സെന്റ് ജോസഫ്സ് ആംഗ്ലോ ഇന്ത്യൻ ഗേൾസ് എച്ച്.എസ്സ്.എസ്സ്/അക്ഷരവൃക്ഷം/Pandemic days…

Pandemic days… “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” -Thomas Edison Once a three-year boy asked his mother during his brother’s funeral “mom, what happened to my brother? Why he is not waking up,”. Hopelessly, mother was not able to explain the current situation to her son. His seven-year-old brother was infected by diarrhea and his immune systems were very weak that he wasn’t able to resist and instigated in his death. Sometimes some diseases cannot be controlled. But the reason behind the death of the boy’s brother was lack of hygiene and caution. People with low immunity power must pursue special attention, especially young children. Presently our situation is extremely awful as we can see. The whole world is fighting against the novel corona virus, that spreaded all over the world and caused in immense deaths of millions. Nowadays our community is facing the threat of many diseases apart from this corona virus, that may or may not be known by us. Malaria, dengue fever, chickenpox, Lyme disease, cholera, Nipha etc. We may be familiar with some of these diseases but it’s important for us to know about them personally, I mean more informatically. As we know, diseases can asylum with medicines. But prevention is better than using medicine. So, we must combat against the diseases using the armaments like “care, hygiene, cleanliness and cognizance”. Awareness of these diseases is the prime tool of our success and that can attain in different manner. Once a teacher asked the students “what are the diseases caused by the mosquitoes?” and the answer she attends Dengue fever and Malaria. We all know about these diseases, because it is common. Do you know that there are female and male mosquitoes like humans! A patient admitted in a hospital having fever, severe headache, muscle and bone pain, occasionally shock and fatal hemorrhage. These are the common symptoms of dengue fever. Dengue virus or fever is carried by Aedes aegypti, a mosquito that preferentially feeds on humans and is particularly suited to urban environments. When a mosquito bites an infected person, it acquires the virus through the blood meal. It is how this virus is infected from person to person through mosquito bite. These mosquitoes can’t spread the virus if the temperature is low. It loses its capacity to transmit the virus. A mean temperature increases of about 1°C increases the aggregate epidemic risk by an average of 31 to 47 percent. Higher infection rates translate into a greater number of individuals who have experienced multiple infections and thereby may have an elevated risk for developing serious dengue illness. And science says that dengue is considered to be the most important arthropod-borne viral disease in humans. Another patient with the symptoms like fever, chills, headache, nausea and vomiting, muscle pain and fatigue were admitted in the same ward in the same hospital. Symptoms for certain diseases can be same with slight difference in their behavioral pattern. In fact, these are the symptoms of malaria. Compared to Dengue, Malaria is one of the most common vector-borne diseases in the tropics. In humans the malarial parasites infect red blood cells, causing periodic chills and fever, and in some species of Plasmodium the parasites can ultimately cause death. Hence like Aedes aegypti, Anopheles mosquito can’t survive in colder regions either. The world health organization (WHO) states that worldwide prevalence of the malaria disease is estimated to be in the order of 300-500 million clinical cases each year, causing over 1 million deaths annually. About 90 percent of these cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, and most of the others are found in other tropical regions. There is a global pandemic of dengue, distributed throughout the tropics, and it is estimated that there are roughly 50 million cases of dengue infection worldwide very year during the 19s. Temperature, rainfall, humidity, and wind each play an immense role in mosquito breeding. The main breeding or the home of these mosquitoes is the containers such as drums, discarded tires, and leaf axils that are filled with water either manually or by rainfall. If we take a walk around our house, we could see a lot of things like this kind of stuff, and also in our neighborhoods. Why don’t we take some time and clean those stuff and make our home a better place to stay instead of getting these deadly diseases, sleeping in the hospital, getting some extremely painful vaccinations, quarantined with relatives, and dozens of medicines. it’s better if you clean your house and surroundings. My friend, she was absent in school for almost three to four weeks and we didn’t know what was going. I tried to contact her but unfortunately, she wasn’t reachable and I waited till she came back to school. It took pretty long for her to come. My classmates, teacher, we all were so worried about what had happened to her. Finally, she came back and we asked her what happened to her. I could see the spots and mark of something like a pimple that had badly painted on her hand. I was like screaming at the top of my lungs inside “Oh, god what is happening. Was it a disease or something terrible?”