--------- Forwarded message ---------- To: [email protected] http://www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk/ArchaicMedicalTerms.htm Chills: Usually malaria but may also mean pneumonia Malaria: A widespread disease caused by a parasite in the blood (Malaria literally means bad air) There are several parasites that cause the illness and hence several forms of malaria. All are Plasmodium species and the usual species are P falciparum, P vivax, P ovale and P malariae but there are others and it is possible to be infected by more than one at the same time The anopheline mosquito transmits malaria. The mosquito lays its eggs in pools of standing water especially in those contaminated by sewage. Malaria used to be widespread and was found even in temperate areas like the UK, but improved sanitation has restricted the areas where the mosquito can breed successfully, so malaria is now only found in less sanitary areas of the world Malaria causes episodes of fever called paroxysms. Classically the fever has three stages Cold Stage or rigor in which the patient shakes, often vomits and has a severe headache Hot Stage Sweating Stage Following the paroxysm, the patient feels reasonably well for one or more days, but another paroxysm will follow unless the patient dies Many have tried to classify the various forms of malaria on clinical or bedside methods based on the pattern of the paroxysm, the duration between the fever and associated symptoms. This is far from reliable but has resulted in the terms tertian fever, quotidian fever etc Old Age: In this technological and scientific age, some people think that someone who dies must have suffered a disease that lead to their death Many death certificates give an imprecise diagnosis (myocardial degeneration, morbus cordis, multiple organ failure etc) as the attending doctor felt obliged to conform to this view I feel that some elderly people do, in fact die of old age The registrars in the UK are happy to accept old age as a cause of death The use of the term old age or any of its euphemisms does not indicate that the attending doctor did not know the cause of death. Rather he (or she) was being honest ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.