Beethoven’s Fifth Disease

Shout out to Laura, the impetus for the post.

When Laura queried me about Fifth disease, and if I had ever heard of it, I was baffled. Fifth disease? Is there a First, Second, Third, Fourth illness too?

Bad joke aside, Laura told me what she knew about the disease; it make children flush persistently, like they had been slapped. Basically, it sounded unappealing, but what sickness is?

Fifth disease is the only human parvovirus, Parvovirus B19. If you put “parvovirus” into Google, you get a lot of dog-related pages. But you can’t catch Fifth disease from your dog or cat or other animal pal. Parvoviruses are some of the teeniest viruses out there, topping out the yardstick at a whopping 20 to 25 nanometers. For my biomedical pals, they’re single stranded in the DNA department and fond of making hairpins.

The disease primarily affects children, and children are the most contagious even before they exhibit the trademark scarlet face. It sounds much like a cold; it’s spread in the same way, and other symptoms in kids can include fever and tiredness, along with a sometimes itchy rash on the body. Adults have it rough though because they will get joint pain. Usually the illness goes away on its own, lasting from about four to fourteen days. During this time, affected individuals should stay away from pregnant ladies due to possible anemia in the offspring and possible miscarriage. Some lucky people are immune or show no symptoms. Nice.

But what I really really want to know about fifth, AKA erythema infectiosum, is why is it called that?

Answer: in ye olden days, wee ones were plagued by five different skin rashes.

1. Rubeola (measles)
2. Varicella (chicken pox)
3. Rubella (German measles)
4. Roseola (controversy! also called sixth disease?)
5. Parvovirus B19

Fun lab fact: the parvovirus is named B19 because of how the lab researcher labeled plates!

References

• http://www.emedicinehealth.com/fifth_disease/article_em.htm
• http://www.fifthdisease.org/
• http://www.stanford.edu/group/virus/parvo/2000/parvovirus.html
• http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/respiratory/parvo_b19.htm
• http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/respiratory/B19&preg.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parvovirus_B19

I bet you didn’t discuss malaria treatments at your holiday party

My company threw a holiday party a few weeks ago and since there was an open bar of sorts, I decided to order a gin and tonic.  Wayne asked me what tonic water was, and I was ashamed? embarrassed? to not be able to provide the answer.  What’s tonic water?  What’s seltzer water?

I scrounged my brain for an appropriate factoid.  “Uh, once I saw an episode of House which said something about how quinine was in tonic water?”  Not the stroke of brilliance I was looking for. 

“Quinine?  Does that have to do with malaria?”

I don’t know!  It’s sad.

I’ll make amends now!

Tonic water basically consists of four ingredients: carbonated water, a sweetener, citric acid, and quinine.  The alkaloid quinine is the substance that causes bitterness.  [Hmm, that's a good one.  Instead of telling someone that he/she is so bitter, you can say, "You're so quinine."]  Quinine was added to the water as a therapeutic/preventative measure, and those clever Brits came up with the delightful gin and tonic to make the medicine go down, Mary Poppins-style.

Quinine is isolated from the bark of the cinchona tree, native to the Andes mountains.  Trees in the genus Cinchona were taken to other parts of the world, notably India and Indonesia, and flourished.  There are colorful stories about the historical use of cinchona bark extract involving countesses and Jesuits.  Quinine works by blocking the actions of the enzyme heme polymerase which results in a build-up of toxic heme within the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, nicely killing those buggers.

It would not be advised to swill gin and tonics to self-medicate for malaria, as you would be consuming roughly 100 drinks a day.  The amount of quinine in commercially available tonic water is minimal: 20 mg per 6 fluid ounces, and the prescribed dosage of quinine is 600 mg per day. 

Seltzer water is just carbonated water.  What a letdown; I thought it would be more exciting than that.

And then people at the party all ordered gin and tonics and I felt like a trendsetter.

References

• http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/dining/29toni.html
• http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Cinchona/index.html
• http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/motm/quinine/quininev.htm
• http://www.rain-tree.com/quinine.htm
• http://www.malariasite.com/malaria/quinine.htm

The Komodo is King!

Another post for my mom, who knows I am a secret herpetologist at heart.

