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Bloodletting – A Modern Safe and Easy Way to Help Someone’s State of Health in One Hour
Not everyone realizes how safe and easy it is to donate blood. Today’s widespread mobile and stationary collecting banks or centers operate under strictly regulated health inspections and rules. The blood donations themselves take no more than 25-minutes per person. Donors often receive a free gift, like, a well-made T-shirt or coffee mug for doing something charitable – helping to save lives. Much of the following information came from public blood banks and related references.
Who needs your blood?
* Hospitals everywhere
* Patients undergoing surgery, organ transplant, or cancer treatment
* Severe burn victims
* Victims of bad accidents or violent attacks
* People with diseases requiring blood transfusions
Autoimmune Disorders, Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment
Autoimmune Disorders
Our environment contains literally thousands of pathogenic microorganisms such as: viruses, fungi, parasites and bacteria. Normally our body defence system can protect us from these by means of our immune response, but occasionally there is a malfunction of the system and our bodies react to our own normal tissues as if they are unwanted invaders. As well we can be subjected to outside stimuli which can inappropriately trigger our immune system.
This inappropriate reaction is known as an autoimmune disorder where our defence system actually becomes destructive rather than protective. There are more than 80 different types of autoimmune disorders.
Organs and tissues commonly affected by autoimmune disorders include: red blood cells, blood vessels, connective tissues, endocrine glands such as the thyroid or pancreas, muscles, joints and skin.
HIV – A Deadly Virus and Not a Disease
To an average individual, HIV spells AIDS. That is not, however, the case. HIV and AIDS are not very different, but the difference, inconspicuous though it may seem, is there. That may be why they usually go hand in hand. It is important however, to outline the differences. HIV is a virus; a lentivirus in actual fact, which is a subset of viruses called retroviruses or slow viruses; the virus that leads to AIDS. Scientific research proves that, AIDS is the final of four stages of HIV, the first three being the window stage, the seroconversion stage and the symptom-free stage respectively. HIV is called a retrovirus because it is a progressing virus. It invades the body through mucous membranes and blood stream (through blood to blood contact) and exists in bodily fluids- semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate or breast milk. Once in, the virus begins its journey into the body with the attack and destruction of the immune system cells thereby causing deterioration of the immune system. This inevitably leads to AIDS.
HIV is said to have originated from African, non-human primates and transferred to humans in the 20th century. There are 2 subtypes; HIV-1, which is a more virulent type and easily transmitted and is the cause of majority of HIV infections worldwide and HIV-2, which is less transmittable and largely confined to West Africa. These strains were found to have originated from Cameroun and Guinea Bissau/ Gabon respectively.
There are many ways through which HIV can be transmitted, but the major ones are through infected needles (or sharp objects), unsafe sex, breast milk and vertical transmission (also known as mother-to-child transmission).
However, it cannot be transmitted through handshakes, hugs, sharing the same mug or spoon with an infected individual, or sitting in the same chair.
