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Konzo
Konzo is an epidemic paralytic disease occurring among hunger-stricken rural populations in Africa where a diet dominated by insufficiently processed cassava results in simultaneous malnutrition and high dietary cyanide intake. Konzo was first described by Giovanni Trolli in 1938 who compiled the observations from eight doctors working in the Kwango area of the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo). Signs and symptoms The onset of paralysis ( spastic paraparesis) is sudden and symmetrical and affects the legs more than the arms. The resulting disability is permanent but does not progress. Typically, a patient is standing and walking on the balls of the feet with rigid legs and often with ankle clonus. Initially, most patients experience generalized weakness during the first days and are bedridden for some days or weeks before trying to walk. Occasional blurred vision and/or speech difficulties typically clear during the first month, except in severely affected p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hans Rosling
Hans Rosling (; 27 July 1948 – 7 February 2017) was a Swedish physician, academic and public speaker. He was a professor of international health at Karolinska Institute and was the co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation, which developed the Trendalyzer software system. He held presentations around the world, including several TED Talks in which he promoted the use of data (and data visualization) to explore development issues. His posthumously published book '' Factfulness'', coauthored with his daughter-in-law Anna Rosling Rönnlund and son Ola Rosling, became an international bestseller. Life and career Rosling was born in Uppsala, Sweden, on 28 July 1948. From 1967 to 1974, he studied statistics and medicine at Uppsala University, and in 1972 he studied public health at St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, India. He became a licensed physician in 1976 and from 1979 to 1981 he served as District Medical Officer in Nacala in northern Mozambique. In 1981, he beg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropical Ataxic Neuropathy
Tropical ataxic neuropathy (TAN, also known as Strachan-Scott Syndrome and prisoners of war neuropathy) is a disease or category of diseases that commonly causes disability and increases mortality. The causes of TAN are not understood; there is no generally accepted treatment, and the reported outcomes are inconsistent. The disease affects poor tropical populations; there are no good statistics on how many people are affected worldwide, but in some populations, more than a quarter of people are affected. Malnutrition may play a role. Classification and signs and symptoms TAN is one of many tropical myeloneuropathy, tropical myeloneuropathies. It was first described in Jamaica in 1897, by postmortems of 510 cases; in 1959, it was dubbed "tropical ataxic neuropathy". The diagnostic criteria were defined in 1968. TAN is defined by "bilateral optic atrophy, bilateral sensory neural deafness, predominant posterior column involvement, and pyramidal tract myelopathy, with ataxia, ataxic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neurology
Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves. Neurological practice relies heavily on the field of neuroscience, the scientific study of the nervous system. A neurologist is a physician specializing in neurology and trained to investigate, diagnose and treat neurological disorders. Neurologists treat a myriad of neurologic conditions, including stroke, seizures, movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, autoimmune neurologic disorders such as multiple sclerosis, headache disorders like migraine and dementias such as Alzheimer's disease. Neurologists may also be involved in clinical research, clinical trials, and basic research, basic or translational research. While neurology is a nonsurgical sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reflex
In biology, a reflex, or reflex action, is an involuntary, unplanned sequence or action and nearly instantaneous response to a stimulus. Reflexes are found with varying levels of complexity in organisms with a nervous system. A reflex occurs via neural pathways in the nervous system called reflex arcs. A stimulus initiates a neural signal, which is carried to a synapse. The signal is then transferred across the synapse to a motor neuron which evokes a target response. These neural signals do not always travel to the brain, so many reflexes are an automatic response to a stimulus that does not receive or need conscious thought. Many reflexes are fine-tuned to increase organism survival and self-defense. This is observed in reflexes such as the startle reflex, which provides an automatic response to an unexpected stimuli, and the feline righting reflex, which reorients a cat's body when falling to ensure safe landing. The simplest type of reflex, a short-latency reflex, has a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DR Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered to the northwest by the Republic of the Congo, to the north by the Central African Republic, to the northeast by South Sudan, to the east by Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, and by Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), to the south and southeast by Zambia, to the southwest by Angola, and to the west by the South Atlantic Ocean and the Cabinda exclave of Angola. By area, it is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 108 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous officially Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the nation's economic center. Centered on the Congo Bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linamarase
