Hansen’s Disease also known as Leprosy dates back to at least 4000b.c. Evidence of the disease’s presents in ancient times was found on an Egyptian papyrus dating from around 1500bc. These earlier cultures believed it was a curse or punishment from the gods. During the middle ages, the afflicted wore special clothing and rang bells to alert the uninfected of their presence. The first known origin of this disease is Egypt from here Roman Crusaders contracted the disease and brought it back to Europe and from Europe to America.
There are factors that can put people at risk for contracting this disease, for example, exposure to endemic areas such as India, Egypt, Brazil, and Angola. Although this disease is communicable, it is not highly contagious. Constant contact with the untreated may result in transmission of the disease through inhaled respiratory secretion or droplets entering an abrasion on the skin. However, droplets cannot infect the intact skin. Individuals living with the untreated are 8X more likely to develop the disease. Another risk factor may be the improper handling of wild life without safety gloves. Certain primates and 9-Banned armadillos are possible carriers of this disease, making animal to human transmission a probability. Furthermore, Mycobacterium leprae can survive in moist soil for one to two weeks.
Mycobacterium leprae appears in the cooler parts of the body like the eyes, earlobes, nose, fingers and toes, as large painless ulcerations, skin nodules and lesions causing, progressive disfigurement and facial deformity. Eye damage occurs due to dryness and reduced blinking. Early diagnosis can prevent nerve and tissue damage. If left untreated it can result in complications and disability. Numbness an...
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... this is a more progressed form than paucibacillary the treatment time is extended to twenty-four months. Any damage prior to treatment is irreversible.
A possible vaccine is Bacille-Calmette-Guerin (BCG) it is used primarily to provide immunity against Tuberculosis. The level of protection that BCG provides against the pathogen can vary from no effect to 80% effective this depends on exposure and strain of Leprosy.
Although leprosy has not yet been eradicated, prevalence of the disease has greatly diminished since 1985 the number has reduced more than 90%, and it has an incident rate of >1 case per 10,000 in endemic countries. And reports of infection worldwide of 250,000 people per/year with a mortality rate of seven people per 100,000. Surprisingly, 150-250 reported cases per/years are in the U.S. in states such as, California, Florida, Hawaii and Louisiana.
Crosby, in his chapter regarding syphilis, addresses the controversy surrounding its origins. One theory that Crosby seems to point out is the notion that syphilis may have existed in pre-Columbian Europe. A piece of evidence that Crosby makes mention of is how “neither syphilis nor anything resembling it is mentioned at all in the documentation of the Columbian voyages written prior to the first epidemic of the pox in Europe.” (Crosby 137) This would seem to suggest that the disease had a somewhat presence in Europe, but Crosby refutes the claim, asserting that undocumented information is not a good enough reason to support this theory. One major theory that Crosby describes is the Unitarian theory, or the theory that syphilis evolved over time. The argumentation for this theory is heavily present in Crosby’s book, as he notes how the disease evolved and spread through the armies of Charles VII of France. Because syphilis is a highly transitive disease through sexual intercourse, the fact that many of Charles’s soldiers, following many battles, “engaged in the usual practice of rape and sack” around the mid-1490s, suggests this type of transformation of the disease. (Crosby
[1, 4, 5, 9, 13] There have been no documented cases where a human has contracted the disease from another human. [4] It appears, based on field and lab data, that infection requires direct contact with the virus through means such as contact with infective bodily secretions, urine, or tissues. [12] It is unknown to scientists how the virus can be maintained in the bat populations and avoids extinction as the host species becomes immune to its presence. [14] The incubation period from time of infection to the onset of symptoms is about 5-14 days in experimentally induced animals [4] and 8-14 days in natural field cases.
The true identity of biblical leprosy, and what it defines as within the confines of the Bible are areas of hot debate among scholars. The majority of religious academics generally now accept that the leprosy of biblical times is not what we...
Unknown, Discover Staff. 1996. "The origin of Syphilis." Discover. October. Vol. 17, n10, pg23 (3)
What are these red patches of skin on my body that I can’t ever help from scratching? It is eczema, which is defined as a medical condition in which patches of skin become inflamed, with blisters that cause itching and bleeding. Genetics take a role in the possibility of having eczema, after comes the diagnosis, then being prescribed the treatment needed, and lastly their prognosis.
been previously touched by an infected person, will transmit the disease to the healthy person who
The Antonine Plague has been around for centuries, though it is known by many different names around the world, like the Plague of Galen or Smallpox. The plague first started around 166 A.D. Roman soldiers coming back from (now in modern day Iraq) Seleucia, in the Middle East, contracted and carried this plague along the Mediterranean coastlines and back home to Rome. It killed about two-thousand people per day in the city of Rome.
