As well as causing cold sores on the lipss, the herpes type I virus can infect the inside of the mouth.

Clinical features

Your child may complain of a sore mouth, and the lips, gums and throat may also be involved. Younger children may simply refuse food or drink, and drool a lot. The lining of the mouth may be swollen and red, with multiple tiny blisters or ulcers visible. Your child may be irritable and cry a lot.

When to see your doctor

• if your child is generally unwell or has a fever;

• if your child refuses food and liquids, and has passed urine less often than usual.

Treatment

There is no cure for herpes infections and the mainstay of treatment is the alleviation of symptoms. Paracetamol may help to ease the pain, but should only be given according to directions. Encourage your child to drink as much as possible, and if he is refusing food, give him high calorie drinks (such as milkshakes, lemonade or glucose drinks). A good way of providing additional fluid is to give your child flavoured ice blocks, ice cream or jelly. If your child is used to a bottle, it may be easier to feed him with a cup and spoon until the infection passes. Herpes mouth infections usually clear up within 7-10 days. If you have any concerns, you should see your doctor.

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The hips of a newborn baby are checked very carefully by the doctor to make sure that they are not dislocated.

Groin

Newborn baby girls sometimes have swollen labia, often accompanied by a vaginal discharge which is usually white, but may be reddish. This is due to hormones from the mother which have crossed into the baby’s bloodstream during pregnancy, and which fall to normal levels soon after birth.

Newborn baby boys can have an undescended testicle, a hydrocoele (fluid around the testicle) or a tight foreskin. Erections are also common.

Genitalia often appear to be proportionally large in the newborn period. This is also due to hormonal influence from the mother, and will diminish during the first few weeks.

Bow legs

This appearance is normal in newborn babies and soon corrects itself.

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Have it in mind, when trying to give advice to other people. They may not want it. Always ask if they need help.

Help only people who ask you for it or explicitly agree that you help them.

Even then, watch carefully // they listen to what you say. If they do not listen, it means that they are not yet ready to listen. Or perhaps you are not yet ready to give them advice.

Instead of trying to explain everything in a few sentences, give them this book, and suggest that you could perhaps answer some of their questions after they have read it. You will save a lot of time as well as avoid exhausting discussions and arguments.

If, after reading this book, people still miss the point, there is nothing you can do to help them. They should help themselves first. Their “bowl” is full. Any new information is just causing an overflow.

Note, that it may take years or even decades for some people to understand advice. Some people have to experience themselves consequences of all their mistakes before they understand. It is their best lesson.

Please notice, that in view of what we learned reading this book, “curing” other people does not really help them.

If they do not understand that all their diseases are caused by their own actions and ignorance, they will develop other diseases later on anyway.

It is clear, that it is much better to explain to them how they can heal themselves and never get sick again. The only difficulty in this approach is that they may not want to understand our advice.

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Inflammation of the iris or iritis, is not uncommon. It is not an infection. Conjunctivitis, or infection due either to viruses or to bacteria, usually affects both eyes and there is usually the production of pus, rather than just tears.

In iritis, there is pain in the eye, and sometimes around the orbit, even into the nose. There is photophobia, or dislike of light, an excess production of tears, and sometimes blurring of vision.

When the eye is examined, it has a diffuse pink flush around the cornea, the outer edges of the white of the eye are often unaffected.

In conjunctivitis, the eye is more red than pink, with prominent blood vessels and involving the whole of the white of the eye. The colored iris looks a greenish, muddy color and the normal markings on it are blurred. The pupil is often small and reacts sluggishly to light.

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It affects the bronchial tubes carrying the air in and out of the lungs.

Three things happen to these tubes — the muscles in the wall constrict or tighten, the lining is swollen, and there is an increase in the amount of sputum, all interfering with the air flow to the lungs.

The wheeze, the most noticeable feature, may be absent and some mild cases may show only shortness of breath or a chronic cough.

The wheeze is most marked in expiration, that is, when the person breathes out. Although there is always some difficulty in inspiration or breathing in, there may be no noisy wheezing.

Asthma is usually associated with allergy and, like the other atopic or allergic disorders of hay fever and eczema, tends to run in families.

Most asthma starts in childhood and, fortunately, many children outgrow it but it can start at any age and, sometimes, persists throughout life.

