Group items tagged

“We worry a lot about zoonoses, the transmission of diseases from animals to people,” said Christiane Loehr, a professor at the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine. “But most people don’t realize that humans can also pass diseases to animals, and this raises questions and concerns about mutations, new viral forms and evolving diseases that may potentially be zoonotic. And, of course, there is concern about the health of the animals.”

H1N1 (“swine flu“) and H5N1 (“bird flu”)

The first recorded instance, described in an article published by the team in Veterinary Pathology, took place in Oregon in 2009.

While a cat owner was hospitalized with H1N1, both of her cats (which stayed indoors and had no contact with other sick people or animals) came down with flu-like symptoms and eventually died. A postmortem analysis of their lungs and nasal cavities turned up the H1N1 virus

“It’s reasonable to assume there are many more cases of this than we know about, and we want to learn more,” Loehr said.

“Any time you have infection of a virus into a new species, it’s a concern, a black box of uncertainty,” Loehr noted.

this news might trigger immediate concern,

the flu could be passed from human to pet, mutate into a more dangerous form,

“We don’t know for sure what the implications might be, but we do think this deserves more attention.”

considered to be multifactorially inherited

Multifactorial inheritance means that "many factors"

where a combination of genes from both parents, in addition to unknown environmental factors, produce the trait or condition

factors are usually both genetic and environmental

Often, one gender (either males or females) is affected more frequently than the other in multifactorial traits

means that one gender is more likely to show the problem

Slightly more males develop schizophrenia in childhood, however, by adolescence schizophrenia affects males and females equally.

Although schizophrenia affects men and women equally, symptoms in men generally begin earlier than in women

schizophrenia first appears in men during their late teens or early 20s

women, schizophrenia often first appears during their 20s or early 30s.

schizophrenia affects 2.7 million Americans

child born into a family with one or more schizophrenic family member has a greater chance of developing schizophrenia than a child born into a family with no history of schizophrenia.

chance for a sibling to also be diagnosed with schizophrenia is 7 to 8 percen

If a parent has schizophrenia, the chance for a child to have the disorder is 10 to 15 percen

Risks increase with multiple affected family members.

Distorted perception of reality (i.e., difficulty telling dreams from reality) Confused thinking (i.e., confusing television with reality) Detailed and bizarre thoughts and ideas Suspiciousness and/or paranoia (fearfulness that someone, or something, is going to harm them) Hallucinations (seeing, hearing, or feeling things that are not real such as hearing voices telling them to do something) Delusions (ideas that seem real but are not based in reality) Extreme moodiness Severe anxiety and/or fearfulness Flat affect (lack of emotional expression when speaking) or inability to manage emotions Difficulty in performing functions at work and/or school Exaggerated self-worth and/or unrealistic sense of superiority of one's self Social withdrawal (severe problems in making and keeping friends ) Disorganized or catatonic behavior (suddenly becoming agitated and confused, or sitting and staring, as if immobilized) Odd behaviors

The symptoms of schizophrenia are often classified as positive (symptoms including delusions, hallucinations, and bizarre behavior), negative (symptoms including flat affect, withdrawal, and emotional unresponsiveness), disorganized speech (including speech that is incomprehensible), and disorganized or catatonic behavior (including marked mood swings, sudden aggressive, or confusion, followed by sudden motionlessness and staring).

diagnosed by a psychiatrist

Specific treatment for schizophrenia will be determined by your physician based on: Your age, overall health, and medical history Extent of the disease Your tolerance for specific medications, procedures, or therapies Expectations for the course of the disease Your opinion or preference

Types of treatment that may be helpful to an individual with schizophrenia may include: Medications (also called psychopharmacological management; to reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia), including the following: Neuroleptics--a specialized class of medications used to treat schizophrenia. Neuroleptics are used primarily to treat the pervasive, intrusive, and disturbing thoughts of a person with schizophrenia. They are designed to help minimize the severity of delusions and hallucinations the individual is experiencing. Antipsychotic medications--medications that act against the symptoms of psychotic illness, but do not cure the illness. However, these medications can reduce symptoms or reduce the severity of symptoms; a specialized class of medications used to treat schizophrenia. Individual and family psychotherapy (including cognitive and behavioral therapy) Specialized educational and/or structured activity programs (i.e., social skills training, vocational training, speech and language therapy) Self-help and support groups

Preventive measures to reduce the incidence of schizophrenia are not known at this time

The CDC (center for disease control) has permitted boiling of needles and medical tools for an hour in extreme cases in areas where autoclaves and other more functional methods are not available.

staphylococcus bacteria

gluteraldehyde based chemical agents

All of the animals' symptoms were similar to that of humans - they rapidly develop severe respiratory disease, stop eating and some die.

"All viruses can mutate, but the influenza virus raises special concern because it can change whole segments of its viral sequence fairly easily," Loehr said.

Veterinarians who encounter possible cases of this phenomenon can obtain more information from Loehr or Jessie Trujillo at Iowa State University. They are doing ongoing research to predict, prevent or curtail emergent events.

"Too often, people dismiss ADHD as being down to bad parenting or poor diet. As a clinician, it was clear to me that this was unlikely to be the case. Now we can say with confidence that ADHD is a genetic disease and that the brains of children with this condition develop differently to those of other children."

The condition is highly heritable -- children with ADHD are statistically more likely to also have a parent with the condition and a child with an identical twin with ADHD has a three in four chance of also having the condition.

"Children with ADHD have a significantly higher rate of missing or duplicated DNA segments compared to other children and we have seen a clear genetic link between these segments and other brain disorders," explains Dr Nigel Williams. "These findings give us tantalising clues to the changes that can lead to ADHD."

ADHD is not caused by a single genetic change, but is likely caused by a number of genetic changes, including CNVs, interacting with a child's environment," explains Dr Kate Langley.

ADHD diagnoses depend on a child's age relative to classmates and the teacher's perceptions of whether the child has symptoms.

ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder for kids in the United States, with at least 4.5 million diagnoses among children under age 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, there are no neurological markers for ADHD

Overall, the study found that about 20 percent -- or 900,000 -- of the 4.5 million children currently identified as having ADHD likely have been misdiagnosed.