Infected bats can transmit the virus to monkeys and apes, so humans can become infected while killing or butchering these animals. Cooking destroys the virus, so the risk from infection comes from the preparation of bat or ape meat, not in eating cooked meat. Humans and animals may also become infected through contact with infected bats or fruit contaminated by infected bats droppings. However, the vast majority of people that contract the virus through direct exposure to the body fluids of an infected person. Family, friends and healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with infected body fluids. Ebola also can be spread through direct contact with objects, such as clothes, bedding, syringes or medical equipment that have been contaminated with infected body fluids.
Who is Jamilah Lemieux? Wiki, Age, Married, Husband, Boyfriend, Family, Height Jamilah Lemieux is a writer, speaker, and Senior Digital Editor for EBONY Magazine. She is a leading Millenial voice on issues of race, gender, and sexuality. Jamilah Lemieux was born on 22nd of July in the year of 1984, which makes her current age 33.
What started as a problem with a horrific disease, lead to isolation of leprosy patients. It was hard for these patients to settle and make homes; communities feared the spreading of illness. The government took an old plantation to create a hospital for the leprosy patients. The old plantation was called hospital #66 or better known as Carville. “Over a long time period, the disease can be disfiguring, and societies have stigmatized victims of the disease. This attribute is deeply discrediting since the stigmatized individual is disqualified from full social acceptance. Leprosy was thus dreaded, not because it killed, but because it left one alive with no hope”. (P1. And 2, Sato, H., & Frantz, J. (2005). Termination of the leprosy isolation policy in the US and japan: Science, policy changes, and the garbage can model.) People deemed with this Disease were brought to Carville mandatory to be quarantined; some patients were brought in shackles against there will. Patients were forced to leave everything they knew and loved behind, including friends, family and children.
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has presented many problems in our society, including an increased chance of fatality due to infections that could have otherwise been treated with success. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, but overexposure to these drugs give the bacteria more opportunities to mutate, forming resistant strains. Through natural selection, those few mutated bacteria are able to survive treatments of antibiotics and then pass on their genes to other bacterial cells through lateral gene transfer (Zhaxybayeva, 2011). Once resistance builds in one patient, it is possible for the strain to be transmitted to others through improper hygiene and failure to isolate patients in hospitals.
In 1665, in the Kingdom of England, there was a great disease going through the kingdom that killed over 100,000 people, it was passed throughout the population by tiny bugs that were everywhere and were nearly impossible to avoid. This epidemic is known as the Great Plague of London, 1665 and it is the strand of the Bubonic Plague that tore through London, killing about 15% of London’s population which was around 100,000 people. This Plague was one of the worst diseases to tear through Europe in the 1300’s - the 1600’s. It hit England especially hard because they were on an island and had to where to go and couldn't avoid the spreading of the disease.
It is important for us to know the pathology of tuberculosis because is a threatening disease that kills million people each year. Therefore, early sign and symptom detection will help people to treat properly and to prevent spread TB disease to others. The use of combination drugs are most effectiveness therapy.
In summary Syphilis is one of the oldest Treponemal diseases dating back to its early recording in the 15th century. Today there is still an ongoing debate on the origins of the disease. Some scholars speculating on the Columbus theory of bringing the disease to Europe versus the Pre-Columbus Theory stating the disease was indeed present in Europe before the voyage to the New World. There are three different stages of the syphilis disease and the third is where the manifestation of the disease on the human skeletal systems occurs. This disease, though less harsh than in medieval times is still prevalent today, found mostly in poorer underdeveloped countries. The continuing study of this disease can help with the prevalence of this disease in other countries and also help with the study of other diseases that have had an effect on humankind and/ or still do today.
Syphilis is a sexually transmitting infection caused by Treonema pallidum, a gram negative, and anaerobic spirochete bacteria 1. Syphilis is thought to have been brought to Europe by Columbus and his sailors in the 1500’s 1. The disease is characterized by four different stages with varying symptoms depending on the stage that the disease is in1. Often syphilis is presented with another sexually transmitted infection such as chlamydia. Public education regarding safe sex is important for the prevention of this sexually transmitted infection.