Yellow Fever: About & Facts

Yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes. The "yellow" in the name refers to the jaundice that affects some patients.The disease is caused by the yellow fever virus and is spread by the bite of an infected female mosquito. It infects only humans, other primates, and several species of mosquitoes. In cities, it is spread primarily by Aedes aegypti, a type of mosquito found throughout the tropics and subtropics.

In 2013, yellow fever resulted in about 127,000 severe infections and 45,000 deaths, with nearly 90% of these occurring in Africa. Nearly a billion people live in an area of the world where the disease is common. It is common in tropical areas of South America and Africa, but not in Asia. Since the 1980s, the number of cases of yellow fever has been increasing. This is believed to be due to fewer people being immune, more people living in cities, people moving frequently, and changing climate.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS

• Yellow fever begins after an incubation period of three to six days.
• Most cases only cause a mild infection with fever, headache, chills, back pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle pain, nausea, and vomiting. In these cases, the infection lasts only three to four days.
• In 15% of cases, however, people enter a second, toxic phase of the disease with recurring fever, this time accompanied by jaundice due to liver damage, as well as abdominal pain.
• Bleeding in the mouth, the eyes, and the gastrointestinal tract cause vomit containing blood

TRANSMISSIONS

The yellow fever virus is an arbovirus of the flavivirus genus and is transmitted by mosquitoes, belonging to the Aedes and Haemogogus species. The different mosquito species live in different habitats - some breed around houses (domestic), others in the jungle (wild), and some in both habitats (semi-domestic).

PREVENTIONS

1. Vaccination

Vaccination is the most important means of preventing yellow fever. In high-risk areas where vaccination coverage is low, prompt recognition and control of outbreaks using mass immunization is critical for preventing epidemics. It is important to vaccinate most (80 % or more) of the population at risk to prevent transmission in a region with a yellow fever outbreak.
Several vaccination strategies are used to protect against outbreaks: routine infant immunization; mass vaccination campaigns designed to increase coverage in countries at risk; and vaccination of travellers going to yellow fever endemic areas

2. Mosquito control

The risk of yellow fever transmission in urban areas can be reduced by eliminating potential mosquito breeding sites by applying larvicides to water storage containers and other places where standing water collects. Insecticide spraying to kill adult mosquitoes during urban epidemics can help reduce the number of mosquitoes, thus reducing potential sources of yellow fever transmission.

Depression: Treatment & Therapies

What is depression?

Depression is a low mood that lasts for a long time, and affects your everyday life. In its mildest form, depression can mean just being in low spirits. It doesn’t stop you leading your normal life but makes everything harder to do and seem less worthwhile. At its most severe, depression can be life-threatening because it can make you feel suicidal or simply give up the will to live.

We all have times when our mood is low, and we’re feeling sad or miserable about life. Usually these feelings pass in due course. But if the feelings are interfering with your life and don't go away after a couple of weeks, or if they come back over and over again for a few days at a time, it could be a sign that you're experiencing depression.

Signs and symptoms

You may be depressed if, for more than two weeks, you've felt sad, down or miserable most of the time, or have lost interest or pleasure in usual activities, and have also experienced several of the signs and symptoms across at least three of the categories below.

It’s important to remember that we all experience some of these symptoms from time to time, and it may not necessarily mean you're depressed. Equally, not everyone who is experiencing depression will have all of these symptoms.

Behaviour :

• not going out anymore
• not getting things done at work/school
• withdrawing from close family and friends
• relying on alcohol and sedatives
• not doing usual enjoyable activities
• unable to concentrate

Thoughts:

• 'I’m a failure.'
• 'It’s my fault.’

• 'Nothing good ever happens to me.'
• 'I’m worthless.'
• 'Life’s not worth living.'
• 'People would be better off without me.'

Physical :

• tired all the time
• sick and run down
• headaches and muscle pains
• churning gut
• sleep problems
• loss or change of appetite
• significant weight loss or gain

PREVENTIONS FOR DEPRESSION CIRCUMSTANCES

• Get good sleep. For lots of people who experience depression, sleeping too little or too much can be a daily problem. Getting good sleep can help to improve your mood and increase your energy levels.
• Eat well. Eating a balanced and nutritious diet can help you feel well, think clearly and increase your energy levels.
• Keep active. Many people find exercise a challenge but gentle activities like yoga, swimming or walking can be a big boost to your mood.
• Look after your hygiene. When you're experiencing depression, it's easy for hygiene to not feel like a priority. But small things, like taking a shower and getting fully dressed whether or not you're going out of the house, can make a big difference to how you feel.
• Challenge your thinking. Students Against Depression have lots of information and activity sheets to try to help you challenge negative thinking.
• Try volunteering. Volunteering (or just offering to help someone out) can make you feel better about yourself and less alone.

