Word…

Back at work and I am feeling like I need a break to recover from my ‘leave’! The last 2 weekends in Jozi were just plain silly and this coupled with a few public holidays made it just that much more insane, but it was all good. I even managed to do funny stuff like go to the Thursday club, which I think is a social event that happens the first Thursday of every month, you pitch up with R100 which goes to a charity caring for kids with HIV/AIDS (we hope) and u just mingle and stuff…shot for that Makanda.
Sometimes life can be just so weird. At this Thursday club meeting I was having a casual chat with a mate of mine who is renovating his spot. So he tells me that he is going Feng Shui, now boys and girls, I am no design fundi ne, I’ve heard the name before, I smiled and moved on, never to hear it again till that day, oh well, he and Thashnee proceeded to educate me on the Feng Shui, and what happens, today at work one of my colleagues asks me if I believe in Feng Shui. Synchronicity I tell u! from hearing that term most probably only once prior to last week, I hear it twice in the space of a week. We are just going to have to do some research on this topic for the future, apparently its even been on Oprah..ooooooh!!

So my dear friends whats going on in your lives? As u can tell from the tone of my email, I am in a pretty good space….well generally. I am however still searching for the meaning of life, and my role therein, which I have not yet found, but it’s an exciting search. Speaking of the meaning of life and how I guess u must live every moment to its fullest (so much easier said than done), this weeks email is about the dreaded Marburg Virus

The virus similar to the Ebola virus which caused a pretty huge scare a few years ago, broke out (if that’s the correct term, even if its not its too late its been used..ha ha) in Angola. It initially reared its head in the DRC in 1999 and now its plonked itself in Uige province in Angola, since October 2004. The virus is described as a haemorrhagic (copious discharge of blood from the blood vessels…thanks to the dictionary cos I aint no doctor, I knew it had to do with blood…or hemorrhoids…) fever. It was first discovered in Marburg, Germany and Belgrade (Yugoslavia) in 1967, but as we all know all bad diseases stem from Africa, so they are blaming the African green monkeys that they were working on in the labs for the disease. The monkeys were apparently imported from Uganda for research on a polio vaccine. There were 31 reported incidents of the virus that resulted in 7 deaths. Since then in 1975 an Ozzie man died in Joburg, his girlfriend and a nurse were infected, but they managed to come out ok. In 1980 a 56 year old Frenchman, and his doctor caught the bug, the doctor survived, in 1987, again in Kenya a 15 year old Danish male fell ill and died within 7 days. In 1998-2000 about 128 people passed away in the DRC…eish the nigras always die in truck loads!

The virus is known as a filovirus because under an electron microscope it is seen to have a filament like shape, but it tends to coil itself up into odd shapes. The incubation period is said to be between 3 to 10 days, during this period, the infected party will develop a flu-like symptom, with a fever and chills aching muscles and sometimes vomiting and nausea which could easily be mistaken as malaria. Once the incubation period is over the symptoms become worse and the disease could result in jaundice, delirium, liver failure, blood in diarrhea and vomit.

It is possible for patients to make a full recovery, if its detected on time and treated extensively, the stats quoted are 3 in 4 infected cases make a full recovery, they may however develop funny things like hepatitis or an inflammation of the spinal cord or eye problems.

The disease is supposedly only found in wild animals and doctors claim that it is highly unlikely that it can be transported via breathing…aerosol transmission. It is believed that transmission occurs through bodily fluids such as, faeces, vomit, urine, saliva, respiratory secretions, semen and of course blood. So how this virus moved from animal to man, remains a mystery.

If you didn’t know, well now u know!!

Birthdays…
9th sister Nana
11th Liezl and Shireen
12th Dearest mother
13th Mel

May (no pun intended) u all be blessed during this month of your birthdays and the ensuing year!

Quotes…a feature that has been lacking but thanks to Nadia I have plenty more…
Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards. -Soren Kierkegaard

Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards,
They simply unveil them to the eyes of men.
Silently and imperceptibly we grow weak or strong,
And at last some crisis shows us what we have become
- Unknown-

"I change myself, I change the world." --Gloria Anzaldua


Boys and girls the imparter of knowledge is out for yet another week, I hope u all have a productive week and always remember it becomes an issue only if u make it one.
Maximum respect!