Ticked off: America ’s quiet epidemic of tickborne diseases
For most of us, springtime marks the return of life to a dreary landscape, bringing birdsong, trees in bud, and daffodils in bloom. But if you work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the coming of spring means the return of nasty diseases spread by ticks and mosquitoes.
The killjoys at CDC celebrated the end of winter with a bummer of a paper showing that infections spread by ticks doubled in the United States from 2004 to 2016. (Tick populations have exploded in recent decades, perhaps due to climate change and loss of biodiversity.)
Lyme disease
The most common infection spread by ticks in the US i...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 25, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Ross, MD, FIDSA Tags: Health Infectious diseases Source Type: blogs
4 things to know about ticks and Lyme
As the weather gets better and school vacations begin, along with sunburns and water safety there is something else parents need to think about: ticks and Lyme disease.
Lyme disease is spread by the bite of the blacklegged tick. While there are cases in various parts of the country, it’s most common in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, as well as around the Great Lakes. The early symptoms of Lyme include fever, body aches, and a bull’s-eye rash. It’s very treatable with antibiotics, but if not caught and left untreated, it can lead to serious health problems.
Here is information from the Centers for Disease Cont...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 15, 2018 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Claire McCarthy, MD Tags: Children's Health Infectious diseases Parenting Source Type: blogs
Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness
You have a chronic illness that is debilitating and requires meticulous management. Which is hard enough. But you also have an invisible illness—like fibromyalgia, diabetes, Lyme disease, IBS, or something very rare.
On the outside, on most days, you look fine, even perfectly healthy. But on the inside, you’re struggling with unbearable migraines, knock-you-off-your-feet fatigue, dangerous digestive issues, severe pain and much more. Because people don’t see these symptoms, they misunderstand what’s going on, which leads you to feel judged and lonely. And these people might include everyone from medical professiona...
Source: World of Psychology - May 13, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. Tags: Disorders General Health-related Inspiration & Hope Mental Health and Wellness Self-Help Chronic Illness Chronic Pain Coping Skills Resilience Source Type: blogs
Tick- and Mosquito-borne Diseases: Trends in the United States
The following data are abstracted from Gideon and the Gideon e-book series. [1] Charts were created using an interactive tool driven by over 30,000 base graphs in the program. [2]
Chart 1 contrasts trends for reported incidence of Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF). Note that while rates of Lyme disease in 2016 are 15-fold those reported in 1987, those of RMSF increased by a factor of seven. The number of fatal cases for both diseases have remained similar in recent years (i.e., the relative case-fatality rate of Lyme disease has decreased)
Chart 2 summarizes incidence data for a variety of tick-bo...
Source: GIDEON blog - May 4, 2018 Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Dr. Stephen Berger Tags: Ebooks Epidemiology Graphs ProMED Source Type: blogs
Biomeme ’s Portable PCR System Expands Research Possibilities
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is one of the most widely used techniques in biological research and testing, allowing researchers to amplify and identify even small quantities of DNA or RNA. It serves a wide variety of uses, from genetic testing to infectious disease identification to forensics. Thermal cyclers, the machines that run PCR, are a staple in research laboratories. However, they are also large and expensive.
Biomeme hopes to expand those limitations. The Philadelphia-based company started in 2013 with one simple but powerful idea. “We wanted to empower anyone, a lay person, a researcher, a clinician, whomeve...
Source: Medgadget - January 22, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Cici Zhou Tags: Diagnostics Genetics Source Type: blogs
For “ chemobrain ” et alia: think “ brain fitness training ”
If you have this personal history of cancer and chemo- or radiation-therapy, or know someone or are treating someone who has lived it, you might seriously consider enrolling (them) in a serious “brain fitness program”. That is ESPECIALLY the case if memory or other cognitive losses have been noted after either chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. Posit Science is now supporting a study that is designed to document improvements in cognitive function resulting from its “brain fitness training” strategy (see www.brainhq.com) in chemotherapy-treated breast cancer survivors. While initial findings in t...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - January 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Fitness Brain Trauma, Injury Chemobrain Source Type: blogs
Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP): MRI
Discussionby Dr MGK Murthy, Dr GA PrasadChronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is characterized clinically by a progressive or relapsing course of many months to years of symptoms similar to compressive myelopathy.Etiology Remains unknown, but T-cell activation in nerves plays an important role in the pathogenesis of CIDP& antigens in Schwann cells have been identified.PathologicallyCIDP is characterized by mononuclear cell infiltrates, edema, segmental demyelination, and remyelination&“onion bulb formation” which describes enlarged fascicles with increased endoneural connective t...
