Diseases and

treatments

Diseases and Treatments

Simple Diseases (Common cold,

influenza)

Rare and Strange Diseases

Fatal Diseases

First Part Simple Diseases

A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the

body of an organism. It is often construed to be a
medical condition associated with specific
symptoms and signs. It may be caused by
external factors, such as infectious disease, or it
may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as
autoimmune diseases. In humans, "disease" is
often used more broadly to refer to any condition
that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social
problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or
similar problems for those in contact with the
person.

Influenza

Influenza, commonly
referred to as the flu, is
an infectious disease
caused by RNA viruses
of the family
Orthomyxoviridae (the
influenza viruses), that
affects birds and
mammals. The most
common symptoms of
the disease are chills,
fever, sore throat,
muscle pains, severe
headache, coughing,
weakness/fatigue and
general discomfort.

Although it is often confused with other influenza like

illnesses, especially the common cold, influenza is a
more severe disease than the common cold and is
caused by a different type of virus.Influenza may
produce nausea and vomiting, particularly in children,
but these symptoms are more common in the
unrelated gastroenteritis, which is sometimes,
inaccurately, referred to as "stomach flu. Flu can
occasionally cause either direct viral pneumonia or
secondary bacterial pneumonia.Typically, influenza is
transmitted through the air by coughs or sneezes,
creating aerosols containing the virus. Influenza can
also be transmitted by direct contact with bird
droppings or nasal secretions, or through contact with
contaminated surfaces. Airborne aerosols have been
thought to cause most infections, although which
means of transmission is most important is not

Signs & Symptoms

Symptoms of influenza can
start quite suddenly one to
two days after infection.
Usually the first symptoms
are chills or a chilly sensation
but fever is also common
early in the infection, with
body temperatures ranging
from 38-39 C. Many people
are so ill that they are
confined to bed for several
days, with aches and pains
throughout their bodies,
which are worse in their
backs and legs.

Symptoms of influenza
may include:
Fever and extreme
coldness (chills, shivering,
shaking )
Cough
Nasal congestion
Body aches, especially
joints and throat
Fatigue
Headache
Irritated, watering eyes
Reddened eyes, skin
(especially face), mouth,
throat and nose
Petechial Rash
In children, gastrointestinal
symptoms such as diarrhea
and abdominal pain

Treatments
People with the flu are advised to
get plenty of rest, drink plenty of
liquids, avoid using alcohol and
tobacco and, if necessary, take
medications such as
acetaminophen (paracetamol) to
relieve the fever and muscle
aches associated with the flu.
Children and teenagers with flu
symptoms (particularly fever)
should avoid taking aspirin
during an influenza infection
(especially influenza type B),
because doing so can lead to
Reye's syndrome, a rare but
potentially fatal disease of the
liver. Since influenza is caused
by a virus, antibiotics have no
effect on the infection; unless
prescribed for secondary
infections such as bacterial
pneumonia. Antiviral medication
can be effective, but some
strains of influenza can show
resistance to the standard

Second Part Rare & Strange

Diseases

There are many diseases all around us and all over

the world. Some we know quite well such as cancer,
however there are many that we dont know. Blueskinned people? Vampire Syndrome? When we were
kids, we couldn't hear enough about illnesses, horrid
medical conditions or weird diseases. Not much has
changed since then. When we hear about an
outbreak of a flesh-eating bacteria or some other
rare sickness, we're fascinated. But now we're also
terrified. Some rare diseases are very real and if you
catch them, you're a goner. Here's a list with 9 of
the most rare diseases out there.

1st Elephantiasis

Elephantiasis (or lymphatic filariasis) is

typified by individuals with grossly
enlarged legs or arms. The cause? Parasitic
worms such as the Wuchereria bancrofti
and B. timori which get transmitted by
mosquitoes. Approximately 120 million
people have some kind of elephantiasis
throughout the world, and of them 40
million have it to a severe extent. The
scary aspect of this disease is that the
symptoms may take years to show
themselves even after the initial infection.
This is due to the fact that an infected
female mosquito can inject the worm
larvae into a persons bloodstream, where
they will reproduce and spread prior to
becoming visible in the form of symptoms
like enlarged arms, legs, breasts, and
genitals. Fasting will give relief in
Elephantiasis in many cases. Prolonged
fasting may be difficult for one, but if you
can fast one day in the week, it would
gradually give relief. One must take two to
three lites of water on the day of fasting.
You must take an enema on the evening of
the fast and on the morning after. Adopt a
natural life style. Take exercise regularly.
The food should include wholemeal bread,
green vegetables and fruits. If one can take
a salt-free diet it will be doulbly beneficial.

2nd Werewolf Syndrome

When two year-old Abys DeJesus grew dark, hairy

patches on her face, doctors said she has a
condition known as Human Werewolf Syndrome.
The disease is called werewolf syndrome because
people with it look like werewolves - except
without the sharp teeth and claws. In Mexico, a
large family of men had hair that covered their
faces and upper bodies. Two brothers were even
offered a part in the X-Files but they turned down
the offer.

