Variola
Smallpox, a highly contagious and frequently fatal viral disease characterized by a biphasic (double-humped) fever and a distinctive skin rash that (if the patient survived) left pock marks in its wake. The English physician Edward Jenner (1749-1823) exploited the fact that cowpox created immunity to smallpox and successfully developed an attenuated (weakened) virus vaccine for smallpox. Thanks to vaccination, smallpox has been eradicated. It was so named because the pocks were small and the disease was seen as less than the “great pox” (syphilis).
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- Variolation
The old practice of inoculating someone with the virus of smallpox to produce immunity to the disease. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced this practice into England from Turkey in 1721. Unfortunately, the identification of a suitable strain of the virus was not an exact science and grievous disease and death from variolation were not uncommon. […]
- Varix
An enlarged and convoluted vein, artery, or lymphatic vessel. Treatment of varices depends on where they are and whether they are causing problems. A varix in the esophagus can be caused by severe liver disease and can lead to bleeding. This form of varix can require treatment to prevent dangerous bleeding.
- Varus
(vara, varum) Angled inward, bent or twisted inward, as in cubitus varus, hallux varus, talipes equinovarus, genu varum, and coxa vara.
- Vas deferens
The tube that connects the testes with the urethra. The vas deferens is a coiled duct that conveys sperm from the epididymis to the ejaculatory duct and the urethra.
- Vasa previa
A condition in which blood vessels within the placenta or the umbilical cord are trapped between the fetus and the opening to the birth canal, a situation that carries a high risk the fetus may die from hemorrhage due to a blood vessel tearing at the time the fetal membranes rupture or during labor and […]