Smileband health topics

Coccidioidomycosis or Valley Fever is a fungal infection caused by Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii. The fungus is found in the soil in the southwestern United States and parts of Mexico and Central and South America. 

 

Approximately 40% of individuals who are infected will develop symptoms which can include a cough, fever, exhaustion, chest pain and muscle aches. 5-10% of individuals infected will develop a more severe disease secondary to dissemination. 

 

Arizona is endemic for the fungus and Valley Fever is one of the most commonly reported infectious diseases in Arizona.

 

Arizona 5 year median: 6,101 cases

 

Transmission

Transmission occurs by inhaling spores of the fungus. 

 

The incubation period is typically 1 to 4 weeks for the primary infection. Disseminated infection may develop years after the primary infection.

 

Lab Tests & Specimen Info

 

Test*	Specimen
EIA/ELISA Serology	Serum
Complement Fixation	Serum
Latex Agglutination	Serum
Immunodiffusion	Serum
Tube Precipitin	Serum
Culture	Tissue, Respiratory Specimen
PCR	Tissue, Respiratory Specime

 Isolation Precautions

Coccidioidomycosis is not a communicable disease.

 

Standard precautions are recommended in healthcare settings. 

 

Prevention for Patients
For individuals who live in endemic areas (e.g. Arizona), it is recommended to avoid spending time in dusty places. 

• stay inside during dust storms
• avoid activities that involve close contact with dust or dirt
• use air filtration measures indoors

High-risk groups include:

• immunocompromised individuals
• pregnant women
• individuals with diabetes
• African Americans and Filipinos

Public Health Actions

Public health will conduct an epidemiological investigation on an outbreak. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

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Smileband health topics

Robots one-thousandth the width of a human hair are now able to fight cancer by destroying tumours in the body. Scientists have built nano-robots from DNA sheets shaped into tubes and injected into the bloodstream.

The tubes carry a blood-clotting enzyme, thrombin, and are painted with proteins which home in on a separate protein found only in tumour cells. When the robots reach their target and bind to its surface they spring open and deliver the enzyme which clots the blood supply to the tumour and causes it to have a mini heart attack and die. The nanorobots work fast, congregating in large numbers to surround a tumour just hours after injection.

They were found to be safe in tests on mice and pigs, with no evidence of spreading to the brain where they could cause a stroke. The treatment blocked tumour blood supply and generated tumour tissue damage within 24 hours, while having no effect on healthy tissue.

Three out of eight mice with skin cancer saw their tumours shrink, with their survival time from cancer more than doubling on average from 20.5 to 45 days.

The research comes after a team of scientists, involving Durham University, last year created nanorobots able to drill into and destroy cancer cells. Nanorobots are so-called because of their tiny size and because they contain parts capable of movement within the body. In this case, the mechanical action is the springing open of the DNA sheet to reveal the blood-clotting drug.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said: 'The development of nanorobots that can deliver drugs to a specific target within a tumour is an exciting glimpse into the future of cancer medicine.

'This is the first time that DNA molecules have been manipulated to deliver drugs in this way – a fascinating advance that, if refined and proven effective in humans, could have far-reaching implications for treating cancer and other diseases. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

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Smileband general news

Boasting a 25ft swimming pool and a charming sun terrace, this is the luxury apartment block in Haiti where Oxfam aid workers cavorted with young prostitutes at a sex party likened to a 'Caligula orgy'. Terracotta walls, palm trees and floral arrangements give the gated complex the feel of a Mediterranean holiday villa.

The six-bedroom serviced complex, which can sleep 12, was rented to Oxfam for around £1,200 a month – an astronomical sum by Haitian standards.

The Daily Mail found it in a rundown part of Haitian capital Port au Prince after three sources confirmed it was used for the alleged sex parties.

Each of the rooms comes fully furnished so that aid workers do not need to buy their own furniture. The complex – known locally as 'the whorehouse' – has a living room with a flat screen TV and three comfy seats with plenty of space for entertaining.

It was here that video footage was said to have been filmed showing aid workers partying with prostitutes who wore Oxfam T-shirts.

One source said at least five half-naked girls were running around at a 'full-on Caligula orgy'. Such gatherings were referred to as 'young meat barbecues'.

The villa comes with an armed guard as well a 12ft security gate with barbed wire on the top. By contrast, some of the other houses in the area still bear the scars from the 2010 earthquake, which killed 220,000 and left 1.5million people homeless.

The hilly and chaotic streets are choked with pedestrians, traders and traffic. There are potholes everywhere and cars bounce around on the uneven surfaces. <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

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Smileband health topics

What is botulism?

Botulism is a life-threatening poisoning caused by toxins produced by the bacterium clostridium botulinum. The toxin attacks the nerves, brain and spinal cord and can affect people of any age. Left untreated, paralysis can spread to the lungs, causing breathing failure and death.

Botulism is rare in the UK.

How do you get botulism?