3rd Alice in Wonderland

Syndrome

Clinicaly know as Micropsia,

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
causes victims to have a
malfunction in how their brain
processes visual data, despite
the lack of any problem with
their eyes. As a result objects,
other people, animals, and so
on are percieved by the victim
as being much smaller than
they actually are. Victims have
reported looking at dogs and
seeing them as the size of mice,
or looking at people who are
very tall however seeing them
as much shorter. The disease
got its name from the fact that
Lewis Carrol (the author of Alice
in Wonderland) was considered
to be suffering from it.

4th Pica

This disease generates

an urge to consume
things other than food.
Sufferers eat materials
such as paper, clay,
dirt, glue, coal, even
feces and lint. Medical
researchers have
tenuously connected
Pica with a mineral
deficiency, however
experts havent yet
nailed down a real,
firm cause or cure for
this strange disorder.

5th Progeria: the 80-Year-Old

Children

Progeria is caused by a single

small defect in a childs
genetic code, yet it has
devastating and life-changing
consequences. On average, a
child born having this disease
will be dead by the age of 13.
While they see their bodies
speed through the normal
process of ageing they
develop striking physical
symptoms, often including
premature baldness, heart
disease, thinning bones as
well as arthritis. Progeria is
incredibly rare, there are only
about 48 people living with it
in the whole world. However,
there is a family that has five
children with the disease

6th Vampire Disease

There are people out

there who go to great
lengths to avoid the
sun. If they are caught
in the sun, their skin
will blister. Some of
them have pain and
blistering as soon as
the sun touches their
skin. Ok, so they're not
actually vampires. They
don't drink blood and
sleep in coffins, but
they do suffer from a
rare disease that has
vampire-like symptoms.

7th Exploding Head Syndrome

If you thought that your head

gonna explode when you had
a headache, you were wrong.
Patients with exploding head
syndrome hear explosions,
gunshots, screams and other
noises, causing anxiety, fear
and increasing heart rate. All
of this happens 2-3 hours
after falling asleep. Although
this syndromes etiology is
still unknown, there are some
findings that it is related with
stress and fatigue, so there
are a lot of medicaments that
clear the explosions from
head.

8th Congenital insensitivity to

pain
There has been over 100
recorded cases in the United
States of people who report the
lack of painful sensations from
things like pin pricks on their skin.
The cause A gene mutation which
happens in the synthesis of a
certain sodium channel
associated with the neurons
which control the reception and
transmission of pain stimulus.
Although this disease may sound
advantageous, think again!
People without pain sensations
usually die early deaths from
simple injuries, such as small cuts
which others would feel and take
care of. By contrast, individuals
with congenital insensitivity to
pain cannot feel such things and
can actually suffer significant
blood loss due to them.

9th Mbius Syndrome

Mbius syndrome (also spelled
Moebius) is an extremely rare
congenital neurological disorder
which is characterized by facial
paralysis and the inability to
move the eyes from side to side.
Most people with Mbius
syndrome are born with
complete facial paralysis and
cannot close their eyes or form
facial expressions. Limb and
chest wall abnormalities
sometimes occur with the
syndrome. Most people with
Mbius syndrome have normal
intelligence, although their lack
of facial expression is sometimes
incorrectly taken to be due to
dullness or unfriendliness. There
is no single course of medical

Third Part Fatal Diseases

Doctors and researchers are always on the

lookout for new diseases and ways to treat
them. In some cases, despite an honest effort
from everyone involved, a disease ultimately
takes the life of the patient. In the case of
rare diseases that are fatal, research is often
limited due to the limited number of patients.
While treatments are sometimes effective for
these conditions, some won't be diagnosed in
time for the treatments to be effective.

1st Cancer

Cancer refers to a group of more than 100 distinct diseases

characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells
in the body. Cancer affects one in every three persons born
in developed countries and is a major cause of sickness and
death throughout the world. Though it has been known
since antiquity, significant improvements in cancer
treatment have been made since the middle of the 20th
century, mainly through a combination of timely and
accurate diagnosis, selective surgery, radiation therapy,
and chemotherapeutic drugs. Such advances actually have
brought about a decrease in cancer deaths (at least in
developed countries), and grounds for further optimism are
seen in laboratory investigations into elucidating the causes
and mechanisms of the disease. Owing to continuing
advances in cell biology, genetics, and biotechnology,
researchers now have a fundamental understanding of
what goes wrong in a cancer cell and in an individual who
develops cancerand these conceptual gains are steadily
being converted into further progress in prevention,
diagnosis, and treatment of this disease.

