Both arteries and veins are affected. Lymphangitis is sometimes considered a type of vasculitis.

Solitary inflammation of veins (phlebitis) or arteries (arteritis), although both occur in vasculitis, on their own are separate entities. Vasculitis affects both arteries and veins. Vasculitis is primarily due to leukocyte migration and resultant damage.

There are many ways to classify vasculitis.

• It can be classified by the underlying cause. For example, the cause of syphilitic aortitis is infectious (aortitis simply refers to arteritis of the aorta, which is an artery.) However, the cause of many forms of vasculitis are poorly understood. There is usually an immune component, but the trigger is often not identified. In these cases, the antibody found is sometimes used in classification, as in ANCA-associated vasculitides.

• It can be classified by the location of the affected vessels. For example, ICD-10 classifies “vasculitis limited to skin” with skin conditions (under “L”), and “necrotizing vasculopathies” with musculoskeletal system and connective tissue conditions (under “M”). Arteritis/phlebitis on their own are classified with circulatory conditions (under “I”).

• Vasculitides can be classified by the type or size of the blood vessels that they predominantly affect. Apart from the arteritis/phlebitis distinction mentioned above, vasculitis is often classified by the caliber of the vessel affected. However, it should be noted that there can be some variation in the size of the vessels affected

Some disorders have vasculitis as their main feature, including:

• Kawasaki disease
• Behcet’s disease
• Polyarteritis nodosa
• Wegener’s granulomatosis
• Cryoglobulinemia
• Takayasu’s arteritis
• Churg-Strauss syndrome
• Giant cell arteritis (temporal arteritis)
• Henoch-Schönlein purpura

There are many conditions that have vasculitis as an accompanying or atypical symptom, including:

• Rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus
• Cancer, such as lymphomas
• Infections, such as hepatitis C
• Exposure to chemicals and drugs, such as amphetamines, cocaine, and anthrax vaccines which contain the Anthrax Protective Antigen as the primary ingredient

Possible symptoms include: ^[5]

• General symptoms: Fever, weight loss
• Skin: Palpable purpura, livedo reticularis
• Muscles and joints: Myalgia or myositis, arthralgia or arthritis
• Nervous system: Mononeuritis multiplex, headache, stroke, tinnitus, reduced visual acuity, acute visual loss
• Heart and arteries: Myocardial infarction, hypertension, gangrene
• Respiratory tract: Nose bleeds, bloody cough, lung infiltrates
• GI tract: Abdominal pain, bloody stool, perforations
• Kidneys: Glomerulonephritis

Diagnosis

• Laboratory tests of blood or body fluids are performed for patients with active vasculitis. Their results will generally show signs of inflammation in the body, such as increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), anemia, increased white blood cell count and eosinophilia. Other possible findings are elevated antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) levels and hematuria.
• Other organ functional tests may be abnormal. Specific abnormalities depend on the degree of various organs involvement.
• The definite diagnosis of vasculitis is established after a biopsy of involved organ or tissue, such as skin, sinuses, lung, nerve, and kidney. The biopsy elucidates the pattern of blood vessel inflammation.
• An alternative to biopsy can be an angiogram (x-ray test of the blood vessels). It can demonstrate characteristic patterns of inflammation in affected blood vessels.

Treatments are generally directed toward stopping the inflammation and suppressing the immune system. Typically, cortisone-related medications, such as prednisone, are used. Additionally, other immune suppression drugs, such as cyclophosphamide and others, are considered. Additionally, affected organs (such as the heart or lungs) may require specific medical treatment intended to to improve their function during the active phase of the disease.

Swine influenza virus is common throughout pig populations worldwide. Transmission of the virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always lead to human influenza, often resulting only in the production of antibodies in the blood. If transmission does cause human influenza, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People with regular exposure to pigs are at increased risk of swine flu infection. The meat of an infected animal poses no risk of infection when properly cooked.

During the mid-20th century, identification of influenza subtypes became possible, allowing accurate diagnosis of transmission to humans. Since then, only 50 such transmissions have been confirmed. These strains of swine flu rarely pass from human to human. Symptoms of zoonotic swine flu in humans are similar to those of influenza and of influenza-like illness in general, namely chills, fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and general discomfort.

Mamansual blamed poor water supplies and inadequate sanitation. He said the first deaths were reported Monday in the village of Milbuk among members of the Manobo tribe who get their drinking water from a waterfall.

Mamsansual, speaking by telephone, said the municipal government delivered intravenous drips and medicines to control diarrhea.

He said 21 people have died in the outbreak, including three children on Wednesday.

Red Cross volunteer Marilou Torres said those who died succumbed to severe dehydration, but laboratory tests were yet to confirm it was cholera. All victims suffered from diarrhea and vomiting, typical symptoms of the disease.

The municipal health officer, who was visiting the affected villages, could not be reached by cellular phone.

The area is so remote that it takes five hours by car to reach Palimbang from General Santos City, the nearest medical center 100 miles away, plus another four-hour hike to get to the villages, Torres said.