DEPRESSION IS LIKE A WAR. YOU EITHER WIN OR DIE TRYING. SO ONE SHOULD ALWAYS TRY TO WIN THIS BATTLE.

Suicide: About & Facts

Suicide is the act of deliberately killing yourself or the act of taking one's own life. The main cause of this serious kind of activity is mental depression or disorder. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorder (such as depression, personality disorder, alcohol dependence, bipolar disorder) and physical illnesses, such as neurological disorders, cancer, and HIV infection. Others are impulsive acts due to stress such as from financial difficulties, troubles with relationships, or from bullying. Those who have previously attempted suicide are at higher risk for future attempts.

SOME STATISTICS

• Suicide resulted in 842,000 deaths globally in 2013 (up from 712,000 deaths in 1990). This makes it the 10th leading cause of death worldwide.
• Approximately 0.5% to 1.4% of people die by suicide, about 12 per 100,000 persons per year.Three quarters of suicides globally occur in the developing world.
• Rates of completed suicides are generally higher in men than in women, ranging from 1.5 times as much in the developing world to 3.5 times in the developed world.
• Suicide is generally most common among those over the age of 70; however, in certain countries those aged between 15 and 30 are at highest risk.

RISK FACTORS/CAUSES FOR SUICIDE

Mental disorders or mental pressures are the key factors for most of the suicide cases these days.The pressure can be put up on anyone ranging from fifteen years to seventy years.People who are mentally weak usually lead to these kind of raging activities.The pressure include various mental psychological,social,family and financial problem.Most of the children between the age of fifteen years to twenty four years faces the presure of education as well.Those children who can't handle this stress usually leads to suicide murders.That's why India is in top positions among children suicide cases.Mental pressure among children is also the reason that in india most of the suicide cases are against the children and not among adults.

Substance use is the second most common risk factor for suicide attempts.Substance use usually involves use of high addiction drugs that releases such type of toxics that damages the thinking capability of human mind.Substance use also involves consumption of alcoholic beverages. Alcoholics who attempt suicide are usually male, older, and have tried to take their own lives in the past. Between 3 and 35% of deaths among those who use heroin are due to suicide (approximately 14 fold greater than those who do not use). In adolescents who misuse alcohol, neurological and psychological dysfunctions may contribute to the increased risk of suicide.

Problem gambling is associated with increased suicidal ideation and attempts compared to the general population. Between 12 and 24% pathological gamblers attempt suicide. The rate of suicide among their spouses is three times greater than that of the general population. Other factors that increase the risk in problem gamblers include mental illness, alcohol and drug misuse.

PREVENTIONS FOR SUICIDAL BEHAVIOUR AND THOUGHTS

Structured counseling and psychotherapy.

Hospitalization for those with low adherence to collaboration for help and those who require monitoring & secondary symptom treatment.

Supportive therapy like substance abuse treatment, Psychotropic medication, Family psychoeducation and Access to emergency phone call care with emergency rooms, suicide prevention hotlines...etc.

Restricting access to lethality of suicide means through policies and laws.

Person-centered life skills training. e,g., Problem solving.

Therapeutic recreational therapy that improves mood.

Motivating self-care activities like physical exercise's and meditative relaxation.

SUICIDE DOESN'T END THE CHANCES OF LIFE GETTING WORSE, IT ELEMINATES THE POSSIBILITY OF IT EVER GETTING ANY BETTER.

AGEING: A POWERFUL TOOL OF TIME

Ageing is the process of becoming older.In humans, ageing represents the accumulation of changes in a human being over time, encompassing physical, psychological, and social change. Reaction time may slow with age, while knowledge of world events and wisdom may expand. Ageing is among the greatest known risk factors for most human diseases: of the roughly 150,000 people who die each day across the globe, about two thirds die from age-related causes.

Ageing begins as soon as adulthood is reached and is as much a part of human life as are infancy, childhood, and adolescence. The causes of ageing are uncertain as it is a natural process that cant be put to a stop or denied.However with the advancement in technology the mortality rate has decreased much as now many diseases which were the cause of early human deaths can now be cured.

Many persons consider ageing to be a sin in their life as they think that now they have aged they cant do that much of fun that they usually did in their teenage or early 20's. But this all is a physcological thing. It all depends on that person how he or she takes his or her ageing .

These all are the physcological things that one has to keep it in mind while going through his or her life span. But there are some ageing effects that everyone faces and no one can deny that. 

