Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (Deadly Diseases and Epidemics)
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is a sexually transmitted disease seen in women, and is usually caused by gonorrhea or chlamydia. PID most often occurs in adolescent and young women, and can be a silent infection that may go undetected for years. Undiagnosed and untreated, PID leads to many potentially severe and devastating health consequences in women of reproductive age, including infertility.
First recorded in Europe in the late 1400s, syphilis quickly spread throughout the world. A disease that slowly kills its victims, syphilis allows them enough time to spread it to others. It was not until the 19th century that syphilis was realized to be a sexually transmitted disease. Because syphilis was poorly understood, it became the subject of many myths and misconceptions, and people who suffered from the disease were often stigmatized.
Plague has erupted periodically throughout most of human history. The plague bacterium, Yersinia pestis, is transmitted by fleas found on many common mammals and through the air as victims develop respiratory symptoms and suffer from coughing spells. This easy transmission has made plague responsible for some of the highest death rates from any epidemic disease in history. "Plague, Second Edition" examines the disease from an epidemiological perspective.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, is becoming an increasing concern as tainted beef has caused deadly outbreaks of the disease around the world.
Lung cancer—the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lung tissues—is the number one killer among cancer patients: Lung cancer alone accounts for 28.5 percent of all cancer-related deaths. Yet, in over 85 percent of the cases, the disease might have been prevented by eliminating its main cause: smoking. Lung cancer is especially deadly because it has no distinct, exclusive symptoms. And by the time it is detected, the disease is usually too advanced to cure.
