised and the functions of it can be affected to varying degrees.

The History of Hepatitis
Hepatitis was believed to exist in viral form from ancient times. It is known that a disease existed that affected the liver and caused yellowing of the skin (jaundice). Between the 1800s and early 1900s, 2 types were identified as either serum type or viral type. In 1963 there was a major breakthrough which identified the cause of serum hepatitis and named the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Ten years later the cause of infectious hepatitis was found and named the Hepatitis A virus (HAV), and although scientists knew other viruses existed it was not until 1989 that the hepatitis C virus (HCV) was isolated.

Although the hepatitis delta virus (HDV) was known about since the mid 1970s, it was only in the late 1980s -1990s that it was understood to exist only in the presence of hepatitis B. In 1990, hepatitis E virus (HEV) and in 1995, Hepatitis G virus (HGV), were identified. Other viruses, hepatitis F virus (HFV) and transfusion transmission virus (TTV) are thought to exist, but are not as yet proven.

Viral Hepatitis
Each type of viral hepatitis is different. They have different characteristics and are known by alphabetical names - hepatitis A through to E. Four other types exist F, G, TTV (Transfusion Transmitted Virus) and S.E.N-V (these are the initials of the person in which this form of the virus was first identified - V standing for virus). Behavioral precautions and treatment depends on the type of hepatitis.

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What is Herpes?

Herpes is a virus that can spread from person to person through skin-to-skin contact. It can appear on many different areas of the body and is typically marked by an eruption of a cluster of blisters, although some people show very mild or no symptoms at all.

How many herpes viruses are there?

There are many different "herpes" viruses. Human members of this group of viruses include

1. Herpes simplex virus types 1 and 2 (responsible for cold sores and genital herpes)
2. Varicella- zoster virus
3. Epstein- Barr virus
4. Human cytomegalovirus,
5. And, the recently discovered Human herpes virus

The herpes viruses are also widespread throughout the animal kingdom involving simians, cattle, cats, chicken, etc. Of these, only herpes virus simiae is harmful to man.

Conditions caused by the herpes virus group include:

* Cold sores (Herpes simplex virus)
* Genital herpes (Herpes simplex virus)
* Herpes Whitlow (Herpes simplex virus)
* Chickenpox (Varicella- zoster virus)
* Shingles (Varicella- zoster virus)
* Glandular fever or Infectious mononucleosis (Epstein- Barr virus)
* Cytomegalovirus infections (Human cytomegalovirus)
* Roseola or Exanthem subitum (Human Herpes virus Type 6)
* B virus infection (Herpesvirus simiae)

The History of Herpes

Where did it come from?

The herpes virus has been around for a very long time, documented by the ancient Greeks as sores that seemed to 'creep' over the surface of the skin. In fact, the term "herpes" is derived from the Greek word meaning "to creep".

It is also evident that two thousand years ago, Roman Emperor Tiberius attempted to curb an epidemic of herpes labialis (mouth herpes) by outlawing kissing during public ceremonies and rituals.

The term herpes simplex was introduced in 1906 and included herpes labialis (cold sores) and herpes progenitalis (genital herpes) in the belief that both disorders were the same disease affecting different anatomic sites. Vidal (1873) first demonstrated herpes simplex to be infections caused by human inoculation.

The origin of herpes in human history is unknown. HSV-1 has probably been around as long as anyone could diagnose the distinctive fever blisters.

Studies of the elderly in Europe and the United States have shown that 90% have been exposed to the virus. The spread of HSV-1 has declined with the understanding that the herpetic sores shed the virus and that these can be spread with just a kiss. HSV-2 is primarily passed on by sexual contact between humans.

Herpetic whitlow is a herpes infection in the fingers which occurred in dental personnel before the era of mandatory glove use. Like herpetic lesions elsewhere on the body, the herpes outbreaks are often painful and at times disabling.

The herpes virus is related to viruses that cause chicken pox, shingles, infectious mononucleosis and Epstein-Barr. The Epstein-Barr Virus was discovered in 1964 by M. Anthony Epstein and co-workers in Burkitt's lymphoma cells.

However, it wasn't until 1968 that Gertrude and Werner Henle discovered it was actually a herpes virus and, after one of their lab technicians came down with mononucleosis, discovered its link with the herpes simplex virus.

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Can a Sleep Disorder Predict Parkinson's?

Calming the tremors of Parkinson disease remains a challenge for both patients and doctors alike, but new research suggests that future therapies for the condition may emerge from an unlikely place: people's sleep habits.

Scientists at Sacre Coeur Hospital at the University of Montreal report in the journal Neurology that Parkinson can be predicted relatively accurately up to 12 years before the first muscle tremors appear. People diagnosed with an unusual sleep condition called REM sleep disorder, in which they physically act out their dreams by kicking, screaming and even harming themselves and others lying next to them, are 18% more likely to develop a neurodegenerative disease like dementia or Parkinson within five years of their diagnosis, and 52% more likely after 12 years. "We have been aware of the potential connection between REM sleep disorder and these diseases for some time, but this is the largest and longest study to estimate the true risk of getting Parkinson and other neurodegenerative diseases if someone has the sleep disorder," says Dr. Ron Postuma, the study's author and a neurologist at Montreal General Hospital. (See the Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2008.)

The trial involved nearly 100 men and women with an average age of 65, all diagnosed with REM sleep disorder. During normal sleep, our muscles become paralyzed when we enter the REM, or dream state, which explains why inside our dreams, we occasionally feel as if we can't move or are operating in slow motion. People with REM sleep disorder, however, never achieve this muscle relaxation, and researchers now believe that this could be the first signs of Parkinson. The latest thinking on the disease holds that the uncontrolled movements that are the hallmark of Parkinson are only the latest, and most advanced signs of the disease, the final stage of a 10 or 20 year gradual decline in nerve function. In fact, experts believe that the condition actually begins with a loss of smell, with degeneration of nerves in the olfactory tract, then proceeds to the gut and brain stem. At some point along this march, the nerve damage hits the pons, a region in the brain that regulates sleep. "So in Parkinson, there is a period, that we don't know how long it lasts, in which the neurons are dying in the brain, just not in the motor areas," says Postuma. "And sleep is an area where this degeneration occurs, indicating that the process of Parkinson has started."

Postuma stresses that REM sleep disorder is a rare condition not to be confused with the tossing and turning that most of us do every night. People with the condition have vivid movements nearly every night, and unlike those who sleep walk or sleep talk and remain confused for a bit after they awake, these patients are completely alert and oriented once they wake up.

REM sleep disorder itself can be treated with medications, but those drugs still won't slow the decline in nerve function that's responsible for Parkinson. But identifying Parkinson at this earlier stage may help scientists to come up with newer ways of protecting the motor neurons from further damage. "We don't have agents now to stop the degeneration of Parkinson," says Postuma. "But once we have those agents, as far as I'm concerned, every patient with REM sleep disorder should be taking it."

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