Some of these effects are as follow :

• Hair turns grey with age. Pattern hair loss by the age of 50 affects about half of males and a quarter of females
• Around a third of people between 65 and 74 have hearing loss and almost half of people older than 75.
• Fraility, defined as loss of muscle mass and mobility, affects 25% of those over 85
• Atherosclerosis is classified as an ageing disease. It leads to cardiovascular disease ( for eg. strokes and heart attacks) which globally is the most common cause of death.
• Wrinkles develop mainly due to photoageing, particularly affecting sun-exposed areas (face)

These are some of the effects that can't be ignored. In the lapse of ageing a person must take care of himself to live a healthy life. For this the person must be regular to exercise, health check-ups and all.

He or she must should take his or her medicines on time and the last and the foremost thing is that the person should adopt an optimistic approach towards life and should never feel alone.

REMEMBER: SOME PEOPLE ARE YOUNG AT 90 AND SOME OLD AT 18, IT'S ONLY HOW YOU SEE LIFE AND MAKE THE BEST OUT OF IT EVEN IN YOUR END DAYS.

Organ Transplantation

ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION- Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be transported from a donor site to another location.

Organs that have been successfully transplanted include the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, and thymus. Some organs, like the brain, cannot be transplanted. Tissues include bones,  cornea, skin, heart valves, nerves and veins. Worldwide, the kidneys are the most commonly transplanted organs, followed by the liver and then the heart.

WHO CAN BE A DONOR-All of us can be organ donors, irrespective of age, caste, religion, community, current or past medical condition. Children can also be organ donors after taking consent for organ donation from their parents.

However active cancer, active HIV, active infection (for example, sepsis) or Intravenous (IV) drug use are some of the contra-indications. Patients who have Hepatitis C may still donate organs to a patient who also has Hepatitis C. The same is true for Hepatitis B — but this happens in very rare cases. Most cancer patients may donate corneas.

STATISTICS-

● 500,000 people die because of non-availability of organs 
●200,000 people die of liver disease
● 50,000 people die from heart disease 
● 150,000 people await a kidney transplant but only 5,000 get one 
● 1,000,000 lakh people suffer from corneal blindness and await transplant

Nationally, with a population of 1.2 billion people, the statistic stands at 0.08 persons as organ donors per million population (PMP). This is an incredibly small and insignificant number compared to the statistics around the world.

"WITHOUT THE ORGAN DONOR,THERE IS NO STORY,NO HOPE,NO TRANSPLANT.
BUT WHEN THERE IS AN ORGAN DONOR,LIFE SPRINGS FROM DEATH,SORROW TURNS TO HOPE AND A TERRIBLE LOSS BECOMES A GIFT"

Smoking: The Silent Killer

WHAT IS SMOKING- Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly the substance is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant which have been rolled into a small square of rice paper to create a small, round cylinder called a "cigarette".

Smoking generally has negative health effects, because smoke inhalation inherently poses challenges to various physiologic processes such as respiration. Diseases related to tobacco smoking have been shown to kill approximately half of long-term smokers when compared to average mortality rates faced by non-smokers.

Smoking not only includes cigarettes but also these day to day hookah and oother kind of drugs like weed,hash,opium and other type of harmful drugs.

MODERN DAYS HOOKAH KILLER

Similar to cigarettes, hookah smoking delivers the addictive drug nicotine and it is at least as toxic as cigarette smoking. While many hookah smokers may consider this practice less harmful than smoking cigarettes, hookah smoking carries many of the same health risks as cigarettes.

In recent years, there has been an increase in hookah use around the world, most notably among youth and college students. Many hookah smokers believe that smoking a hookah carries less risk of tobacco-related disease than cigarette smoking. However, hookah smoke contains many of the same harmful toxins as cigarette smoke and has been associated with lung cancer, respiratory illness, low birth weight, and periodontal disease.

A typical 1-hour-long hookah smoking session involves 200 puffs, while an average cigarette is 20 puffs. The volume of smoke inhaled during a typical hookah session is about 90,000 milliliters, compared with 500 to 600 milliliters inhaled when smoking cigarette.


WRONG MYTHS ABOUT SMOKING HOOKAH-

Some sweetened and flavored nontobacco products are sold for use in hookahs.Labels and ads for these products often claim that users can enjoy the same taste without the harmful effects of tobacco.Studies of tobacco-based shisha and “herbal” shisha show that smoke from both preparations contain carbon monoxide and other toxic agents known to increase the risks for smoking-related cancers, heart disease, and lung disease.





SECOND HAND SMOKING/ PASSIVE SMOKING-

Second-hand smoke is the smoke that fills restaurants, offices or other enclosed spaces when people burn tobacco products such as cigarettes, bidis and water-pipes. There are more than 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer. 

There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke.

In adults, second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. In infants, it causes sudden death. In pregnant women, it causes low birth weight.

