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malaria

(Encyclopedia)malaria, infectious parasitic disease that can be either acute or chronic and is frequently recurrent. Malaria is common in Africa, Central and South America, the Mediterranean countries, Asia, and ma...

muscular dystrophy

(Encyclopedia)muscular dystrophy dĭsˈtrōfē [key], any of several inherited diseases characterized by progressive wasting of the skeletal muscles. There are five main forms of the disease. They are classified ac...

SARS

(Encyclopedia)SARS or severe acute respiratory syndrome, communicable viral disease that can progress to a potentially fatal pneumonia. The first symptoms of SARS are usually a high fever, headache and body aches, ...

river blindness

(Encyclopedia)river blindness or onchocerciasis, disease caused by the parasitic nematode worm Onchocerca volvulus. The worm larvae are transmitted by the bites of blackflies (genus Simulium) that live in fast movi...

colitis

(Encyclopedia)colitis, inflammation of the colon, or large intestine. The term “colitis” may be used to refer to any of a number of disorders involving the colon. Symptoms include diarrhea (often with blood and...

hantavirus

(Encyclopedia)hantavirus, any of a genus (Hantavirus) of single-stranded RNA viruses that are carried by rodents and transmitted to humans when they inhale vapors from contaminated rodent urine, saliva, or feces. T...

endocarditis

(Encyclopedia)endocarditis ĕnˌdōkärdīˈtĭs [key], bacterial or fungal infection of the endocardium (inner lining of the heart) that can be either acute or subacute. In the acute form the symptoms (fever, mala...

Nipah virus

(Encyclopedia)Nipah virus, RNA virus of the genus Henipavirus, family Paramyxoviridae, that rarely infects humans but can cause deadly encephalitis. In humans, the virus typically incubates for 4 to 14 days before ...

homeopathy

(Encyclopedia)homeopathy hōmēŏpˈəthē [key], system of medicine whose fundamental principle is the law of similars—that like is cured by like. It was first given practical application by Samuel Hahnemann of ...

Greengard, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Greengard, Paul, 1925–2019, American neuroscientist, b. New York City, Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1953. Greengard was on the staff at Geigy Research Laboratories (1959–67) and a professor at the Albert ...