Weils Disease

[Steve Walker]

True - that old doctor's saying that if you hear hooves, think horse and not zebra means that anything with flu-like symptoms is likely to be treated as flu.

 

The incidence of serum antibodies in at-risk groups is much higher than the incidence of the full blown disease - as high as 10% in some studies - suggesting that many more people get infected with leptospirosis than go on to develop clinical symptoms (or at least severe enough symptoms to be diagnosed), so it is likely that the success most of us have in avoiding Weil's disease has as much to do with luck as with precautions taken.

[chesters1]

i find this strange :

 

"Holmes is believed to have died from the bacterial infection Weil's disease, also known as leptospirosis"

 

is the BBC uninformed or the doctor ?.

 

having worked in rat infested bye-pass channels when i helped restore Ash Lock on the Basingstoke canal manned the pumps draining it and was up to my elbows in it every day (and smoked) and fished and been involved in work parties its surprising it isnt a more common disease perhaps some people are more vulnerable by Genes or early lifestyle (not eating mud etc to build up natural immunity)?.

its certainly a worrying disease as "flu like" describes the symptoms on hundreds of afflictions and dishing out penicillin on every "flu like" episode would probably make sure penicillin didn't work if you had it (not that it has any effect on flu) I'm not sure bar routine blood tests for everything could isolate in general GP's practices

 

Lyme s disease is another uncommon but not unknown problem here ,i once asked if a particular bite was "lymes" and the doctor had never heard of it as it was then seen as an "American" disease ,its far more common today (or probably diagnosed correctly more today) but still a tricky one to spot outside the actual bite mark.Its unfortunately another disease (if you cant see the bite mark) all to easily brushed of as "flu" in a GP's eyes ,you cant blame the GP in brushing it off but i'v not yet been asked by one what i get up to in my life that could suggest something more sinister ,fishing etc may make him cotton onto weils or walking especially around here with the hundreds of acres of heather could suggest deer and their ticks ,if he had a suspicion it was more sinister he could then look closer.

i cant see why i have never caught it i spent many happy hours investigating underground streams and rivers (bromley had a couple that could be accessed) and not just rivers but there were scores of bombsites around that teemed with rats ,perhaps the disease has changed but i suspect people are over clean compared to the past with their anti bacterial sprays and insistence on their kids keeping spotless perhaps.? any resistance that could be acquired naturally destroyed by modern lifestyles.

 

made me smile that advert about child abuse where the "kid" spoke of maybe only getting a bath once a fortnight and feeling hungry etc ,just being poor in the 50's made those "abuses" very common place it wasn't abuse but just childhood but i cant remember ever being ill bar the usual "contact" diseases like measles or chicken pox etc

Edited October 28, 2010 by chesters1

[Renrag39]

Not strictly on topic but Chesters post has voiced what I have always believed- Eating mud is good for you!

I was always filthy dirty despite my mum forcing me to bathe regularly, always cutting myself, falling off my bike/out of trees etc and swimming in the local stream.

Result- good health, no sick days or any illness bar a snuffle and a hangover for 3 years and counting (now I'm in for it, I'll get Ebola or something now)

Like Chesters, I think anti-bacterial sprays have a lot to answer for regarding the poor heath and lack of robustness the latest generation often show, with the added downside of forcing the micro-organisms to mutate and become resistant or immune.

 

Regarding Andy Holmes, its very sad he died.

 

Renrag