There are three different ways of contracting botulism. These are classified as:

• Food-borne botulism: when you eat something contaminated with the toxin as a result of it being improperly canned or preserved
• Wound botulism: caused when a wound becomes infected with botulinum spores which then germinate, reproduce and then produce toxins. An increase in reported cases has been linked to injecting drug users
• Infant botulism: a very rare condition where a baby swallows some botulinum bacteria spores, which then produce toxins in their intestines. The spores are sometimes found in honey, which is why honey is not recommended for children under 12 months old, who will not have had a chance to develop a defence against the spores.

The infection cannot be spread from person to person.

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What are the symptoms of botulism?

The first signs of food-borne botulism are usually nausea and vomiting. Diarrhoea is followed by constipation.

More serious symptoms usually begin between 12 and 36 hours after contamination, but can start within six hours or take as long as eight days to appear. These symptoms include blurred vision, difficulty swallowing and speaking and droopy eyelids. As the toxin spreads, this is followed by general muscle weakness, paralysis in the arms and difficulty breathing.

The symptoms of wound botulism begin four to 14 days after infection. They begin in the nerves connecting the brain to the spine before spreading through the rest of the body.

The effects on the nervous system of wound botulism are the same as food-borne botulism, although they take longer to develop.

Infant botulism usually begins with constipation. Several days later, neurological symptoms develop which include an inability to suck, a floppy head and muscles, poor reflexes, heavy eyelids and unfocused eyes. 

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Smileband general news

New mobile fingerprinting technology involving an app and a mobile scanner will allow frontline officers to use their smartphones to identify people in less than a minute. This is a worrying concept of discrimination to the human society, an aim of a concept that can be used as false ways to arrest people but changing data on a system that has the required motive to discriminate people within social society through corruption and lies that police relate when aiming racism within there constitutional environment. Smileband <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

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Smileband general news

There was precious little emotion on display at the end of McMafia – from James Norton’s protagonist Alex Godman or the viewers I expect. The finale was easy to enjoy but hard to take seriously and if Godman didn’t seem to care a great deal about the type of man he had become then he and McMafia’s creators could hardly expect us to.

There was no sign of celebration or even relief from Godman when he won his war with ruthless Russian mobster Vadim Kalyagin: simultaneously the most predictable and improbable denouement possible. Even though Godman had achieved his aim of destroying Vadim he was still negotiating deals that ensured huge amounts of heroin and cocaine would be safely smuggled into Europe.

‘I don’t know who he is anymore,’ his irritating (ex)girlfriend Rebecca said, rolling off the clichés. ‘I don’t think he even knows himself.’

That was one way of saying the character didn’t really add up. How much better it would have been if Alex had been strangled, stabbed, or shot by Vadim (or all three, knowing him).

After all, settling feuds with violence was what Vadim did. By contrast, Godman was a hedge fund manager from the City and so hopelessly out of his depth he had chipped up in Moscow without a bodyguard let alone a gun, and just after Vadim’s daughter Natasha had been shot dead in a bungled attempt to assassinate Vadim ordered by Alex’s father. Not great timing…

Admittedly of the two Godman was the hero – or meant to be. But his moral compass was so corrupt, it mattered little to the audience and in any case was largely a hollow victory. Godman fired the shot that killed Vadim but if anything he was only putting him out of his misery. The hard part had been done by a hitman who had mown Vadim down with a sub-machine gun.

The previous episode with Alex on the plane heading for Moscow in blissful ignorance about Vadim’s daughter and his father’s assassin.

Their showdown was by delayed by three false alarms.

Godman was intercepted before he’d even entered the country, pulled over at Passport Control, and put in a cell where he was greeted by Vadim’s lawyer/henchman Colonel Ilya Federova (still rocking a black polo neck, naturally). <!-- Global site tag (gtag.js) - Google Analytics -->

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Smileband health topics

Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever is a viral infection caused by Marburg virus. The Marburg virus is a RNA virus that is part of the filovirus family (same family as Ebola). Symptoms include:

• sudden onset fever
• chills
• headache
• myalgia
• maculopapular rash (on the 5th day after symptom onset)
• nausea
• vomiting
• chest pain
• sore throat
• abdominal pain
• diarrhea

Symptoms can become more severe and include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging and multi-organ dysfunction.

Marburg is seen in sporadic outbreaks throughout Africa including Uganda, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Angola, and South Africa.

Transmission 
The transmission from the host animal (African fruit bat) is unknown. Person to person transmission can occur from direct contact of droplets of body fluids from an infected person. Transmission can also occur from handling infected non-human primates.

Incubation period is 5 to 10 days. Patients with Marburg should be placed in a single room with the door closed.

Dedicated medical equipment should be used for the patient care.

Use of needles, aerosol-generating and other invasive procedures should be avoided.

Prevention for Patients 
Prevention methods include:

• Avoid contact with African fruit bats
• Do not directly handle anything that might have come in contact with an infected person's body fluids
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