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“My doctor feels I have endometriosis, but he wants to do surgery to confirm it. I’m worried that if I have surgery, the disease will only get worse. I have heard that endometriosis acts just like cancer. If you cut into it, the disease can spread because (1) some cells can get free from the tumor and infect other organs and (2) the cells arc stimulated Co grow from the oxygen in the air. Is there a way to confirm my endometriosis without the risk of making it worse?”

Marilyn’s questions touch on two important issues involved in understanding and treating endometriosis. The first is the reason tor surgical diagnosis, and the second involves the confusion between the pathology of cancer as one type of disease and endometriosis as another.

A woman’s medical history in combination with her doctor’s clinical findings might clearly indicate endometriosis, thereby making surgical diagnosis unnecessary. But this cannot always be the case. If a doctor is unsure of the diagnosis (especially when endometriosis is at an early stage of growth and docs not yet produce large masses), or if he is unable to determine the nature of the tumor he feels while giving his patient an internal examination, he will want to do a laparoscope Although this is minor surgery (it will be discussed and illustrated in the next chapter), it is for Marilyn and women like her, still an operation wherein something might go amiss.

There has been some documentation of endometriosis spreading as a result of laparoscope but this is rare and is most likely to occur when there is a history of repeated laparoscopics. In these cases, the endometriosis grows internally around the area of incision and implants itself in the scar, and a second or third incision in the same scar could free some cells. In a few cases, women who underwent surgery for hernias were later found to have endometriosis in the scar tissue.

If Marilyn’s doctor feels that laparoscopy is called for, and there is no emergency, he might prescribe the medication Danocrine renders endometriotic cells inactive. Taking Danocrine for a two-month period preceding laparoscopy should be sufficient to halt the growth of Marilyn’s endometriosis, as well as lay to rest her Sears about contamination during the procedure.

Cancer and endometriosis do not have much in common, other than their methods of invasion in the body. Cells of either type may use similar channels to reach internal organs such as the lymph system or the blood, or, after implanting themselves, cells may metastasize, or grow into a cyst or tumor. Endometrial cancer and endometriosis are not the same disease, although it has been found that childless women tend to be vulnerable Co both conditions and that a great percentage of women with endometrial cancer suffer from menstrual irregularities.

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Human scabies has played a modest but not insignificant role in history. Severe infestations have lowered the morale of armies in the field, contributing to major military defeats. The world incidence shows an interesting cyclical pattern which is not completely understood. Scabies is usually transmitted by close personal contact, usually in the warmth of a bed. Indirect spread is relatively rare. The mite cannot survive for more than a few days away from the skin. The connection between promiscuity and scabies is indicated by the very similar age end seasons} incidence of scabies and venereal disease (that is, both occur most commonly in young people in the 16-25 age-group, particularly in the summer months) and the fact that those with scabies are not infrequently found to have venereal disease as well.

The lesions of scabies are mostly a manifestation of allergy to the mite or its products. With a primary infestation symptoms do not appear for weeks after contracting the disease. If, however, a person has been previously affected, he or she will develop spots and itching within hours of contracting the disease. The commonest and most disabling symptom of scabies is an intractable, generalized, unrelenting itch. It is markedly worse at night. Examination of the webs between the fingers, of the wrists, the breast or penis, may reveal the classical burrows where the mite has gained entry. Secondary lesions, however, account for most of what is seen. These consist of various lumps, bumps, pustules, crusts, and scratch marks. Only rarely is the face or neck involved. The areas most commonly involved are the hands, the breasts, the buttocks, and the genitals. Confirmation of infection is by microscopic identification of the mite, its eggs or its droppings. They are usually found in one of the burrows.

Treatment involves the whole family and all intimate contacts. The whole skin below the chin must be treated, not just the areas which appear involved. After a hot bath and scrub, 25 per cent benzyl benzoate emulsion, or 1 per cent gammabenzene hexachloride cream should be applied. Twenty-four hours later, this should be repeated without bathing between times. The clothing and bed linen must then be changed. Normal laundering or hanging up of the clothes for a week will destroy the remaining parasites and larvae. The treatment may if necessary be repeated once after two weeks. Extra applications should be avoided because of the irritant effect of the applications.

Scabies is by no means rare these days. It can be very difficult to diagnose, however, in the well-groomed and well-washed individual who is often. In fact, the sufferer of this complaint.

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