Medical Laboratory and Biomedical Science

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Mosquitoes cause more human suffering than any other organism -- over one million people worldwide die from mosquito-borne diseases every year. Not only can mosquitoes carry diseases that afflict humans, they also transmit several diseases and parasites that dogs and horses are very susceptible to. These include dog heartworm, West Nile virus (WNV) and Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE). In addition, mosquito bites can cause severe skin irritation through an allergic reaction to the mosquito's saliva - this is what causes the red bump and itching. Mosquito vectored diseases include protozoan diseases, i.e., malaria, filarial diseases such as dog heartworm, and viruses such as dengue, encephalitis and yellow fever. CDC Travelers' Health provides information on travel to destinations where human-borne diseases might be a problem.

Malaria
Chikungunya
Dog Heartworm
Dengue
Yellow Fever
Eastern Equine Encephalitis
St. Louis Encephalitis
LaCrosse Encephalitis
Western Equine Encephalitis
West Nile Virus
Zika Virus

Bluetooth Pregnancy Test

Developed by Church & Dwight Co. Inc., the makers of First Response pregnancy and ovulation tests, the "First Response Pregnancy PRO Digital Pregnancy Test + App Access" was first unveiled in April 2016 at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev. This event highlighted the product's ability to detect pregnancy as early as six days before the day of the missed period and with over 99% accuracy from the day of the expected period.

The first step toward successful use of the Pregnancy PRO is to download the First Response app used to connect the test stick to a mobile device. Next, a user should open the application on her phone while also removing the test stick from its packaging.

Before taking the test, a user must click "Start My Pregnancy Pro" in the app and fill in all the required personal information, as well as ensure that the phone in use has its Bluetooth wireless setting turned on. As in the case with most pregnancy tests, a woman should next hold the stick by the thumb grip, having the absorbent tip pointed down and the display screen facing away from the body, and place the absorbent tip into her urine stream for five seconds.

After the test has been taken, the "Step-by Step Assurance" feature will then walk the woman through the remaining process. Additionally, the new "Wait Time Support" option provides a variety of resources to help reduce stress during the three-minute countdown to the results.

Read more:
Bluetooth-Enabled Pregnancy Tests

Source: Advance

Sunday, June 12, 2016

I Love Hematology

Awesome T-shirt for medical laboratory scientists

Read more:
Lab Love T-shirt

Source: Gear bubble

Free Guide to Scientific Writing

Clinical Chemistry has published online Guide to Scientific Writing, a series of educational articles on how to design and write scientific research papers for publication. These articles will help authors, educators, researchers, training program directors, and other professionals write more clearly and effectively, thereby improving their chances for success. We encourage educators and training program directors to use them as a teaching aid, and provide a link to them on their own Web sites.

Aarticles are easy to read and humorous at times, yet are full of useful information and examples to illustrate important points. Because the articles will benefit anyone interested in scientific writing, those are available not only to subscribers, but to all scientists. Translations into Chinese and Spanish are available as well.

Read more:
Guide to Scientific Writing