Buruli Ulcer - Infection that Consumes Skins

Buruli Ulcer is a disease caused by infection by the Mycobacterium ulcerans. It is one of the most neglected disease in the world, specifically in the developing countries. Mycobacterium (other bacteria of the same family) is also the bacteria that causes tuberculosis and leprosis; however, Buruli ulcer has received the least attention.

Infection of this disease occurs mainly in tropical areas such as Australia, West Africa, Southeast Asia and New Guinea. Among which, this disease has the largest impact in developing countries, mainly due to the lack of knowledge in the disease.

It has been reported that the mycobacteria strives within aquatic environments (such as small aquatic animals, biofilms). Transmission mode to humans is still under investigation. Thus, Buruli ulcers usually occurs near water sources, infecting children under 15 years mainly. There is no evidence that this disease can be transmitted from person to person.

A young boy with Buruli ulcers
Picture Source: click here

Symptoms in General

Buruli ulcer begins with a painless mobile swelling in the skin (any part of the body). The more severe infection can be painful. Buruli ulcer is a long term, necrotizing disease that slowly destroys the skin and soft tissue by the toxin secreted by the mycobacteria.Without treatment, massive ulcerations take place and if the bone is affected, gross deformities will be the consequence.  If the ulcers develop on the limbs, the movement of the patients will be greatly restricted; even after the lesions have healed, the massive scarring will affect the mobility of the patients. In more severe cases, lifetime disabilities are norm in the patients. Can you imagine the pain the patients are enduring?

Treatment And Prevention

The most efficient treatment of Buruli ulcer is the surgical removal of the ulcers. For disease in more advanced stage, prolonged treatment with skin grafting will be necessary. However, surgical practice is scarcely available in developing countries. A combination of antibiotics can be used to reduce the requirement for surgery.

Bacille Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination has been observed to provide short-term protection against the disease. Although only limited protection is available, it will still be useful by ensuring a complete coverage of this vaccine in the heavily affected regions. Once again, people in developing countries have very minor chances to receive such vaccination due to extreme poverty as well as lack of knowledge in diseases.

Care For Your Pets - Roundworms in Dogs

Do you have a family dog at home? If your answer is yes, this is a post you might be interested to know more about parasites that might live within your dogs.

Roundworm is the most common kind of infectious parasite in puppies and dogs; if not treated, roundworm infection in puppies can be fatal.

The Dog Roundworm, Toxocara canis, lives within puppies and dogs and the adult worm is ranging from 9 to18cm (about 3.5 to 7 inches) in length. A female can lay about 200,000 eggs of microscopic size daily. The eggs are protected by thick cell wall and can survive for months in the soil. These make roundworm infection highly transmittable among dogs.

There are several ways puppies and dogs can get roundworm infection. For puppies, prenatal infection is the most common type, whereby the roundworm larvae from the mother dogs migrate into the placenta and infect the developing puppies before birth. On the other hand, puppies can get infected through ingestion of mother’s milk that contains roundworm eggs. Puppies and dogs can also get infected by ingesting eggs in the soil, this is the most frequent route of infection in adult dogs.

Life cycle of roundworm in puppies (of age up to 3 months):

• Step 1: Roundworm eggs ingested by the puppies (through milk or from soil) enter the stomach and then hatch in the small intestines.    
• Step 2: The larvae travel through the bloodstream and enter the lungs and liver of the pup.
• Step 3: After residing in the lungs, the larvae move their way up the windpipes and are swallowed by puppies. 
• Step 4: The larvae develop into adult worms in the intestines, completing their life-cycle. The adult worms mate pass eggs into the faeces of puppies. (Fortunate to mention that the eggs in the faeces will only become infective after 3 to 4 weeks of incubation in the soil)     

Roundworms in stools
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For older dogs, they have developed immunity against the roundworm, therefore very few larvae will be able to complete their life cycle within the dog. If any larvae completed the life cycle, the adult worms will reside in various body tissues in the dog, and develop a tough shell (encyst) that protects them against the host’s immune system. At this stage, even the de-wormer might not be able to kill the worms. However, during pregnancy, the encysted worms get activated again and migrate to the placenta to infect the next generation.

In adult dogs, roundworm infection can be no symptom at all; while in puppies some symptoms might be vomiting, diarrhea, dull-coat and bloated belly. Worms might appear in the vomit and the feces, which look like white threads or white spaghetti strands that wriggle.
In general, an infection of roundworm can be gotten rid of with the use of de-wormers prescribed by vet, and your doggy will be back to health in no time! HOWEVER, severe infection in young puppies can be fatal, and roundworm infection is not only contagious among dogs, there are risks whereby roundworm transmits from dogs to human. Be warned!

For more information on roundworms in Human, click here: Roundworm in Human

The Young Soul Trapped In An Old Body

Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome, commonly known as Progeria or Aging disorder. As its name implies, babies born with this condition start to age at a very tender age and usually die at the age of 13 to 14.

Around the world, there are not many known cases of this disorder, affecting newborns at a rate of about 1 in 8million. Although Progeria is a genetic disorder, it is not inheritable.

Symptoms:

• The child will have normal appearance in early stage of infancy, symtoms start to surface at the age of 9 to 24 months.
• Growth delays, the child will have short stature, look smaller than children of the same age.
• Distinct facial appearences such as small faces, small jaws, huge heads, malformation of teeth, wrinkled skins, baldness.
• The affected child will develop similar respiratory, arthritic and cardiovascular conditions of an old person at later stage of the disorder.
• The growth of the affected child seems arrest and fast-forward at the same time in the same body. The child with the age of 10 will resemble the body size of a 3-yr-old, but the child will have the appearance of a 80-yr-old.

There is no treatment proven to be effective against this disorder. Sad to say, patients have difficulty living past the age of 13. There is a rare case of a Progeria patient living till the age of 21. Mentally, the affected child will be at his real age. Physically, he is growing at 8 times faster than normal kids!

Susana Lopez, is the oldest Progeria sufferer, 21-yr-old

Most of the affected children die of complications from the disorder, such as heart attack and stroke.