Thirteen weird and horrible diseases

Because I’m in that kind of mood.

1. PAM, primary amebic meningoencephalitis. It’s caused by this bugger:

When a hapless victim swims in warm water, the Naegleria fowleri amoeba enters the nose, worms its way into the brain, and then causes an astonishing amount of damage. Yes, it is a brain-eating amoeba. Click on the picture for more information. From that article: “Of the 300 or so cases of this disease world-wide, only seven or so have been survived.”

I think this critter would make a great murder weapon for a mystery, don’t you?

2. Locked-in syndrome, or coma vigilante. The victim of this condition is conscious, often able to hear or see the world around him, but unable to speak or move in any way. Here’s a firsthand account (from a patient who recovered partially) along with a discussion of the medical and ethical aspects of locked-in syndrome.

3 and 4. When I open up my International Classification of Diseases notebook, the first interesting diagnosis (alphabetically) is ablutomania, an abnormal preoccupation with thoughts of cleanliness, followed shortly thereafter by aboulomania, a pathological loss of will power.

5 and 6. Chikungunya fever — not nearly as nasty as dengue fever, but much more fun to say. Here’s the scoop (from CBWInfo.com): “After an incubation period of 3-12 days there is a sudden onset of flu-like symptoms including a severe headache, chills, fever (>40°C,104°F), joint pain, nausea and vomiting. The joints of the extermities in particular become swollen and painful to the touch. A rash may sometimes occur. Hemorrhage is rare and all but a few patients recover within 3-5 days. Some can suffer for joint pain for months. Children may display neurological symptoms.”

7. Cochrane syndrome. Scrotal infection following vasectomy. Dean, didn’t you always want to have a disease named after you?

8. Post-lobotomy syndrome. I couldn’t find a good description of this, but I know from personal experience (from my volunteer work at Napa State Hospital) that some lobotomized patients developed a progressive dementia. Wikipedia, as usual, has some fun and interesting facts. Did you know that Frances Farmer wasn’t lobotomized? Hollywood lies!

9. Echinococcosis. I love me my hideous parasitic diseases. This is your brain. This is your brain with a hydatid cyst:

For those of you unfamiliar with head CT scans, that big black spot is ABNORMAL.

Echinococcosis, AKA hydatid disease, is caused by tapeworms of the Echinococcus genera. According to this article from Baylor U, “The disease is transmitted through direct contact with infected feces and ingesting viable parasite eggs with food. Eggs remain viable in the feces of tapeworm infected canines for weeks allowing transmission to individuals with no direct contact with the vector animal. Once in the intestine of humans the eggs hatch to form embryos or oncospheres that penetrate the mucosa and enter the circulation. Oncospheres then encyst in host viscera and develop in the target organs into mature larval cysts.”

As you can see, the cysts can grow to enormous size. What problems they cause depends largely on where the cysts grow. In the brain, eh, not so good.

10. Peyronie’s disease. Not that I mind posting photos of painfully, oddly twisted penises, but your clicky finger works just as well as mine.

11. When it comes to nonfatal (but miserable) conditions, I suspect the first place award winner, or at least a close runner-up, would have to be pissing flying insects, also known as scarabiasis.

12. For karmic balance, since we just looked at wildlife exiting the urethra, how about wildlife entering the urethra? Meet the candiru:

From Wikipedia:

It is feared by the natives because it is attracted to urine or blood, and if the bather is nude it will swim into an orifice (the anus or vagina, or even in the case of smaller specimens the penis – and perhaps deep into the urethra). It then erects its spine and begins to feed on the blood and body tissue just as it would from the gills of a fish. The candiru is then almost impossible to remove except through an operation. As the fish locates its host by following the water flow from the gills to its source, urinating while bathing increases the chance of a candiru “homing in” on a human urethra.

13. Phthirius pubis — genital crabs. Yup, I know. Is that the best I can do? Surely there must be more awful STDs out there.

Yes, there certainly are. But none are as cute as the genital crab. Enjoy the video.

Leave a message in the comments, and I’ll give you some cool linky love below.

Kate makes chocolate pie, bread pudding, and for an encore plucks a chicken

Pat has way too many writing projects for his own good

Trish, there are no stupid questions

Sapphire’s Oldie-but-goldies

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