Source: Sumer's Radiology Site - December 12, 2017 Category: Radiology Authors: Sumer Sethi Source Type: blogs
Cardiology MCQ Test 4
Time limit: 0
Quiz-summary
0 of 20 questions completed
Questions:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
...
Source: Cardiophile MD - October 21, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Johnson Francis Tags: General Cardiology Source Type: blogs
Microbial Theories of Alzheimer's Disease are Gaining Support
The lack of concrete progress in the amyloid clearance approach to Alzheimer's disease, despite significant investment and many clinical trials over the past decade, has led to a great deal of theorizing in the research community. Is it that the dominant anti-amyloid strategy immunotherapy is intrinsically challenging when applied to the brain at this point in the progress of medical biotechnology, or is it that amyloid is not the best target? In the SENS view of aging, amyloid accumulation is a primary difference between old and young tissue, and it should be removed. But Alzheimer's is a very complicated condition, invol...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 8, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 36-year-old man with history of fatigue
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 36-year-old man is evaluated for a 1-year history of fatigue, intermittent headaches, sore throat, and joint and muscle pain. He reports no difficulties falling asleep and gets 10 hours of uninterrupted but nonrestorative sleep each night. He has seen several physicians over the past year. Evaluation has included a complete blood count with differential, thyroid-stimulating hormone level, and plasma glucose level that were normal at the time of initial presentation and again 2 months ago. HIV testing performed...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 19, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Endocrinology Infectious Disease Pain Management Primary Care Rheumatology Source Type: blogs
Ticks and the changing landscape of tick-borne illnesses
Ticks and the diseases they carry have long been recognized as health concerns, especially in the warmer months when ticks (and humans) are more active. Ticks wait on grass tips or shrubs to latch onto new hosts when they brush by. Most of the hosts are animals, but a few tick species do bite and feed on humans. While doing so, they can transmit bacteria and viruses through their saliva.
But here’s what’s changing:
Tick species are being found in a wider geographic range.
The number of case reports of tick-borne illnesses is increasing.
Scientists continue to identify new pathogens (bacteria and viruses that cause dis...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 11, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Wynne Armand, MD Tags: Health Infectious diseases Prevention Safety Travel health Source Type: blogs
Ticks and the changing landscape of tick borne illnesses
Ticks and the diseases they carry have long been recognized as health concerns, especially in the warmer months when ticks (and humans) are more active. Ticks wait on grass tips or shrubs to latch onto new hosts when they brush by. Most of the hosts are animals, but a few tick species do bite and feed on humans. While doing so, they can transmit bacteria and viruses through their saliva.
But here’s what’s changing:
Tick species are being found in a wider geographic range.
The number of case reports of tick-borne illnesses is increasing.
Scientists continue to identify new pathogens (bacteria and viruses that cause dis...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - August 11, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Wynne Armand, MD Tags: Health Infectious diseases Prevention Safety Travel health Source Type: blogs
More Theorizing on the Role of Pathogens in Alzheimer's Disease
The dominant approach to Alzheimer's research and the development of potential therapies involves finding ways to clear out aggregates of amyloid and tau that build up in the brain. This has proven challenging, however. It is too early to say in certainty whether lack of tangible progress on this front is because it is a hard problem, or because this isn't the most effective direction. The weight of evidence strongly suggests the former is the case, but that hasn't stopped delayed progress from spurring the development of a great many alternative hypotheses as to the cause of Alzheimer's disease. One line of thinking sugge...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 27, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
A Healthy 50-something with new dyspnea on exertion and an interesting ECG
This study was on asymptomatic patients.There are other longitudinal studies which did NOT show increased long term risk. (Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog)
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - July 25, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Steve Smith Source Type: blogs
