H Illness Details
Hantavirus
What is it?
Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a deadly disease caused by hantaviruses.
Symptoms
Fever, deep muscle aches, and severe shortness of breath, see your doctor immediately.
Transmission
Hantavirus is transmitted by infected rodents through urine, droppings, or saliva. Individuals become infected with HPS after breathing fresh aerosolized urine, droppings, saliva, or nesting materials. Transmission can also occur when these materials are directly introduced into broken skin, the nose or the mouth.
Additional Information
Head Lice (Pediculosis)
What is it?
Infestation is most frequent on children aged 3-10 and their families. Females get head lice more often than males, and infestation in blacks is rare.
Symptoms
The most common symptom of lice infestation is itching. Excessive scratching of the infested areas can cause sores, which may become infected.
Transmission
Head lice are spread through direct head-to-head contact with an infested person. Body lice are spread through direct contact with the body, clothing or other personal items of a person already carrying lice.
Additional Information
Hepatitis A
What is it?
Hepatitis A is a liver infection caused by a virus. It goes away on its own in most all cases. It does not lead to long-term liver problems.
Symptoms
Jaundice( condition causing yellow eyes and skin, dark urine), Abdominal pain, Loss of appetite, Nausea, Fever, Diarrhea, Fatigue.
Transmission
It is spread from person to person by putting something in your mouth that has been contaminated with the stool of an infected person. Infections often occur in conditions of poor sanitation and overcrowding. Therefore, it is most commonly transmitted in drinking water or food.
Additional Information
Hepatitis B
What is it?
Hepatitis B is a serious disease caused by the hepatitis B virus. Infection with this virus can cause scarring of the liver, liver failure, liver cancer, and even death.
Symptoms
Jaundice( condition causing yellow eyes and skin, dark urine), Unusually light-colored stool, unexplained fatigue that persists for weeks or months, gastrointestinal symptoms such as fever, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain.
Transmission
Transmission results from exposure to infectious blood or body fluids containing blood. Possible forms of transmission include (but are not limited to) unprotected sexual contact, blood transfusions, re-use of contaminated needles & syringes, and vertical transmission from mother to child during childbirth.
Additional Information
Hepatitis C
What is it?
Hepatitis C is a disease cause by a virus that infects the liver. In time, it can lead to permanent liver damage as well as cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure.
Symptoms
Fatigue, joint pain, belly pain, itchy skin, sore muscles, dark urine, jaundice( condition causing yellow eyes and skin), redness on the palms, swelling of belly, legs, and feet. Clusters of blood vessels just below the skin that look like tiny red spiders, bleeding from enlarged veins in your digestive tract, damage to your brain and nervous system.
Transmission
Sharing needles and other equipment used to inject drugs.(most common) In rare cases, a mother with hepatitis C spreads the virus to her baby at birth
Additional Information
Histoplasmosis
What is it?
Histoplasmosis is a disease caused by the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum. Its Symptoms vary greatly, but the disease primarily affect the lungs.
Symptoms
Most infected persons have no apparent ill effects. The acute respiratory disease is characterized by respiratory Symptoms, a general ill feeling, fever, chest pains, and a dry or nonproductive cough.
Transmission
Histoplasmosis grows in soil and material contaminated with bat or bird droppings. Spores become airborne when contaminated soil is disturbed. Breathing the spores causes infection. The disease is not transmitted from an infected person to someone else.
Additional Information
Hypothermia
What is it?
Hypothermia occurs when the body gets cold and loses heat faster than the body can make it.
Symptoms
Early symptoms include:Shivering, cold, pale, or blue-gray skin, lack of interest or concern (apathy), poor judgment, mild unsteadiness in balance or walking, slurred speech, numb hands and fingers and difficulty performing tasks.
Late symptoms include: the trunk of the body is cold to the touch, muscles become stiff, slow pulse, breathing that is shallow and slower, weakness or sleepiness, confusion, loss of consciousness, shivering, which may stop if body temperature drops below 90 F.
Transmission
Hypothermia can occur when you are exposed to cold air, water, wind, or rain.
Your body temperature can drop to a low level at temperatures of 50 F or higher in wet and windy weather, or if you are in 60 F to 70 F water.
Additional Information