She said the Red Cross discovered the cases after trying to check a report that seven people had died from hunger in Palimbang.

A similar outbreak in the neighboring village of Ligaw three months ago killed eight people and sickened 60 others.

Cholera outbreaks are not uncommon in the Philippines, especially during the rainy season.

Cholera is a severe gastrointestinal disease often caused by consuming water or food contaminated with fecal matter.

Ivins, a government scientist who committed suicide last week, has been identified by officials as the suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people and infected 17 others.

John W. Ezzell, the former top anthrax specialist at the Army biodefense facility where Ivins worked, said his one-time colleague was cited so frequently in recent years because he provided the anthrax spores that were used in a range of experiments with animals.

“He got his name on a lot of these publications because he was providing the spores,” said Ezzell, who retired from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md. “That is one of the reasons he was on so many publications. So many of the studies were conducted with his spores.”

The articles themselves are the product of scientific teamwork, written in terse, technical language that average readers would find difficult to parse. They reflect the stuff of basic science: trial-and-error investigation. While the writings do not appear to provide any obvious clues in the anthrax investigation, they do attest to the breadth of Ivins’ involvement in anthrax research.

Another former colleague, Jeff Adamovicz, said the articles only provide a partial portrait of Ivins’ scientific work. Ivins’ detailed knowledge of the anthrax bacteria proved valuable in developing a new vaccine prototype and in devising tests to see if it would work on animals, Adamovicz said.

Ivins is the first scientist listed on a patent for a new anthrax vaccine that was developed by a Fort Detrick team. It has been licensed for development and may one day be used by first responders in a bioterror attack. The patent was filed for in 2000 _ before the anthrax mailings _ and was granted in 2002.

“He worked best as a member of a team,” said Adamovicz, who specializes in plague, and is now a consultant. “He was not a lone-wolf kind of guy. He liked to work with other people and solve technical problems.”

The kind of spores that Ivins produced for experiments was not in the form used in the anthrax mailings. According to Adamovicz, Ivins worked with “wet” spores, which are kept in a watery solution. The spores used in the attacks were “dry” spores, which have been processed several more steps to allow for their release into the air.

Ivins was “really critical in identifying better methods of spore production, and in refining the (qualities) of these spore lots so they had consistent characteristics in terms of concentration and viability,” Adamovicz said.

Ezzell said some of Ivins’ most important research came in the early 1980s, when he assisted another scientist, Joseph D. Ristroph, in developing a new medium for growing anthrax antigens. An antigen is a substance that triggers an immune system response, and is key to developing a vaccine. The new method could produce levels of antigens that were five times greater than previously possible.

Some two decades later, Ivins helped develop the science behind the new vaccine at Fort Detrick. The vaccine works by stimulating the immune system.

Anthrax bacteria make three different proteins to poison cells in living tissue. One of them, called “protective antigen,” starts the process. It opens blood cells to let its more toxic cousins inside.

The Detrick team created a genetically modified version _ a skillful fake _ called the recombinant protective antigen, or rPA. It stimulates the immune system so that the body will recognize and fight real anthrax later if a true infection occurs.

___

AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard and researcher Susan James contributed to this report.

Uncircumcised men are at three times greater risk than circumcised men for contracting chancroid from an infected partner. Chancroid is a risk factor for contracting HIV, due to their ecological association or shared risk of exposure, and biologically facilitated transmission of one infection by the other

Physical exercise is manual activity that develops or maintains physical fitness and overall health. It is often practiced to strengthen muscles and the cardiovascular system, and to hone athletic skills. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent diseases of affluence such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity It also improves mental health and helps prevent depression.

Popular tear gases include the eye irritants CS, CN, and CR. Among a long series of substances, three have become of greater importance than the others. They are effective and imply low risks when used. These substances are chloroacetophenone (codename CN), ortho-chlorobenzylidene-malononitrile (codename CS) and dibenz (b,f)-1,4-oxazepine (codename CR). CN was formerly the most widely used tear gas. Today, CS has largely replaced CN and is probably the most widely used tear gas internationally

At room temperature, these tear gases are white solid substances. They are stable when heated and have low vapor pressure. Consequently, they are generally dispersed as aerosols. All of them have low solubility in water but can be dissolved in several organic solvents. Hydrolysis of CN is very slow in water solution, also when alkali is added. CS is rapidly hydrolyzed in water solution (half-life at pH 7 is about 15 min. at room temperature) and extremely rapid when alkali is added (half-life at pH 9 is about 1 min.). CR is hydrolyzed only to a negligible extent in water solution.

CN and CR are, thus, difficult to decompose under practical conditions, whereas CS can easily be inactivated by means of a water solution. Skin is suitably decontaminated by thorough washing with soap and water. CS is then decomposed whereas CN and CR are only removed.

Decontamination of material after contamination with CS can be done with a 5-10 % soda solution or 2 % alkaline solution. If this type of decontamination cannot be accomplished (e.g., contaminated rooms and furniture), then the only other means is by intensive air exchange—preferably with hot air