Komodo dragons are badasses of the lizard world due to their sheer size. Around 3,000 to 5,000 of them make their home in the tropics of Indonesia, on the Lesser Sunda Islands which include Komodo, Flores, and Rinca. Dragons average 8 feet long but can top the yardstick at up to 10 feet long. Weight-wise, 150 pounds is typical. Komodos live up to 40 years, not too shabby. You would assume that due to the reptile’s sheer size and strength, it would eat all of its meat fresh but like humans, oftentimes a dragon will consume carrion, with some favorite foods including pigs, deer, water buffalo, even other Komodo dragons. Cannibals! Olfaction is the strongest sense, followed by vision, and then hearing is not exactly the best.

Two bits of scientific trivia make Komodo dragons fascinating. One: females can reproduce without males; they don’t need no stinkin’ males! This is called parthenogenesis, and Scientific American can explain it more if you’re curious. Two: the Komodo dragon’s mouth is full of icky bacteria which makes its bite particularly kicking and nasty. How much bacteria and what kinds? 50 strains of bacteria, including Pasteurella multocida, is a fair figure. And some of these bacteria cause sepsis (blood infection) which can take down prey in 24 hours. Bits of old food hang out in the serrated part of the Komodo dragon’s teeth, providing the bacteria sustenance. But the dragons aren’t infected by their own bacteria. Nifty immune systems!

References

• http://www.honoluluzoo.org/komodo_dragon.htm
• http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/komodo-dragon.html
• http://www.pbs.org/wildindonesia/dragon/index.html
• http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlife/article.cfm?articleId=810&issueId=63

Salmonella ella ella, eh eh eh

It is wrong to secretly love “Umbrella” by Rihanna?  If it is, I surely do not want to be right.  Maybe it’s the presence of the brilliance known as Jay-Z that makes the ditty so catchy.  Yeah, I know I’m so last summer.

 

A few weeks I bought a tomato and was told by my pops that there was a small outbreak of salmonella.  Being the hypochondriac that I am, I freaked out for a second, but then realized that I had little to worry about.  I did buy the red fruitvegetetable at a farmer’s market and we all know that farmer’s markets are magical venues of pure health and goodness.

 

Then I said, “Self, I don’t know exactly what salmonella is.  How about I enlighten myself?”

“Very wise!” I replied.

So far, tomatoes, basil, and jalapeños have been linked to the bacteria.  Why not cilantro?  We don’t need no cilantro.

 

Technically, Salmonella are the bacteria which causes salmonellosis, and the strains S. typhimurium and S. enteritidis are the most common in the United States.  These buggers are transmitted via foodstuffs, primarily raw meat and poultry but also by produce.  And by reptiles.  Symptoms can last up to a week and include diarrhea, pains in the abdominal area, fever, and headache, with other signs being nausea and vomiting and appetite loss.  Most healthy folks with recover without special medical treatment. 

 

Advice

• Wash your hands before and after you handle food
• Scrub down kitchen goods used to prepare your yummy meals that were thoroughly cooked
• Soap up your paws following pet lizard time  
• Don’t be all Rocky Balboa and chug raw eggs

References

http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/healthscience/healthtopics/salmonellosis/Overview.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/dfbmd/disease_listing/salmonellosis_gi.html

 

Whooping cough is a zombie! An old terror returns from the grave

Whooping cough, or if you please, pertussis, is back with a vengeance. To most of us, whooping cough was nothing to fear, one of those diseases from the old days just like polio, read about but not experienced.

Well, no more.

Pesky little bacteria called Bordetella pertussis are responsible for the disease. Even though colds are caused by viruses and therefore cannot be cured, whooping cough shares similarities with the old common cold. It is highly contagious and primarily strikes children, especially those who haven’t been vaccinated. Also, whooping cough spreads through direct contact, much like with those colds. Symptoms are milder in adults and teens.

But what is whoop?
Instead of ending like a regular cough with the inhale, there is a whoopee cushion-like noise at the tail end.

This is nothing to sneeze at. Those with whooping cough endure persistent fits of coughing and vomiting, and complications like pneumonia and seizures may result. If that isn’t enough, death can occur, with 13 children in the United States passing away in 2003. Annually, 5000 to 7000 cases are reported each year in the United States.

Lasting several weeks, whooping cough can be treated by antibiotics. Prevention is key…get vaccinated!

References
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/pertussis_t.htm
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2005/305_cough.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001561.htm