Noma - The Disease that Destroys Smiley Faces

There are many unfortunate people around the world, especially people in the developing countries. They do not even have the basic food and necessities to allow them to live healthily. Horrifying diseases roam, leaving the people in great agony. 

Gangrenous stomatitis, commonly known as Noma, is a condition whereby the mucous membrane of the mouth and other tissues of the patients are destroyed. This disorder usually occurs in developing countires where there is malnutrition and poor cleanliness. This is also more often seen in young, severely malnourished children of young age (2- to 5-year-old).  

Once infected, Noma causes rapid tissue destruction, the gums and cheeks become inflammed and ulcers develop. The ulcers and destroyed tissues lead to severe breath odor. Infection of the tissues then spread to the skin, lips and cheeks, eventually destroying the soft tissue and bone around the infected regions. The infection will lead to deformities and loss of teeth. The patients' facial features will be severely disfigured and the normal functions of the jaws will be greatly impaired. 

The actual cause of the disorder is still not known. However, it might be due to a type of bacteria. Antibiotics and improved nutrition can aid in controlling the disorder. The condition can be fatal in some cases if left untreated; on the other hand, the condition might heal eventually even without treatment. To treat the disorder, surgery might be required to remove the destroyed tissues, and plastic surgery will be required to reconstruct the facial bones. Patients recovered from the disorder will have horrifying scars on their faces. 

This might look horrifying to you, do bear in mind that this kid
do not have a choice, if he does, a life free of disease is all he desires.

To reduce the risk of Noma, it is important to improve hygiene level and nutrition. However, sad to say, these two basic preventions are often the hardest to fulfill in most of the developing countries. 

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.

Blue Skin Disorder

When you first see Paul Karason, you may think that he is putting up lots of make up to have the “look”, well, he is definitely not. The 57-year-pld Paul Karason has the appearance of every ordinary middle aged man, except for his distinct skin color. And yes, he is all blue, literally.

The-Blue-Man, Paul Karason. 

Karason’s condition is the result of silver poisoning, with the medical name Argyria. Karason has had bad arthritis problem on his shoulders, to ease the pain he started taking *colloidal silver. The arthritis was cured along with a side effect which gradually changed his skin color till what he looks like today. The color changed was so gradual that even Karason himself did not discover it in the first place.

Argyria is caused by excessive exposure to silver be it through contacts, ingestions or inhalation. Long term of exposure will result in the discoloration of skin. This symptom is very hard to treat once develops. Other than the blue skin, severe complications may be the consequences of continued exposure to silver, such as the paralysis of respiratory system which could be fatal.

Karason's case is induced by taking colloidal silver, there are people who are born with blue skin naturally!

They were the family of Fugates. The ancester of this blue skin family was Martin Fugate who settled near Kentucky in 1800, after several generations, his descendants still appear to have blue skin. This blue skin condition remained active for over 1 century.

Family of Fugates, 1800s.

The Fugates suffer from a kind of rare disorder where they have a missing enzyme to convert methemoglobin into haemoglobin, and the medical term for this disorder is called Methemoglobinemia. Methemoglobin (blue in color) is a form of haemoglobin that does not bind to oxygen, when exist in high level in a person, the body is deprived of adequate supply of oxygen. As a result, the skin turn blue or purplish in color.

For the Fugates, their heriditary methemoglobinemia is caused by a reccessive gene. With this gene, the body fails to produce a kind of enzyme named cytochrome b5-reductase, in which its role is to convert methemoglobin back to haemoglobin in red blood cells.

Methylene blue is one of the medicines that is used to treat this conditon. Another medicine that can be used to treat this disorder is ascorbic acid.

*Colloidal silver is a liquid suspension of microscopic particles of silver.