6 Exotic Diseases That Could Come to a Town Near You...

6 Exotic Diseases: any harmful deviation from the normal structural or functional state of an organism. Generally associated with certain signs and symptoms and differing in nature from physical injury. A diseased organism commonly exhibits signs or symptoms indicative of its abnormal state.

Thus, the normal condition of an organism must be understood in order to recognize the hallmarks of the disease. Nevertheless, a sharp demarcation between disease and health is not always apparent.

The study of disease is called pathology. It involves the determination of the cause (etiology) of the disease. The understanding of the mechanisms of its development (pathogenesis). The structural changes associated with the disease process (morphological changes), and the functional consequences of those changes. Correctly identifying the cause of a disease is necessary to identify the proper course of treatment.

About Disease

A disease is an abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not due to any immediate external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that are associated with specific signs and symptoms. A disease may be caused by external factors such as pathogens or by internal dysfunctions. For example, internal dysfunctions of the immune system can produce a variety of different diseases, including various forms of immunodeficiency, hypersensitivity, allergies, and autoimmune disorders.

In humans, the disease is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes pain, dysfunction, distress, social problems, or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems for those in contact with the person. In this broader sense, it sometimes includes injuries, disabilities, disorders, syndromes, infections, isolated symptoms, deviant behaviors, and atypical variations of structure and function, while in other contexts and for other purposes these may be considered distinguishable categories. Diseases can affect people not only physically, but also mentally, as contracting and living with a disease can alter the affected person’s perspective on life.

Death due to disease is called death by natural causes. There are four main types of disease: infectious diseases, deficiency diseases, hereditary diseases (including both genetic diseases and non-genetic hereditary diseases), and physiological diseases. Diseases can also be classified in other ways, such as communicable versus non-communicable diseases. The deadliest diseases in humans are coronary artery disease (blood flow obstruction), followed by cerebrovascular disease and lower respiratory infections. In developed countries, the diseases that cause the most sickness overall are neuropsychiatric conditions, such as depression and anxiety.

Disease Classification

Diseases may be classified by cause, pathogenesis (the mechanism by which the disease is caused), or by symptom(s). Alternatively, diseases may be classified according to the organ system involved, though this is often complicated since many diseases affect more than one organ.

A chief difficulty in nosology is that diseases often cannot be defined and classified clearly, especially when cause or pathogenesis are unknown. Thus diagnostic terms often only reflect a symptom or set of symptoms (syndrome).

Classical classification of human disease derives from the observational correlation between pathological analysis and clinical syndromes. Today it is preferred to classify them by their cause if it is known.

The most known and used classification of diseases is the World Health Organization’s ICD. This is periodically updated. Currently, the last publication is the ICD-11.

Causes some diseases

Only some diseases such as influenza are contagious and commonly believed infectious. The microorganisms that cause these diseases are known as pathogens and include varieties of bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and fungi. Infectious diseases can be transmitted, e.g. by hand-to-mouth contact with infectious material on surfaces, by bites of insects or other carriers of the disease, and from contaminated water or food (often via fecal contamination), etc. Also, there are sexually transmitted diseases. In some cases, microorganisms that are not readily spread from person to person play a role, while other diseases can be prevented or ameliorated with appropriate nutrition or other lifestyle changes.

Some diseases, such as most (but not all) forms of cancer, heart disease, and mental disorders, are non-infectious diseases. Many non-infectious diseases have a partly or completely genetic basis (see genetic disorder) and may thus be transmitted from one generation to another.

When the cause of a disease is poorly understood, societies tend to mythologize the disease or use it as a metaphor or symbol of whatever that culture considers evil. For example, until the bacterial cause of tuberculosis was discovered in 1882, experts variously ascribed the disease to heredity, a sedentary lifestyle, depressed mood, and overindulgence in sex, rich food, or alcohol, all of which were social ills at the time.

When a disease is caused by a pathogenic organism (e.g., when malaria is caused by Plasmodium), one should not confuse the pathogen (the cause of the disease) with the disease itself. For example, the West Nile virus (the pathogen) causes West Nile fever (the disease). The misuse of basic definitions in epidemiology is frequent in scientific publications.

6 Exotic Diseases

A virus from Africa that emerges in Italy, a parasite restricted to Latin America that emerges in Europe and Japan—infectious diseases that were once confined to distinct regions of the world are showing up in unexpected places. If the exotic invaders on this list haven’t appeared yet in a town near you, they may do so soon, courtesy of increased human travel and climate change—two factors thought to play a major role in the spread of infectious agents and the animals that carry them.