Linamarase, or beta-D-glucosidase (), is an enzyme found in many plants including cassava and the butter bean. In cassava it is found in the cell walls. When the plant is chewed or ground, it exposes the enzyme to compounds like linamarin and lotaustralin which release cyanide compounds that can be lethal to the eater. In humans, chronic toxicity is more likely than death. This action of the enzyme is used by many cultures to process cassava into an edible substance. The enzyme converts the cyanide containing compounds into acetone cyanohydrin Acetone cyanohydrin (ACH) is an organic compound used in the production of methyl methacrylate, the monomer of the transparent plastic polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), also known as acrylic. It liberates hydrogen cyanide easily, so it is used as a s ..., which spontaneously decomposes to hydrogen cyanide (HCN). The HCN then either dissolves readily in water or is released into the air. Not all cyanide can be removed during processing. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linamarin
Linamarin is a cyanogenic glucoside found in the leaves and roots of plants such as cassava, lima beans, and flax. It is a glucoside of acetone cyanohydrin. Upon exposure to enzymes and gut flora in the human intestine, linamarin and its methylated relative lotaustralin can decompose to the toxic chemical hydrogen cyanide; hence food uses of plants that contain significant quantities of linamarin require extensive preparation and detoxification. Ingested and absorbed linamarin is rapidly excreted in the urine and the glucoside itself does not appear to be acutely toxic. Consumption of cassava products with low levels of linamarin is widespread in the low-land tropics. Ingestion of food prepared from insufficiently processed cassava roots with high linamarin levels has been associated with dietary toxicity, particularly with the upper motor neuron disease known as konzo to the African populations in which it was first described by Trolli and later through the research network initiate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Oluwakayode Osuntokun
Professor Benjamin Oluwakayode Osuntokun (6 January 1935 – 22 September 1995), was a researcher and neurologist from Okemesi, Ekiti State, Nigeria. Known for discovering the cause of ataxic tropical neuropathy, he was a founding member of the Pan African Association of Neurological Sciences and an early advocate and researcher on tropical neurology. Education He had his primary and secondary education at the Holy Trinity School, Ilawe Ekiti, the Emmanuel School, Ado Ekiti and Christ's School Ado Ekiti. After, finishing his secondary education, he studied medicine at the University College, Ibadan when it was still affiliated to the University of London. Research and career In 1963, he was invited by Prof Harold Scarborough to spend a year at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff. He joined the research staff of the University College, Ibadan in 1964, as a medical research fellow. However, upon gaining a Smith and Nephew fellowship, he went abroad for further stu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropical Neuropathies
Tropical neuropathy is a class of illnesses with similar signs and symptoms, including konzo, tropical spastic paraparesis (TSP), and tropical ataxic neuropathy Tropical ataxic neuropathy (TAN, also known as Strachan-Scott Syndrome and prisoners of war neuropathy) is a disease or category of diseases that commonly causes disability and increases mortality. The causes of TAN are not understood; there is no ... (TAN). TAN is poorly understood, and some researchers subdivide it further into separate illnesses. References {{nervoussystem-disease-stub Diseases and disorders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polio
Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe symptoms develop such as headache, neck stiffness, and paresthesia. These symptoms usually pass within one or two weeks. A less common symptom is permanent paralysis, and possible death in extreme cases.. Years after recovery, post-polio syndrome may occur, with a slow development of muscle weakness similar to that which the person had during the initial infection. Polio occurs naturally only in humans. It is highly infectious, and is spread from person to person either through fecal-oral transmission (e.g. poor hygiene, or by ingestion of food or water contaminated by human feces), or via the oral-oral route. Those who are infected may spread the disease for up to six weeks even if no symptoms are present. The disease may be diagnosed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia
Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is a group of inherited diseases whose main feature is a progressive gait disorder. The disease presents with progressive stiffness (spasticity) and contraction in the lower limbs. HSP is also known as hereditary spastic paraparesis, familial spastic paraplegia, French settlement disease, Strumpell disease, or Strumpell-Lorrain disease. The symptoms are a result of dysfunction of long axons in the spinal cord. The affected cells are the primary motor neurons; therefore, the disease is an upper motor neuron disease. HSP is not a form of cerebral palsy even though it physically may appear and behave much the same as spastic diplegia. The origin of HSP is different from cerebral palsy. Despite this, some of the same anti-spasticity medications used in spastic cerebral palsy are sometimes used to treat HSP symptoms. HSP is caused by defects in transport of proteins, structural proteins, cell-maintaining proteins, lipids, and other substances th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
