Flu-like S&S, hemorrhaging, swollen eyes and innards....something something diarrhea! Hey, Peptol Bismol!

Now that our global health class has finished presenting our tropical/neglected disease projects, I can open your eyes to the stunning variety of lovely diseases I could get while in Lesotho.....

Disclaimer: For you viewing pleasure, a gross pic or two to complement my riveting descriptions.....

• Guinea Worm - is actually labeled as 'non applicable' in Lesotho...so what exactly does that mean? Pretty much that info on this worm that burrows through your insides and exits out of the skin of your lower limbs is unknown in Lesotho....if its endemic or not, a major problem or not....watever it is, they don't know about it. Swell.

• Typhoid Fever - It is endemic in Lesotho but I have had my immunization. Rule of thumb in avoiding the familiar Salmonella bacteria: Boil it, peel it, cook it or forget it!

• Rift Valley Fever - Great, another fever I could get....and another disease with them same old same old initial complaints of flu-like S&S...which are becoming SO overrated nowadays :P Lesotho is 'at risk' for this disease, and there is no vaccine. Well then. Just another part of living life on the wild side, right? As Ms.Frizzle would say "Let's take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!"

• Cholera - Ahh, good ol' cholera. My personal fav, as it is easy to study for: bacterially infected food or water = bacteria in gut = toxins in gut = diarrhea = rehydrate, rehydrate, REHYDRATE!! Note to self: see Typhoid Fever and remember to pack Peptol Bismol!

• Malaria - Those darn mosquitos show up EVERYWHERE and carry every neglected disease under the sun. We only have to take malaria pills for a few days while on the Safari in Kruger National Park, not for the clinical aspect of the trip in Roma....so, only special mosquitos in the Park are malairaized....? Anyways the SE are apparently unpleasant so this plan is fine with me :)

And of course there's all the worms that are abundant in developing countries. Here are just the pictures as I'm too lazy to write about them. Use your imaginations to fill in the blanks.

Really, we're really only concerned about Hep A, malaria, Typhoid and cholera, as those are the illnesses our travel nurse has talked about and provided preventative measures for, but its kinda interesting, in a nasty and nerdy-nurse-like way, to find out about additional foreign bugs :)

So what have we learned here? Don't touch anything but yourself. Don't get bitten by mosquitos. Know what flu-like S&S feel like. Yup. I think that pretty much covers it. Do these and I'll be disease free :)

PS - Be prepared to ATTEMPT to learn something from each of my posts - I'm not a "I'll blog just for the heck of it" kind of writer.....yet.

:P