HOW TO STAY WELL IN THE WORLD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES

We ended the last Wilderness Medicine Newsletter by suggesting that you may wish you had never read the article and that your future rests in the hands of the infectious disease beasts. However, we did not get this far as humans by being outwitted by some singled-cell organism that wants to proliferate in our blood stream or some lazy tapeworm that desires to lay around in our colons waiting for the next meal. Instead we have a highly developed set of natural defenses that protect us and mind the fort.

July/August 2002 ISSN-1059-6518 Volume 15, Number 4

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The World of Infectious Disease

There is a constant life and death struggle going on all around you. It is on you and in you and as long as you are winning the battle you are not even aware of it. But your life and your ability to enjoy life are totally dependent upon your ability to constantly and consistently wage war and defeat the enemy that you cannot see.

We are not alone on this planet. There are approximately six billion people and for every person there are billions of infectious agents trying their best to elude their immune system to make them part of their food chain. These billions of microbiological agents are commonly know as bugs, germs, parasites, and microbes and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Most are harmless to us and may even benefit us. But many others survive and thrive by causing infections and diseases at our expense. These microbes that cause disease are referred to as pathogens.

 

May/June 2002   ISSN-1059-6518   Volume 15, Number 3

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Managing a Backcountry Fatality

“The meaning of life is that it ends.”

Franz Kafka

Kafka’s somewhat grim perspective reminds us that life is a precious and finite commodity. Many of us enrich our quality of life by spending as much of it as possible in the beauty of the wilderness. It stands to reason: by spending so much of our lives in the wilderness we increase the chance of them ending there.

 

March/April 2002 ISSN-1059-6518 Volume 15, Number 2

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A Brief History of Wilderness Medicine

January/February 2002 ISSN-1059-6518 Volume 15, Number 1

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