Cholera, a bacterial disease usually spread by food or water, can be fatal if not treated right away.
The disease initially causes intestinal distress and dehydration. Cholera is a fast-acting disease that can turn deadly within hours. Poor sanitation and unclean water systems create a breeding ground for cholera in developing countries. Areas like Yemen and Haiti have ongoing cholera outbreaks that have spread to millions.
World Kidney Day is March 12th, and it offers an opportunity to discuss how to travel safely when dealing with kidney problems. For individuals suffering from kidney issues, travel is still very possible, and it can be a huge morale booster. In fact, many doctors encourage travel for dialysis patients, as long as their health is stable.
Some areas of the world have been able to get rid of malaria.
Even with decades of outbreaks, the parasite is gone in many countries. However, even if countries eradicate a disease, travelers always pose a risk of bringing it back.
This problem is even plaguing hospitals in the United States. Despite getting rid of the parasite long ago, 1,500 malaria cases can be found in U.S. clinics every year.
With the ease of travel and malaria’s persistence, is it even possible to fully eradicate the parasite around the world?
Diseases sometimes take time before wreaking havoc in humans.
They start off as tiny, mostly harmless germs. But, those germs start to grow and get stronger, looking for some creature to latch onto and cause damage.
Usually those infected creature are animals. Infecting pigs, rodents, insects and other creatures, a virus becomes stronger and harder to eliminate.
The image of a pus-filled lesion can bring up many reactions. Most often, someone may feel revulsion, disgust or even nausea.
But, for soldiers fighting in the trenches during the Civil War, those lesions could inspire hope.
Not hope in the war efforts, but for their own safety.
The violent battles may get attention for causing death in the Civil War, but disease was the real danger. Typhoid fever, measles and tuberculosis were among the many deadly viruses that killed more than the war itself.
Among the most dangerous of these diseases was smallpox.
