DISEASES CASE STUDIESBy Nicola Wahbe

Mrs Peres | Science 4

INFECTIOUS DISEASE -

MALARIA

CAUSES AND TRANSMISSION

A bite from a female mosquito can spread malaria. There are tiny microorganisms within the mosquito’s salivary glands that cause the disease. When the mosquito pierces human skin to have a meal of blood, some of the organisms enter the body, travel to the liver and then get into the bloodstream. In the bloodstream, they reproduces asexually. The parasites undergo their reproductive cycle and continue to feed off human blood, thus spreading the disease.

SYMPTOMS

Chills Fever Shaking Profuse sweating Fatigue Low levels in red blood cells

TREATMENT

To treat malaria, people are given the drug chloroquine in the form of a pill or by injection into the muscle to kill the parasites that are in the bloodstream. If the malaria is caused by parasites resistant to this treatment, people are treated with a combination of quinine, pyrimethamine and antibiotics.

PREVENTION

When you are visiting or living in an area where malaria occurs, antimalarial drugs can be administered to prevent its occurrence. Mosquito repellent should be applied to the skin and mosquito netting used around your sleeping device.

Scientists have been working on developing a vaccine for malaria, but none have proven useful so far. It is difficult because the parasite goes through different life stages, also changing the chemical makeup of its cell coat. Therefore, what vaccine/ antibiotic works in one case will not necessarily work in another.

INCIDENCE

Malaria is a tropical disease found mostly in equatorial regions of South America, Central America, Africa and Asia.

REFERENCES (BOOKS AND WEBSITES USED FOR INFORMATION)

http://www.who.int/topics/malaria/en/ Diseases V5: Edited by Bryan Bunch

Scientific Publishing http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/malaria

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NON-INFECTIOUS DISEASE –

BIPOLAR DISORDER

CAUSES AND TRANSMISSION

The cause of bipolar disorder is unknown, although it seems to involve the chemicals that transmit messages from one nerve to another.

It is often concentrated within a particular family, but there is no pattern of inheritance. Therefore, it is at least partly genetic in origin.

Bipolar disorder is what physicians describe as sporadic, meaning that “the disease occurs without any evident hereditary connection or other known cause.”

SYMPTOMS

Unexplained changes in mood Restlessness Impulsive Withdrawal Apathy

TREATMENT

Cannot be completely cured or prevented Symptoms can often be treated successfully:

most effective treatment has been regular doses of a compound of the light metal lithium.

This drug reduces the intensity of both mania and depression and it makes attacks less frequent.

Lithium has severe side effects and should be taken only under close medical supervision.

During periods of depression, severely affected individuals may need to go into hospital.

PREVENTION

Bipolar disorders cannot be prevented. But often to mood swings can be controlled by medicines (see treatment).

INCIDENCE

Common – estimated to affect up to 3% of the population (estimate leaving out many boarder line cases)

REFERENCES (BOOKS AND WEBSITES USED FOR INFORMATION)

Diseases V1: Edited by Bryan Bunch Scientific Publishing

http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/tc/bipolar-disorder-prevention