Primigravida
By: Caleb Bentley
22 July 2010
Disclaimer: This report is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treat any diseases. It is simply for informational and educational purposes to help further knowledge in the subject area. Please enjoy…
During a Spring Break trip in 2001, Regina, 22, was celebrating the welcomed break from class with her fiancé, John, 23, and with friends by taking a trip up to the mountains in New Mexico. They were simply enjoying life and the time with each other. A few weeks after Spring Break, Regina fell ill, and did not know why. Everyone else seemed to be fine after the trip, but something was wrong with her. She went to the doctor, who had an idea of what could be wrong and ordered some blood work to be done. When the blood work came back, the doctor’s theory was confirmed, Regina had contracted a parasite that caused a very serious disease and a true medical mystery. This would forever change the course of her young life. The doctor explained that over the next several months, the parasite would slowly rob nutrients from her body and could do permanent damage to her unless they acted now. She could have a risky surgery to remove the parasite, which would be dangerous to her and would actually do more harm to her than the parasite itself, or she could take drugs over the next several months in hopes that the parasite would run its course and do as little harm to her as possible. She opted for the several month drug treatments and hoped that everything would be alright. The disease that Regina contracted is primigravida (prim-igrav-idə).
Though this particular story is made up, there are literally thousands of similar stories just like it reported every year around the globe. Primigravida, or gravid (grav’ idə), enters the body as microscopic larva until it finds a favorable and warm environment, such as the abdomen. Gravid is considered a global Endemic disease, that is, a disease that occurs on every continent at a relatively stable frequency [1]. There are prescription medications to prevent the disease, but sadly, most individuals are not properly educated in how to prevent the parasitic infection, much less how it spreads.
Thanks to modern medical practices and techniques, in 2000, gravida had around a 0.0033% mortality rate (no more than 3.3 deaths per 100,000), [2]. Deaths were mostly due to the massive trauma the parasite can cause in the host’s body. However, the mortality rate is down when gravida had about 0.6% mortality rate (607.9 deaths per 100,000), in 1915, [3]. These numbers are significantly higher in those who do not seek medical treatment and do not catch this disease early on to take preventative measures to protect those infected.
The gravida will germinate in the hosts’ abdomen, causing an “unpleasant discomfort” in the surrounding area. Almost a full year after the initial infection, the parasite passes or, in some cases, has to be cut, out of the host. The name of the species, once removed from the host body, is called artigennétos (ar-teeg-en'-nay-tos) [4], but this is not where the story ends. Thousands of dollars must be spent to take care of a single artigennétos specimen, because it must be kept alive by a team of doctors and experts for as long as possible.
Despite having been studied for hundreds of years, there is still relatively little known about the species. Doctors and scientists work around the clock trying to keep these species alive and healthy, so more can be learned from them and to better understand what exactly they are supposed to do and what purpose they serve. Millions of dollars are spent every year to try and help artigennétos grow into a parvulus (par-vu-lus). This is a critical time for doctors as many tests and close supervision is needed to ensure the survival of specimen. Eventually, the parvulus will grow and matures into the final phase, volwassene (foul-was-sence).
Now back to our story: Over the next several months, Regina took the medication her doctors and specialists prescribed, and she made several needed trips to specialists in her area to make sure she was alright and to track the primigravida’s progression. Like all those affected, her cycle stopped, her belly began to distort, and she was constantly sick to the stomach on almost a daily basis. She continued to work, for a time, but eventually she had to take a leave from her job because her discomfort became so overwhelming.
Roughly 40 weeks after the microscopic larva took root inside of Regina, her body began to purge itself of the parasitic entities. Specialists began to work on Regina, to try and lessen the discomfort she was feeling as her body violently ridded itself of the artigennétos. After a few hours, Regina was finished. The artigennétos were out of her body and being cleaned up for further processing. Her now husband, John, looked down as her so proud of how brave she had been through all of this and grateful for her strength. The nurses finally brought the artigennétos over to the happy new parents. Regina held her two beautiful neonates in her arms for the first time. The two parents looked down and smiled at their two beautiful babies, now tightly wrapped in blankets and sleeping soundly in their mother’s arms.
Thank you for taking the time to my report. Please, do not ruin the surprise for other readers. Feel free to leave any comments down below and, as always, be respectful of others opinions.
Work Cited:
Primigravida: Latin, a woman pregnant for the first time. <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/primigravida>
Gravida: Latin, feminine or a pregnant woman. < http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gravida>
Artigennétos: Greek, newly begotten, newly born. < http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/738.htm>
Parvulus: Latin, child. <http://www.online-dictionary.biz/latin/english/meaning/parvulus>
Volwassene: Dutch, adult or adulthood. < http://www.woxikon.com/dut/volwassene.php>
Neonate: Latin, a child up to 4-weeks old. < http://www.thefreedictionary.com/neonate>
Photos:
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| Schistosomiasis Parasite |
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| Fetal development: fist trimester |
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| Fetus grabs doctors finger during spina bifida surgery while still in the womb |
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| Human development |
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