USA CONGENITAL SYPHILIS San Antonio.

By Eileen Pace The San Antonio Metropolitan Health District has initiated a campaign to re-educate the population about syphilis as the city has seen an increase in the number of congenital syphilis cases over the past couple of years. Metro Health said San Antonio is number two in the state in the number of syphilis cases per capita. Last year in Bexar County 18 babies were born with syphilis and the department said that number should be zero. Dr. Anil Mangla of the Metro Health District said the city is reaching out to all the local hospitals, the medical school and local health providers to step up the testing of pregnant women and to educate their patients about the rapidly-spreading disease. "We are actually reaching out to all hospitals," Mangla said. "As a matter of fact, I’ve started presenting grand rounds at the hospitals and the medical school on congenital syphilis and making people aware because the population, as well as many of the providers, think this is a problem of the past. But it hasn’t gone away yet."

Prof.B.PETRUSON inventor of NOZOVENT alar dilators & NOZOHAEM for epistaxis

Why should one breathe through the nose? Björn Petruson, Göteborg, has devoted his professional life to nasal diseases. As a professor and senior physician at the ENT Clinic at Sahlgrenska University Hospital, his life has centred around treating patients, lecturing, researching and supervising post-graduate students. Björn Petruson has written textbooks on the nose, developed pharmaceutical and other treatment methods for various conditions in the nose and written a number of scientific and medical history books and articles. As a medical consultant at Pharmacure AB, Björn Petruson guarantees the quality and scientific rigour of the company’s nasal products and product information. In this interview, he answers a number of topical questions about the nose, its function and illnesses. Professor Björn Petruson Björn Petruson, how do human beings actually benefit from having a nose? Isn’t it just as easy to breathe through the mouth? To begin with, the nose is our organ of smell. Without the ability to smell, our lives would be far less enjoyable – and far more dangerous! Breathing in through the nose has many positive effects. Jon Lundberg, Professor of Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has demonstrated that the gas molecule, nitrogen oxide, which forms in the nasal sinus, has a positive effect on the blood vessels in the lungs. It dilate and oxygenation improves. The longer competitors in the Vasa Ski Race, the Stockholm Marathon or other demanding sporting events can breathe through their nose, the better. You mentioned the Vasa Ski Race. It can be quite cold at the start in Sälen. Is breathing through the nose also recommended at low temperatures? Absolutely. Breathing in through the nose humidifies and heats the air in a phenomenally effective way. It takes just five 100ths of a second for the air temperature to be raised from zero to 30 degrees while covering a distance of just seven centimetres. Breathing in cold air through the mouth, on the other hand, increases the risk of asthma, otherwise known as cold-induced asthma. What happens to the outdoor humidity at low temperatures? The lower the temperature, the drier the air. The drier the air, the greater the problems caused by dry mucous membranes in the nose. Problems caused by dry nasal mucous membranes are very common in the inland regions of Norrland in northern Sweden, for example. However, the relative humidity is low not only when it is cold outdoors but also in an indoor climate that is regulated by air conditioning. A flight to Thailand or the USA can also dry out the nasal mucous membranes.The air on board aircraft is very dry. Not everything can be blamed on the environment, however. Elderly people, and women in particular, develop dry mucous membranes as part of the ageing process. In addition to its ability to heat and humidify, the nose is also able to cleanse the air we inhale from particles in the air. All of us have worked in a dusty environment at some time and then blown our noses. Our handkerchiefs reveal just how much air pollution remains in the nose. Breathing in through the mouth does not have the same ‘filter effect’ as breathing through the nose. Snoring, overweight, blood oxygenation and the risk of heart attacks – could you explain how they are related? Snoring is a common phenomenon among people who are overweight . The reason is that in the overweight, the ‘fat’, is located not just around the waist but also in the palate. When the size of the soft palate increases and reduces the air passages, inhalation is more difficult and the oxygenation of the blood in the lungs is therefore reduced. Snorers, especially the ones who stop breathing for short periods during sleep (otherwise known as sleep apnea), risk suffering heart attacks. It goes without saying that the best remedy is to change lifestyle and reduce body weight by not eating and drinking as much. Is nasal congestion as a result of a deviation in the septum a common complaint? Yes, this is a deviation that is well known to every ear, nose and throat doctor. It causes problems of different kinds for the patient, such as snoring, an increased tendency to develop nasal congestion in conjunction with allergies and so on.There are two main causes of septum deviation :damage during delivery and being exposed to violence later in life. As I wrote in the introduction to my surgical guide Med kniven i näsan (With a knife in the nose), interventions in the nose are not easy to perform. The area for surgery is very restricted and deep, making things difficult for one surgeon and naturally even more difficult for two. The intervention always takes place via the nostrils. The results are good, however; most patients are cured of their problems. Finally, a linguistic question. The “ceiling” of the nose, the bone that separates the nose from the brain, is called the ethmoid bone. Can you explain why? The word ethmoid comes from the Greek and means sieve-like. In ancient Egypt, people believed that the heart was the centre of the body and the seat of the soul. The brain’s sole task was to produce mucus to keep the nose moist. The belief that nasal mucus was produced by the brain and then dropped or was sieved through the opening at the top of the nose persisted for centuries. It was not until the 17th century that the Englishman Richard Lower, who was training to be a doctor, showed that this was not the case. He conducted an experiment which involved injecting ink into the cerebral fluid of animals and he revealed that that the ink was transported away, but not via the nose. None of the injected ink was found there.