Work is really eating my time right now, so I have a short and sweet post for you today, which is really just a graphic. A really graphic graphic. Here it is: Source: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/polio.pdf (it’s their graphic which I redrew to improve clarity)
It happens to everyone: some stimulus triggers the trigeminal nerve bundle, which in turn signals the sneeze center of the lateral medulla of the brain stem. The nervous functions of the brain stem are the most basic and powerful in the body so once the sneeze center has been stimulated, the rest of the sneeze reflex is unavoidable. Instructions are sent from the brain stem to the lungs to suck in air. The glotis – the opening at the top…
Kuru: The Rarest Infectious Disease in the World! Here’s another blogmas guest post for you all, with another reason to avoid eating brains if you’re not a zombie: a prion disease called “kuru“. Kuru was once listed in the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the rarest (transmissible) disease in the world. It was a type of brain disease. Another name for it is “laughing sickness” because one of its symptoms is sudden bursts of laughter from its victims. It…