The Health Blog

Reuters - More than 100 students and teachers from a school in Bangladesh have been admitted to hospital after suffering convulsions, police said on Saturday.

The cause of their sudden illness was being investigated.

The victims fell ill at Adiabad School and College near Narshingdi district town, 55 km (34 miles) northeast of the capital Dhaka, a police inspector said.

Twenty-three people died in Bangladesh in 2004 from a mysterious disease later diagnosed as an encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain caused by a viral infection. Dozens more were infected with the disease, which some had feared was bird flu.

Home care can help open the sinuses and alleviate their dryness.

• Promote drainage
1. Drink plenty of water and hydrating beverages. Hot tea is often recommended.
2. Inhale steam two to four times per day by leaning over a bowl of boiling hot water (not while the water is on the stove) or using a steam vaporizer with a towel over the head and bowl to prevent the escape of the steam. Inhale the steam for about 10 minutes. Taking a hot, steamy shower may also work. Mentholated preparations, such as Vicks Vapo–Rub, can be added to the water or vaporizer to aid in opening the passageways.

Recently there have been a scare about the possible transmission of an extremely resistant strain of tuberculosis to fellow flight passengers of a known patient with this disease. The whole world was scared about the news, should we be scared, too? Medical News Today answers all your questions about this disease:

1. How can an ordinary TB transformed into XDR-TB?

TB can usually be treated with a course of four standard, or first-line, anti-TB drugs. If these are misused or mismanaged, multidrugresistant TB (MDR-TB) can develop. MDR-TB takes longer to treat with second-line drugs, which are more expensive and have more side-effects. If these drugs are also misused or mismanaged, extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) can develop. Because XDR-TB is resistant to first- and second-line drugs, treatment options are seriously limited and so are the chances of cure.

May 29, 2007 — The CDC today announced that a U.S. traveler may have put his fellow fliers at risk for a potentially deadly form of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

The traveler, an unnamed man from Atlanta, has extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB), which is rare but can cause serious illness and death.

XDR TB is an infectious disease spread from person to person through the air. But unlike most tuberculosis cases, XDR TB resists the first and second preferred drug treatments.

While XDR TB is rare, it can cause severe illness and death and is an emerging problem worldwide, CDC director Julie Gerberding, MD, MPH, told reporters in a news conference.

In light of the man’s condition, the CDC issued its first federal quarantine order since 1963 for the patient. He is under medical isolation in Atlanta and will remain quarantined until public health officials deem him no longer a public health threat.

The CDC is also encouraging other passengers on the man’s flights to get tested for tuberculosis.
Patient’s Flights

Infection with the avian flu virus, popularly known as the “bird flu” virus has raised major concerns in health sectors because of its increasing incidence, especially in most Asian countries.

Humans who contract bird flu (H5N1) experience typical flu-like symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, eye infections, pneumonia, and severe respiratory distress.

The course of the disease is very aggressive and quickly progressive. Statistics say that half of the patients who contracted bird flu from direct contact with infected birds in Asian countries have died.

Seeing these symptoms promptly is very important for correct and early management of this disease. Prompt medical treatment is of utmost important. In some cases, medical facilities are not within the reach of the patient. While waiting for a medical treatment, you can do these recommended self-care techniques to relieve viral flu symptoms:

A study published in the New England Journal found out that the same virus that causes cervical cancer, which is the human papillomavirus or HPV, increases the risk of throat cancer for both men and women engaging in oral sex.

The study involved 100 patients with throat cancer and 200 without it, found that those infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) were 32 times as likely to develop one form of oral cancer than those free of the virus. This makes it clear that oral HPV infection is a risk factor for throat cancer. The research suggests that unprotected oral sex is a major reason people are contracting throat cancer — not just smoking and excessive alcohol consumption, as previously believed.

The development of HPV Vaccine is one of revolutionary contributions to cervical cancer treatment. HPV or Human papillomavirus is considered the causative agent for cervical cancer.

The FDA or Food and Drug Administration recently licensed the vaccine Gardasil® which is said to protect against four HPV types, which together cause 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts.

Who should get the vaccine?
The HPV vaccine is recommended for 11-12 year-old girls, and can be given to girls as young as 9. The vaccine is also recommended for 13-26 year-old girls/women who have not yet received or completed the vaccine series.

LONDON - In an “extraordinary development” in the fight against AIDS, a medical journal article published Friday says that conclusive data shows there is no question circumcision reduces men’s chances of catching HIV by up to 60 percent.

The question now is how to put that fact to work to combat AIDS across Africa.

The findings were first announced in December, when initial results from two major trials — in Kenya and Uganda — showed promising links between circumcision and HIV transmission. However, those trials were deemed so definitive that the tests were halted early.

The full data from the trials, carried out by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, were published Friday in The Lancet.

With the aid of new technology on research, some of the New York University scientists found new species of microbes in human skin. They swabbed the forearms of six healthy subjects, three men and three women.

Genetic analyses of the samples revealed a total of 182 species of bacteria, some of which have never been described by scientists. The samples include the normal flora of the skin, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus and other bacterial species. Amazingly, nearly three-fourths of the total microbial species were unique to individual subjects, and only four of the species dwelled on all subjects. The researchers suggests that the sex-specific findings may show that each human being provides a unique habitat for the microbes. Further, it may sugge skin attributes such as acidity might differ between men and women and lead to sex-specific bacterial residents.

Do you suffer from recurring vaginal or male yeast infection? below is a home remedy or yeast infection treatment for men and women.

But first, what causes yeast infection? It is caused by a fungus named Candida Albicans. Yeast is a tiny organism that lives in small numbers on the skin and in the vagina. When the acidic balance in the vagina is lowered, the yeast grows and causes a vaginal infection.

Yeast infection symptoms are not serious but are very unpleasant. They include a thick white discharge from the vagina. Burning during urination, vaginal itching, irritation, redness and swelling. Irritation, soreness and white spots on the penis.

One of the main causes of recurring yeast infection is sexual activity. If a woman with yeast infection has unprotected sex, her partner can contract the infection. Since alot of men do not even know they are infected as they do not show any visible symptoms right away. The woman can treat her infection only to contract it again from her partner. Thus the recurring yeast infection can go on until the male notices symptoms.

Tuberculosis, otherwise known as “TB”, is said to be one of the oldest diseases known to affect humans. The disease is more prevalent in developing countries (most areas in Asia and Africa). Here are some of the important things you need to know about tuberculosis:

1. The diseases is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a species of bacteria which is highly pathogenic to humans.

2. M. tuberculosis is most commonly transmitted from a patient with infectious pulmonary tuberculosis to other persons by droplet nuclei, which are aerosolized by coughing, sneezing or speaking. The tiny droplets dry rapidly; the smallest (<5 to 10 μm in diameter) may remain suspended in the air for several hours and may gain direct access to the terminal air passages when inhaled.