BACKGROUND INFORMATION;One drink of alcohol is enough to affect your brain, whether you are an alcoholic or a casual social drinker. Alcohol is a psychoactive drug that interferes directly with the normal functioning of many parts of the brain. Fortunately, much of the effect caused by alcohol consumption can be repaired by the body when the person stops drinking. But ongoing alcohol consumption at heavy levels can cause damage so severe that the body cannot repair it and the damage becomes permanent. TheNational Institute of Health states,

"Difficulty walking, blurred vision, slurred speech, slowed reaction times, impaired memory: Clearly, alcohol affects the brain. Some of these impairments are detectable after only one or two drinks and quickly resolve when drinking stops.

CASES STUDY;On the other hand, a person who drinks heavily over a long period of time may have brain deficits that persist well after he or she achieves sobriety...Alcohol can produce detectable impairments in memory after only a few drinks and, as the amount of alcohol increases, so does the degree of impairment. Large quantities of alcohol, especially when consumed quickly and on an empty stomach, can produce a blackout, or an interval of time for which the intoxicated person cannot recall key details of events, or even entire events."

Drinking alcohol (ethanol) is a two-carbon alcohol with the molecular formula CH₃-CH₂-OH. The hydroxyl group on the end (-OH) is able to participate in hydrogen bonding and accounts for much of its physical properties.

REQUIRED

Question 31

Has human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 avian influenza virus been described?4 Infectious diseases, tropical medicine and STI 16

Question 32

In brucellosis, is it possible to see a brucella agglutination test of more than 1/160 even for years after specific and successful therapy of brucellosis?

Question 33

Please define the terms holoendemic, mesoendemic, and hyperendemic in relation to malaria.

Question 34

You only recommend malarone for malarial prophylaxis when there is a significant chlorquine resistance. Isn't malarone now widely used in travellers going to areas with low resistance.

Question 35

Parenteral vaccination with a killed suspension of Vibrio cholerae is recommended by some - isn't an oral vaccine better?

Question 36

Please suggest possible reasons why Entamoeba histolytica infection associated with bloody diarrhoea is not relieved by treatment with ciprofloxacin and metronidazole 400 mg 2 daily over a 3-week period.

Question 37

Is there a basis for treating patients for filariasis according to the eosinophil count (except for cases of tropical pulmonary eosinophils; TPE)? Filariasis is everywhere in my part of the world; a fluorescent antibody test (FAT) might not be very useful - except when there are very high values.

Question 38

Why do patients who ingest eggs from a tapeworm in contaminated food not develop tapeworms?

Question 39

I have a query about one of the details in the book. You mention that perihepatitis is a feature of gonorrhoeal infection, but other books say that perihepatitis (Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome) is a complication of chlamydial infections. Is there a possibility of perihepatitis in gonorrhoea? Thank you.

Question 40

In the 7th edition of Kumar and Clark Clinical Medicine, you indicate that there is no benefit in treating the male partner of a woman diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis (BV). As many physicians use the 2 g 1 metronidazole dose, is this unwarranted? Does it differ in women experiencing frequent recurrences of infection?