CHICKENPOX : things to know

We all know about chickenpox, it's either we've had it or seen someone who has it. Well my little friend said 'Chicken gives chickenpox' . LoL, that's false.

Here are some facts about chickenpox, a miserable ailment rendered fairly rare since the advent of an effective vaccine:

— That's not its real name

We call it chickenpox. But this disease, which was once a part of most childhoods, is actually caused by the varicella-zoster virus.

These days, cases of chickenpox are less common as a result of the introduction of the varicella vaccine. The vaccine, administered on its own or combined with the vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella, is given in two doses in childhood.
It's one of the more effective vaccines.

— It's itchy and it scars

You'd be hard pressed to find an adult over the age of 20 or so who doesn't have a chickenpox scar somewhere on their body. (I have chickenpox scars because the first varicella vaccine was introduced in Canada in 1998.)

The disease causes a blister-like red rash that is very itchy. "Don't scratch!" was always the mantra in households with chickenpox cases, because scratching picks off the scab on the blister and that's what causes scarring. From experience, it's quite difficult to resist scratching sha.

— It's not just uncomfortable. It can also kill

Before the vaccine was introduced, most people caught chickenpox in childhood. It's one of the most contagious of the so-called childhood diseases, so if chickenpox hit a household or a neighbourhood, a lot of kids got sick.

Most people who contract chickenpox feel awful for a few days but then get better. But chickenpox can lead to skin infections and pneumonia. It can also cause necrotizing fasciitis — flesh-eating disease — in rare case, as well as stroke and encephalitis (swelling of the brain).

Chickenpox complications are more common in children and adults with compromised immune systems. Chickenpox is risky for pregnant women, both for them and in some cases for the fetuses they carry.

— It's really infectious

The chickenpox virus spreads in the air through coughing or sneezing, says the CDC.
It can also spread if a vulnerable person touches or breathes in the virus particles that come from chickenpox blisters. A person who hasn't had chickenpox and hasn't been vaccinated can also catch the virus through contact with someone who has shingles. (More on shingles next.)

One of the things that makes chickenpox a terrific spreader is that people who are infected can transmit to others for a day or two before they even know they are sick. Once someone sick takes to their bed they have fewer chances of infecting others. But the virus can move around in that day or two before symptoms set in.

— Shingles

The varicella-zoster virus has a nasty trick. It remains dormant in the body of anyone who has had chickenpox, and can flare up later in life.
When the virus reactivates, it causes shingles — a painful skin rash. The CDC estimates about one in three people who have had chickenpox will have shinges.
It's not known what triggers the reactivation, though the risk seems to rise with age. More than half of cases occur in people 60 years of age and older.
There is an adult vaccine that significantly reduces the risk of developing shingles.

Get vaccinated!!!

Stay healthy!!!

EBOLA: Suspected dead dog, tests negative for Ebola Virus

A dead dog, suspected of being responsible for the reoccurrence of the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia, tested negative for the virus, officials said Tuesday, according to Reuters. The report comes after a review panel declared that the United Nation’s World Health Organization (WHO) did not act quickly enough on the latest Ebola outbreak.

Two new cases of the Ebola virus, which has killed 11,000 people so far, mostly in West Africa, were also confirmed in Liberia on Tuesday. The virus does not have a vaccine or a medicine yet.

Local residents reportedly believed that the first victim of Ebola since the country was declared free of the virus shared a dog meat meal with his neighbors. The man died on June 28, Reuters reported. However, researchers who tested the carcass of the dog found that it was not infected with the virus.
"I learned today the result was negative, but we have to be careful because the remains are in bad condition and the test is designed for humans," a health official in Liberia said, according to Reuters, adding: "Even if that dog had anything, finding it now will be difficult because of the time lapse. We are trying to do everything to find the source."

The first victim of the latest spread was identified as 17-year-old Abraham Memaigar, who does not have a history of visiting any of the affected areas. Two other people in Liberia, who tested positive for the virus, were hospitalized and five cases have been confirmed so far in the new outbreak, Reuters reported .
An independent report by a panel, commissioned by the WHO, said that the organization needed an urgent overhaul .

“The Ebola crisis not only exposed organizational failings in the functioning of WHO, but it also demonstrated shortcomings in the International Health Regulations,” the report said Tuesday, adding: “WHO must re-establish its pre-eminence as the guardian of global public health; this will require significant changes throughout WHO.”

Hepatitis: A very dangerous Virus

A lot of people are scared of HIV, Ebola Virus, etc .Hepatitis virus should be added to your list of dangerous viruses.

Hepatitis B is the most common and can cause severe liver disease (including liver cancer). There is a vaccine for Hepatitis B, however it can only be given if you are not infected with the virus. If infected highly effective anti-viral drugs and interferons are available. The trouble with this disease is that many people are unaware they have it, making it a huge problem globally.

A few facts:
-There are 5 forms of the virus (A, B & C being most common with D & E being more rare)
-10 million drug users worldwide have Hepatitis C
-1.3 million drug users worldwide have Hepatitis B

So, Hepatitis should not be forgotten and can be transmitted, like HIV, via bodily fluids, such as intraveneous drug users and sexual intercourse (however hepatitis is 50 to100 times more infectious than HIV).

Be AWARE of Hepatitis, get vaccinated, get tested, get treated!!!

Microbiologist

NEW VACCINE MIGHT PREVENT HIV INFECTION

A new study has found that an experimental vaccine completely prevented HIV infection in half of monkeys given the jab.

The monkeys were given the vaccine and then exposed to high doses of an aggressive virus that is the equivalent of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in humans.
The results were so positive they spurred Johnson & Johnson to test the vaccine in people.

The research was published online in the journal Science.
The international trial is underway in 400 healthy volunteers in the United States, East Africa, South Africa and Thailand.

It is the first time since Merck’s failed 2007 trial that a major pharmaceutical company has sponsored clinical development of an HIV vaccine, said Dr. Dan Barouch, a vaccine researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard.
Some 35 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Since it began spreading 30 years ago, AIDS has killed 40 million people worldwide.
Despite progress in treatments, experts believe a vaccine is the best hope for eradicating the disease.

In a pair of studies Barouch and colleagues at Johnson and Johnson and elsewhere tested a two-step vaccine, which involves priming the immune system using a weakened version of the cold virus to sneak HIV genes into the body.

The second phase involves injecting individuals with a purified HIV surface protein designed to provoke a strong immune response.
Johnson & Johnsons’s chief scientific officer and worldwide chairman, pharmaceuticals, Dr. Paul Stoffels, told Reuters: “The company is using the same prime-boost strategy in its Ebola vaccine, now in early-stage human trials.”
Stoffels said the HIV vaccine trial in monkeys was designed to test the limits of the vaccine, exposing the animals to high levels of an aggressive virus that attacks non-human primates known as simian immunodeficiency virus, a close cousin to HIV.

The virus was potent enough to infect 100 per cent of unvaccinated animals after six exposures. Even so, half of the animals who got the vaccine were completely protected.

Stoffels said the infection rate per exposure in the trial is about 100 times greater than what is typically seen in humans.
Stoffels said: “Johnson & Johnson expects the vaccine to prove even more effective in people, but even if the vaccine only protects half of those people who get it, ‘it will still have an enormous public health impact.”
If all goes well with the early-stage trial, he expects a larger, phase 2b study to start in the next 18 to 24 months. Phase 2b studies test how well drugs works at the prescribed dose.

Source : The Guardian