Independent living: the real and present danger

Accelerated diabetic retinopathy in pregnancy--a real and present danger.

A 36 year-old Malay lady with diabetes mellitus in pregnancy and poorly controlled hypertension developed rapid progression of diabetic retinopathy from no retinopathy to florid proliferative retinopathy over three months in her right eye. She had subsequent loss of vision due to vitreous haemorrhage in the peri-partum period. She had good final visual acuity with quiescent retinopathy followin...

Ebola virus: a clear and present danger.

An epidemic of Ebola virus disease is occurring in Western Africa on a scale not seen before, particularly in the countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The continued spread is facilitated by insufficient medical facilities, poor sanitation, travel, and unsafe burial practices. Several patients diagnosed with Ebola virus disease in Africa have been evacuated to the United States for tr...

Hepatocyte death: a clear and present danger.

The hepatocyte is especially vulnerable to injury due to its central role in xenobiotic metabolism including drugs and alcohol, participation in lipid and fatty acid metabolism, its unique role in the enterohepatic circulation of bile acids, the widespread prevalence of hepatotropic viruses, and its existence within a milieu of innate immune responding cells. Apoptosis and necrosis are the most...

Ebola-a danger: clear and present.

Water: a clear and present danger.

Clean drinking water. It is something that the public has pretty much taken for granted for the past hundred years. The public has little idea and, perhaps understandably, little interest, in the many people and agencies struggling daily to ensure that drinking water remains uncontaminated. But our environment is changing, new pathogens are emerging, drinking water systems are aging, and govern...