Viral Meningitis- A Brain Swelling Disease

Viral Meningitis is the inflammation of tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord. This is the most common type of meningitis. The most common cause of viral meningitis is non-polio enteroviruses. Other viruses that can cause meningitis are: mumps virus, measles virus, influenza virus, arboviruses and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. This virus can happen in anyone at any age. Higher risk people are: children under five years old and people with weakened immune systems. Symptoms of this types of virus are: fever, poor eating, sleepiness or trouble waking up from sleep, irritability, headache, stiff neck, sensitivity to bright light, nausea, and vomiting. To diagnose this disease there are several lab tests that need to be done which are: naso-oropharyngeal swabs, rectal swabs, stool, cerebrospinal fluid, blood and serum. Most people who get this form of meningitis completely recover in 7-10 days but some require antiviral medication and hospitalization. If a person suspects that they may have this disease a doctor must be seen to diagnose the disease and prescribe treatment.


As a survivor of this disease, I wish my family knew more about this type of disease when I was born. At the time that I was diagnosed, I feel doctors concentrated most of their concern on older children especially those headed to “dorm life” as many colleges require a vaccination for this disease prior to starting freshman year. I feel that parents of young children should be made aware of the importance of getting their child vaccinated for common illnesses. It is said that young children not vaccinated can have this disease caused by chicken pox, measles and mumps that we have vaccinations for at very early ages. A question that still remains for me is how can they tell what permanent effects will happen to a survivor for the rest of his/her life. This disease has had a personal effect on my family and myself that has allowed us to help others that may be faced with this diagnosis.

~Colleen

Ebola: Threat of overreaction?

Lately a new fatal virus has been spreading through Africa at a rapid pace. This virus is known as  Ebola haemorrhagic fever or Ebola for short. This virus that is believed to  originally come from fruit bats is spread between people from body fluids like blood. People may have been come affected first from animals. Once you get Ebola you might not even know you have it for another three weeks. Some symptoms to look for our fever,intense weakness, muscle pain, headache, nausea and sore throat. Then comes the ,vomiting, diarrhoea, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Of course you could have a different virus with just similar symptoms.  There has only been eight cases of ebola in the US. According to CDC there has been 8997 cases with 4493 casualties.

The US has nothing to worry about. We have some of the best medical treatment in the world and we shouldn’t be as worried as we are. The reason West Africa is having so much trouble with Ebola is because of their lack of health care and that the people there aren’t as hygienic as here in the US. I believe we shouldn’t as worried about Ebola. I don’t think the news should be covering Ebola as much as they do and focus on other virus like enterovirus D68 which has been paralyzing kids and is an actual realistic worry in the US. So yes I do believe that Ebola is an overreaction but it is still a dangerous disease. We must be careful, but we most likely won’t have anything to worry about.

~Kyle

Dance: Sport or Art

 

Dance is way people express themselves without having to say a word. Its only you and the music. All you do is listen to the beat and move however you want to. To others though it is more aggressive and competitive. An example of this would be the popular show Dance Moms where girls take part in competitions to win so that to themselves they are the best dancers. Then there are other studios who don’t compete but rather take part in exams to test their technique and knowledge about this activity.  Isn’t that was normal sports do. They are competing, and testing their knowledge and technique in it. For example lets go with football. In football you have to compete against the other team to win, use your knowledge about the sport to get ahead of the game, and your technique to to grab the ball and have the crowd yell “TOUCH DOWN!” Now if dance has everything football has why isn’t is a sport. To the world dance is an art but to any dancer dance is one of the hardest sports known to man.

My opinion on this matter is that dance is both. To me dance is a sport because of the mind set and stamina you need to perform it while keeping a smiling face to make it look easy. Dancing on your toes is probably the hardest thing I have ever done. You are literally putting all your weight onto your big toe. To do that you need strength. Just like in any other sport. But in other sports you do not need to keep smiling and pretending that those 30 fouette turns you’re doing are easy. In other sports you can show the aggression, you can scream, and your can shout. You don’t have to hide anything. For some reason people think “Oh! Dance is just girls in tutus, dancing on there toes.” Well one, there are other forms of dance for example, hip-hop, tap, modern, lyrical, jazz, and others. And yes we do wear tutus but most of the time what were are wearing is blood, sweat, and tears. But we can’t  complain too much because no pain, no gain! The reason I think dance is an art is because of the way we express it. Just like I said before, we don’t talk, we don’t yell, we just dance. We are like paintings that move.  We are graceful, and artistic with the way we present ourselves to the audience. We may not hit  each other, or score a goal, but we do work hard just  as any other athlete. So maybe one day those football players can step into “our pointe shoes” and try a grand jete en tournant, I think they would change their view on dance.

~Isabella