Almost half of children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke in public places.

Second-hand smoke causes more than 600 000 premature deaths per year.

In 2004, children accounted for 28% of the deaths attributable to second-hand smoke.

WAYS TO REDUCE SMOKING-

1. Cold turkey (no outside help). About 90% of people who try to quit smoking do it without outside support -- no aids, therapy, or medicine. Although most people try to quit this way, it's not the most effective or successful method. Only between 4% and 7% are able to quit by doing it alone.
2. Behavioral therapy. This involves working with a counselor to find ways not to smoke. Together, you'll find your triggers (such as emotions or situations that make you want to smoke) and make a plan to get through the cravings.
3. Nicotine replacement therapy. Nicotine gum, patches, inhalers, sprays, and lozenges are nicotine replacement therapies. They work by giving you nicotine without the use of tobacco. You may be more likely to quit with nicotine replacement therapy, but it works best when combined with behavioral therapy and lots of support from friends and family. And remember that the goal is to end your addiction to nicotine, not simply to quit using tobacco.
4. Medication. Bupropion (Zyban) and varenicline (Chantix) are prescription medications that can help with your cravings and symptoms from withdrawals.

SMOKING CAN'T BE QUIT BUT CAN BE REDUCED TO SOME EXTENT. KILL THE   SMOKE AROUND YOU BEFORE IT KILLS YOU.

Headache Disorders

HEADACHE DISORDERS are among the most common disorders of the nervous system. Headaches are one of the most common complaints, and most people experience them at some point in their life.

A headache can be a sign of stress or emotional distress, or it can result from a medical disorder, such as migraine or high blood pressure, anxiety or depression. It can lead to other problems. People with chronic migraine headaches, for example, may find it hard to attend work regularly. A headache can occur in any part of the head, on both sides of the head, or just in one part.

HOW COMMON ARE HEADACHES ?

Headaches are extremely common. Nearly everyone has a headache occasionally. When they occur repeatedly, they are a symptom of a headache disorder. The most common headache disorder is tension-type headache. In developed countries, tension-type headache affects over one third of men and over one half of women. Recent studies suggest the same in developing countries. Less well recognized is the toll of headache disorders characterized by very frequent headache: up to 1 adult in 20 has a headache every – or nearly every – day.

Headache disorders are painful and disabling. They can cause substantial personal suffering, impaired quality of life and high financial cost. Repeated headache attacks – and often the constant fear of the next one – can affect family life, social life and employment. Despite this, many people – including many health care professionals – tend to perceive headache as a minor or trivial complaint. As a result, the physical, emotional, social and economic burdens of headaches are poorly acknowledged.

 

FACTS AND FIGURES

• 91% of people with migraine cannot work or function normally during an attack. 53% are severely impaired and often require bedrest. (Lipton, et al, Headache, 2001)
• 54% of people with migraine have at least one attack each month. 13% have one or more more attacks each week. (Steiner et al, Cephalalgia, 2003)
• Up to 4% of adults worldwide have a headache or migraine on 15 or more days each month.
• Migraine is the 7th highest cause of disability worldwide. It is by far the most disabling neurological condition.
• In years of healthy life lost to disability, migraine is in the top 20 of all diseases
• Tension-type headache is the 2nd most common illness worldwide. Migraine is 3rd

CURES

Streach,Relax and Breathe- Yoga will get your mind focused, stretch out your muscles, and get you moving in ways that can help you drop the tension-and if you drop the tension, you can drop the tension-headache. Make a conscious effort to take deep, full, breaths that start in your diaphragm and fill up your lungs. This will get your plenty of fresh oxygen circulating through your blood and will also help relax your mind and body.

Improve Your Posture-  Make a conscious effort to sit up tall but relaxed, with your shoulders back, your chest open, and your neck not sticking too far forward. Working on strengthening core muscles helps a lot with posture, since balance and the strength to support ourselves properly comes from mostly from our center.

Eat Less Chocolate- Pretty straightforward-chocolate and the caffeine it contains make it a common trigger for headaches in many people.

Drink More Of H2O-On average we don’t drink enough water daily, and that alone is cause for a headache. As soon as your head starts to hurt, drink a tall glass of water, and then sip throughout the day. Gradually the pain will start to ease up, and you’ll be hurting less and well-hydrated to boot.

Keep A Food Diary- Record the foods you eat and track your headache patterns. See if you can spot a link.

DONT TAKE HEADACHE DISORDERS OR ANY OTHER MENTAL PROBLEM LIGHTLY, AS A DISEASE IS A DISEASE AND CAN HARM YOUR BODY MORE SERIOUSLY.

EAT DRINK WORK AND ENJOY