Anna's+Report

= Encephalitis Lethargica Disaster Report =

=Encephalitis Lethargica (or E.L) is a disease (it basically means inflammation of the brain that makes you tired) which dramatically changed people's lives between 1917 and 1928 all over the world.=

=E.L is an autoimmune disease which means it is triggered by a throat infection which then attacks the nerve system. It usually starts with a sore throat, fever and a headache then it upgrades to double vision, disturbance of eye movements, weakness of the upper body, tremors and strange movements, neck stiffness, intense muscle pain, slowing of physical and mental response, drowsiness and lethargy. Some people can get extemely disturbed thinking as well and It can take from months to a few years to recover, some people say that the patients never recover.=

=The E.L Epidemic is quite a historic event so not many notes were taken at the time. One million people caught the virus and five hundred thousand people died. Most people who recover get a form of Parkinsons Disease. Now days there is medicine that can help such as Levodopa and Anti-Parkinsons drugs. Still, these will not cure E.L but they will help.=

=In the original epidemic people got E.L from a throat infection as a reaction to the Spanish Flu. Some scientists were worried that we may have got it from the Swine Flu, but luckily we didn't. Occaisional cases are still seen, but they are very rare. E.L is a disease that definitely changed the world.= =By Anna Adam= Change 0 of 0 [|<< First] [|< Previous] [|Next >] [|Last >>]