. She told us to calm down and for almost one hour we got a class from her. But it was interesting though we didn’t have the chance to be bored. And she started like this, “One day, I got a red bump in my hand and it was itching to death. I scratched until it burst out some kind of liquid. I didn’t know what to do, and the same thing was starting to pop all over my body one by one, and I ran to mom with bursting out tears in my eyes. Mom called dad and we went to our nearest hospital. Doctor checked me and told me not to worry you’re going to be alright, absolutely that is what we children hear when we goes to doc. I heard what the doc told my mom and dad, he said that I am having a chickenpox and I need rest for three weeks. I also heard he asking about my parents is there any babies under the age of two or pregnant Ladies in our home, chickenpox can be dangerous to these persons and also adults having low immunity power or caused by HIV or cancer. We got my medicines and we headed back to our home. On our way back I couldn’t control my itchiness as it was getting worse; you can’t even imagine how worse it will be. For some days I got high temperature, headaches and body pain. I was tired and wasn’t been able to even get up from my bed, that was horrible. I couldn’t control my itchiness and seeing me in pain a lady from our neighborhood gave some “Neem leaf” and told mom it is good for this disease, and told me to rub with this leaf so the itchiness will be relieved for some time. Thankfully my itchiness was gone for some time. On that moment I was so happy that I literally wanted to hug that lady and say big thanks. My grandmother told to drink plenty of water as it is good for dehydration. I worried a lot that, from where did I have this disease? When I asked mom, she told me that you can get the virus easily. It can be infected, while breathing the particles that come from the chickenpox blisters or by touching something on which the particles landed. And the best way to prevent the disease is the “varicella vaccine”. The children who’ve never had chickenpox should get two doses of the vaccine­-the first at 12 to 15 months of age, and the second between ages 4 and 6. People over age 13 who’ve never been vaccinated should get two doses of the vaccines at least 28 days apart. Doctor said that chickenpox is generally mild, especially in children. But in severe cases, the blisters can spread to your nose, mouth, eyes, and even genitals. Even though the symptoms are gone you must wait till the blisters are dried. Chickenpox is most contagious from 1 to 2 days before the rash appears until all the blisters are dried and crusted,” with that she ended the story. Our lunch break was almost over and we rushed to have our food. Have you heard of Lyme disease? When I heard about this, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘lime’ I was mistaken with the spelling. Lyme disease is caused by a spirochete bacterium that is transmitted by tick bites. One of a way we can identify this disease is we could see a bull’s eye rash. Also, the other symptoms are such as fever, fatigue, headache, and muscle and joint aches. But sometimes although some infected individuals show no signs of illness. It is a disease that we can feel a little bit of calmness because it does not cause death. It is rarely, if ever, a primary cause of death. Occasionally, a tick will bite and feed on a human, sometimes resulting in Lyme disease. Abundance of deer has been linked to plenty of ticks in infested areas. Transmission among natural hosts and humans is determined by local abundance and survival of ticks, the percentage of ticks that are infected, and abundance of hosts, human activity in tick habitats, and people's knowledge and awareness of Lyme disease prevention. These are spreading among animals and then to humans. It is a disease we can see only in certain areas. At warmer and moister temperature, the deer can carry the disease. If you are bitten by any animal it must be sure that you had a checkup from any doctor. Nipha is one of the deadliest diseases of all time. We all remember the Nipha outbreak in 2018 (Kerala, Kozhikode). Nipha virus is a zoonotic virus. It is transmitted from animals (through bats & pigs) to humans and also can be spread through contaminated food or directly between people. If not handled properly it is a disease that can even end the whole living community. It is mostly spread through animals and even though we stop the spread from humans, there are animals still dying because of this virus. The people who are affected by this virus have the symptoms like fever, headaches, myalgia, vomiting and store throat. Along with these symptoms the person might feel dizziness, drowsiness, altered consciousness and neurological signs that indicate acute inflammation in brain due to the virus. There are currently no drugs or vaccines specific for Nipha virus infection, although WHO (world health organization) has identified Nipha as a priority disease for the WHO research and development blueprint. Intensive supportive care is recommended to treat severe respiratory and neurologic complications. We must be highly aware of this disease, and take care ourselves. With all the cooperation and hard work we was able to stop Nipha but presently we are haunted by the novel corona virus. With the covid-19 alert people all around the world are inside their houses doesn’t know what to do and don’t know how it’s going to end. From the beginning of December 2019 this virus had been started to spread in Wuhan, china. Fever, tiredness, and dry cough are the symptoms of this virus, but some people might experience aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat and diarrhea. On average it takes 4-6 days from when someone is infected with the virus symptoms to show, however it takes up to 14 days. In order to prevent this disease clean your hands often using soap and water, maintain a safe distance from the person who is coughing or sneezing, don’t touch your eyes, nose or mouth, cover your nose and mouth if you’re coughing or sneezing, stay home if you feel unsafe, and if you have any of these symptoms call for help. Cleanliness and hygiene are the first and important thing you should have. We must congratulate the Kerala government authority especially Chief minister Sri. Pinarayi Vijayan and Health minister Sreemathi Teacher for giving fabulous support for the infected patients and now it is considered Kerala is only the state which cured the greatest number of patients. According to WHO till April 19 there have been more than 2.33 million cases around the world in 185 countries causing more than 160,000 deaths. We need to work together and trust each other to fight against this pandemic threat. Therefore, take care of yourself, be hygienic and clean, stay home and stay safe. പീലി പാമ്പള്ളി 8 A സെന്റ് ജോസഫ് സ് ആംഗ്ലോ ഇന്ത്യൻ ഗേൾസ് എച്ച്.എസ്സ്.എസ്സ് കോഴിക്കോട് സിററി ഉപജില്ല കോഴിക്കോട് അക്ഷരവൃക്ഷം പദ്ധതി, 2020 ലേഖനം  സാങ്കേതിക പരിശോധന - Noufalelettil തീയ്യതി: 20/ 04/ 2020 >> രചനാവിഭാഗം - ലേഖനം