Here are the 6 Exotic Diseases

1. Bird flu

Bird flu, or avian influenza, occurs naturally in wild birds and can be contracted by poultry and other domestic birds, as well as by humans. The most deadly variety of the disease is caused by the influenza virus H5N1, which is transmitted to humans from infected birds. However, H5N1 could evolve into a strain that is capable of sustained human-to-human transmission.

If that were to happen, it could lead to a deadly pandemic. For now, H5N1 continues to be spread mainly through the sale and distribution of poultry. Bird flu produces a variety of symptoms in humans, from those that resemble conjunctivitis or influenza to those indicative of pneumonia, respiratory failure, or acute respiratory distress, which can be fatal. From 2003 to 2013, more than 640 human cases of bird flu were reported, about 60 percent of which ended in death.

2. West Nile virus

West Nile virus first appeared in the United States in 1999, when a case was reported in New York City. In the following years, it spread across much of the country and into Canada and the Caribbean. In 2013 it was responsible for 88 American deaths, out of 2,170 reported cases, and its prevalence was expected to grow, as climate change models predicted a lengthening of the mosquito (carrier) season across many areas.

The strain of West Nile virus that emerged in the United States matched a virus that had been circulating in Israel and Tunisia. Although asymptomatic in most people, about 20 percent of those who are infected develop flu-like symptoms and less than one percent develop severe neurologic illness, sometimes leading to permanent cognitive and motor deficits or even death.

3. Chagas disease

The protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, the cause of Chagas disease, was limited historically to rural Latin America. But increased migration of infected people into urban areas in Mexico and Central and South America—as well as into the United States and other countries, particularly those in Europe—has facilitated the spread of the disease. Chagas disease is transmitted mainly by bloodsucking “kissing bugs,” but various domestic and wild animals, including cats, dogs, guinea pigs, raccoons, skunks, and armadillos, participate in the transmission cycle. Other means of transmission include blood transfusion, placental transmission, or consumption of contaminated food.

Chagas disease affects between seven million and eight million people worldwide. And while many of those people may experience no or only mild symptoms, such as headache and swollen lymph glands, others, particularly those who do not receive treatment, experience chronic infection. In the chronic stage, the parasites become permanent residents of the heart and digestive muscles. Leading to the progressive deterioration of those tissues.

4. Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is a tick-borne disease of ruminants that can be transmitted to humans. It was first discovered in Crimea in 1944, and then in the Congo in 1956. It subsequently was determined to be endemic to Africa, the Middle East, the Balkan Peninsula, and Asia. The northern geographic boundary of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is marked by cold, mountainous areas, which limit the range of Hyalomma ticks, the major vectors of the disease.

Predicted climate scenarios suggest, however, that warmer conditions could allow the ticks to invade new areas, thereby expanding the already wide distribution of this deadly disease, which kills between 10 and 40 percent of those who become infected. Symptoms progress from fever and headache to vomiting and abdominal pain to confusion and sleepiness. Sudden liver or pulmonary failure and kidney deterioration can result in death.

5. Chikungunya fever

Chikungunya fever was first recorded in 1952–53 in an outbreak on Africa’s Makonde plateau. Several years later, the disease emerged in Southeast Asia, and in the early 2000s. It was detected on islands in the western Indian Ocean. In 2007 it appeared for the first time in Europe, causing illness in more than 200 people in Ravenna, Italy. The virus likely was carried to Ravenna by a person who had recently visited an affected area of India.

The outbreak in Europe was unexpected since the region’s temperate climate was thought to provide a barrier against the invasion of Aedes mosquitoes, which transmit the chikungunya virus. Although rarely life-threatening, chikungunya fever can cause severe joint and muscle pain. The contorted posture of its victims is captured in the Kimakonde translation of chikungunya, which means “that which bends up.”

6. Sleeping sickness

Sleeping sickness, or African trypanosomiasis, is caused by infection with the protozoan Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. Which is found in West and Central Africa, or the closely related subspecies T. brucei rhodesiense. Which is found in East Africa. Past changes in the geographic distribution of tsetse flies. Which transmit the protozoans to humans. And which are highly responsive to shifts in environmental temperature, led to severe epidemics. Scientists have predicted that over the next century. Climate warming could result in significant range shifts for T. brucei rhodesiense in particular. Leading to a marked increase in the number of people exposed to the East African form of the disease.

An estimated 30,000 people are thought to be affected by sleeping sickness. Though as many as 70 million may be at risk. Characterized by a long and sometimes asymptomatic first stage. The protozoans eventually cross the blood-brain barrier. Leading to confusion, loss of coordination, and sleep cycle disturbance. If left untreated, infected individuals will die.