AIDS can cause blindness
Doctors
say HIV infection when left undiagnosed and untreated for a long time, can
trigger off a dormant virus called cytomegalovirus (CMV), which
can lead to blindness.
Cytomegalovirus is the most common cause of blindness in people who have HIV.
Dr Linda Visser, the academic head of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, has been treating eye conditions in HIV-positive people since 1999.
She says Aids-related cytomegalovirus retinitis affects the retina, the neural tissue of the eye. If the tissue is damaged, it cannot be re-generated. However, if the part of the retina that is responsible for vision is not affected, the condition can be treated.
"They get necrosis of the retina, which is the white area. And the macular is the centre of the retina and once your macular has become necrotic, you cannot see. There's nothing one can do to bring it back. Luckily, not in all patients will the centre of the retina be involved. Sometimes it's on the periphery. Then, we can treat it," News24 quoted her as saying.
According to Dr Visser, about 75 per cent of HIV-infected people will experience some form of eye problem, while about 10 per cent will go totally blind in one or both eyes.
She said blindness in immune-compromised people, such as HIV-patients, is most commonly caused by a viral infection called cytomegalovirus, which normally thrives on a weakened immune system.
"It is actually only seen in patients who are in immune-compromised. We never see it in immune-competent patients. And because in our set-up, HIV is the most common cause for immune suppression, we see it probably 95 per cent or even more in HIV-positive patients. But I have seen it in patients who have had transplants and I have seen it in patients with leukaemia and other cancers," she said.
She stated that in HIV-infected people, the infection manifests when they've left their condition for too long without having it treated and their CD 4 counts have fallen to dangerous levels.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
08.12.2012
Pregnancy still puts women’s lives
at risk
Despite
advances in science and technology, pregnancy still threatens a woman's life
and health, it has been revealed.
In fact, conditions ranging from ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants outside the uterus, to preeclampsia, which causes skyrocketing blood pressure and can lead to strokes and seizures, can and do threaten the lives of pregnant women.
Preeclampsia and gestational high blood pressure occur in about 6 per cent to 8 per cent of U.S. pregnancies, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
While those conditions are common, many individual cases have complications as well, said Alison Cahill, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
"As a high-risk obstetrician, I see many women, in addition to those things, who have pre-existing conditions, so other illness or medical problems that then make their pregnancy high-risk," Cahill told LiveScience.
Though pregnancy-related deaths fell dramatically in the 20th century, they have been on the rise since 1987, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There were 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1987. By 2003, that number had risen to 14.5 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Better recordkeeping may account for some of the rise, according to the CDC, but an increase in chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and obesity may also explain the increased risk of complications.
And worst thing is that pregnancy complications can't always be solved by modern technology.
Ectopic pregnancy, for example, affects 19.7 out of every 1,000 North American pregnancies, according to a paper published in February 2000 in the journal American Family Physician.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
08.12.2012
In
the middle of difficulty lies opportunity
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