Bornholm disease
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Bornholm disease or pleurodynia is a disease caused by the Coxsackie virus. It is named after the Danish island Bornholm where the first documented cases occurred.
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[edit] Other names
It is also known as the devil's grip, devil's grippe, epidemic myalgia, epidemic pleurodynia or The Grasp of the Phantom.
[edit] Transmission
It is spread by contact and epidemics usually occur during warm weather in temperate regions and at any time in the tropics. It can also be spread through saliva and feces.[1]
[edit] Symptoms
Symptoms include:
- fever
- headache
- attacks of severe pain in the lower chest. The slightest movement of the rib cage causes a sharp increase of pain, which makes it very difficult to breathe, and an attack is therefore quite a frightening experience, although it generally passes off before any actual harm occurs. The attacks are unpredictable and strike "out of the blue" with a feeling like an iron grip around the rib cage. The colloquial names for the disease reflect this symptom.The virus that causes devils grip is Picornavirus.
[edit] Prognosis
The illness lasts about a week and is rarely fatal. There is no specific treatment.
[edit] External links
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