Health related information and news from around the world.

There are some scholars who believe the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was not due to moral decadence but to the debilitating effects of malaria.

Malaria was once widespread through Europe but is not longer endemic there.

The Romans believed the disease was due to the effects of the bad air, or “mal aria” arising from the swamps outside Rome. These swamps were the breeding ground of the anopheles mosquito, which spreads the disease to man.

A protazoa, or small one-celled animal, Plasmodium, causes the disease. There are four types of Plasmodium, P. ovale, P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae, which can affect man and the falciparum is the most dangerous.

Until a few years ago, there was great hope that public health measures might lead to almost total eradication of this most ancient plague.

Unfortunately, this optimism was misplaced and the world situation is rapidly becoming worse. The control of malaria lies mainly in getting rid of the vector which is the anopheles mosquito.

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Bunions may be due to narrow-pointed shoes — too narrow for the feet that occupy them.

But I don’t think scientific opinion will stand against fashion.

The main deformity in this condition is the displacement of the big toe toward the other toes.

This is known as hallux valgus and this disrupts the joint between the toe and the long bone of the foot, or metatarsal.

The head of the first metatarsal moves towards the centre of the body, that is, in the opposite direction from the toe, and as a result of pressure between this bone and the toe a bursa, or bag of fluid, forms in the tissues.

This is the bunion. The bursa becomes inflamed and painful and may even become infected.

Pressure on this bunion causes considerable pain.

As well, osteoarthrosis develops in the joint and causes further pain.

As the big toe moves across, the second toe, especially if it is longer than the first, has no room and then tends to bend upwards at the first joint.

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