“Strange” are the illnesses that affect Humans. What else can you call an illness where our own Immune System, that is designed to protect us from foreign bodies starts attacking our own Nervous system. Even strange is that, scientists don’t have a clue on what causes this deadly disease or why it occurs or how to cure it effectively. So deadly is the disorder that one site on the Internet calls this disease as “From Healthy to Helpless”
In the last two weeks alone, I heard about this serious illness “Guillain-Barrè Syndrome” affecting relatives of two of my colleagues in office. One of them had her Sister-In-Law in her middle age affected by this and for the other it was his sister barely in her teens getting affected. I pray for the speedy recovery of both of them!
While trying to educate me on this disorder, I came across several numerous voluntary organizations’ websites around the world about GBS; I even found a special GBS Support Group based in UK that aims support not only patients but also their families and friends in a number of ways.
While Internet search definitely helps us to be more informed about these illnesses, the numerous websites also raises serious questions.
- How credible are these sites?
- As general public, do we face any danger because of this wealth of information?
- Should all information about an illness be made available to general public – meaning can some information known outside the medical community, can it pose threat to society’s overall health and well being?
- At times, faith and trust on your doctor does have tremendous healing power. Does all this, make us doubt our doctor and affect his treatment?
- Sometimes, hiding the actual health condition to a patient, who is critically ill by his friends and relatives may help to ease his pain and anxiety. Does all this information, affect this as well?
Post your thoughts about this in the comments section below.