2nd HIV/AIDS

AIDS is the byname of acquired immunodeficiency

syndrome a transmissible disease of the immune
system caused by the human immunodeficiency
virus (HIV). HIV slowly attacks and destroys the
immune system, the bodys defense against
infection, leaving an individual vulnerable to a
variety of other infections and certain malignancies
that eventually cause death. AIDS is the final stage
of HIV infection, during which time fatal infections
and cancers frequently arise. HIV/AIDS spread to
epidemic proportions in the 1980s, particularly in
Africa, where the disease may have originated.
Spread was likely facilitated by several factors,
including increasing urbanization and long-distance
travel in Africa, international travel, changing sexual
mores, and intravenous drug use. According to the
United Nations 2004 report on AIDS, some 38
million people are living with HIV, approximately 5
million people become infected annually, and about

3rd Lupus Erythematosus

Also often referred to simply as lupus, this is an

autoimmune disorder that causes chronic
inflammation in various parts of the body.
Three main types of lupus are recognized
discoid, systemic, and drug-induced. Discoid
lupus affects only the skin and does not usually
involve internal organs. The term discoid refers
to a rash of distinct reddened patches covered
with grayish brown scales that may appear on
the face, neck, and scalp. In about 10 percent
of people with discoid lupus, the disease will
evolve into the more severe systemic form of
the disorder. Systemic lupus erythematosus is
the most common form of the disease. It may
affect virtually any organ or structure of the
body, especially the skin, kidneys, joints, heart,
gastrointestinal tract, brain, and serous
membranes (membranous linings of organs,
joints, and cavities of the body.) While systemic
lupus can affect any area of the body, most
people experience symptoms in only a few
organs. The skin rash, if present, resembles
that of discoid lupus. In general, no two people
will have identical symptoms. The course of
the disease is also variable and is marked by
periods when the disease is active and by
other periods when symptoms are not evident
(remission).

4th Diabetes

Diabetes is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism

characterized by impaired ability of the body to produce
or respond to insulin and thereby maintain proper levels
of sugar (glucose) in the blood. There are two major
forms of the disease. Type I diabetes, formerly referred
to as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and
juvenile-onset diabetes, usually arises in childhood. It is
an autoimmune disorder in which the diabetic persons
immune system produces antibodies that destroy the
insulin-producing beta cells. Because the body is no
longer able to produce insulin, daily injections of the
hormone are required. Type II diabetes, formerly called
non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) and
adult-onset diabetes, usually occurs after 40 years of
age and becomes more common with increasing age. It
arises from either sluggish pancreatic secretion of
insulin or reduced responsiveness in target cells of the
body to secreted insulin. It is linked to genetics and
obesity, notably upper-body obesity. People with type II
diabetes can control blood glucose levels through diet
and exercise and, if necessary, by taking insulin

5th Ebola

Ebola is a virus of the family

Filoviridae that is responsible for a
severe and often fatal viral
hemorrhagic fever; outbreaks in
primates such as gorillas and
chimpanzees as well as humans have
been recorded. The disease is
characterized by extreme fever, rash,
and profuse hemorrhaging. In
humans, fatality rates range from 50
to 90 percent.

6th Polio

Polio is known in full as poliomyelitis also called

infantile paralysis. It is an acute viral infectious disease
of the nervous system that usually begins with general
symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea, fatigue,
muscle pains and spasms and is sometimes followed by
a more serious and permanent paralysis of muscles in
one or more limbs, the throat, or the chest. More than
half of all cases of polio occur in children under the age
of five. The paralysis so commonly associated with the
disease actually affects fewer than 1 percent of persons
infected by the poliovirus. Between 5 and 10 percent of
infected persons display only the general symptoms
outlined above, and more than 90 percent show no signs
of illness at all. For those infected by the poliovirus,
there is no cure, and in the mid-20th century hundreds
of thousands of children were struck by the disease
every year. Since the 1960s, thanks to widespread use of
polio vaccines, polio has been eliminated from most of
the world, and it is now endemic only in several
countries of Africa and South Asia.

7th Creutzfeldt-Jakob
Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare fatal degenerative

disease of the central nervous system. Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease occurs throughout the world at an incidence of one
person in a million; however, among certain populations,
such as Libyan Jews, rates are somewhat higher. The
disease commonly occurs in adults between the ages of 40
and 70, although some young adults have been stricken
with the disease. Both men and women are affected
equally. The onset of the disease is usually characterized by
vague psychiatric or behavioral changes, which are
followed within weeks or months by a progressive dementia
that is often accompanied by abnormal vision and
involuntary movements. There is no known cure for the
disease, which is usually fatal within a year of the onset of
symptoms.

8th Asthma

Asthma is a chronic disorder of the lungs in which inflamed

airways are prone to constrict, causing episodes of
breathlessness, wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness
that range in severity from mild to life-threatening. Inflamed
airways become hypersensitive to a variety of stimuli,
including dust mites, animal dander, pollen, air pollution,
cigarette smoke, medications, weather conditions, and
exercise. Stress can exacerbate symptoms. Asthmatic
episodes may begin suddenly or may take days to develop.
Although an initial episode can occur at any age, about half
of all cases occur in persons younger than 10 years of age,
with boys being affected more often than girls. Among
adults, however, the incidence of asthma is approximately
equal in men and women. When asthma develops in
childhood, it is often associated with an inherited
susceptibility to allergens, substances such as pollen, dust
mites, or animal dander that may induce an allergic
reaction. In adults, asthma also may develop in response to
allergens, but viral infections, aspirin, and exercise may
cause the disease as well. Adults who develop asthma may
have nasal polyps or sinusitis.

Summary
Generally, diseases affect most peoples
lives greatly. We all should be aware and
protect ourselves in order not to be
infected by diseases that can cost our
lives ( except for the genetic disorders ) .