Monday, December 05, 2005

lumi tuli, lumi tuli :D

yay, ma ei teadnudki kunagi, kui väga mulle tegelt lumi meeldib kuni praeguse hetkeni. Talv on ilma lumeta ikka nii igav.

Aga täna hakkas meil lund sadama :D
Tegelt ükskord varem sadas ka öösel natuke. Aga praegu on kohe ilus helbene lumi.
Ega ta siinkandis muidugi maha ei jää, aga vähemalt on ilus aknast välja vaadata.

Nii et te kõik kes te seal lumehangedega võitlema peate, nautige ilusat talvelund!

Friday, December 02, 2005

vaccine against cancer ????

Getting smarter every day!
My roommate Katrina suggested an article in Time magazine to me today, which said that Merck has come out with a vaccine against cervical cancer, the second most widespread cancer for women. A vaccine for cancer ???? Definitely sounds too weird to be true. But then again, I'm no medical person here, right.

So I go and do some research and see what Wikipedia says.
Cervical cancer is a malignancy of the cervix. Worldwide, it is the second most common cancer of women. It may present with vaginal bleeding but symptoms may be absent until the cancer is in advanced stages, which has made cervical cancer the focus of intense screening efforts utilizing the Pap smear. Most scientific studies point to human papillomavirus (HPV) infection as a necessary pre-requisite for development of cervical cancer. Treatment is with surgery (including cryosurgery) in early stages and chemotherapy and radiotherapy in advanced stages of the disease. A effective vaccine for the two most common strains of HPV has recently been licenced.

So aparently there can be a vaccine against a cancer since this cancer is caused by a virus. And quite a big developmental leap there - from surgery/chemotherapy to vaccine!
Well, I guess the world is getting better again for all the poor women like me doomed with their family history of cervical cancer and other related problems.

To all you men that read this post, sry for forcing you to get deep into the female stuff! But just remember how many women out there have it, so I'm afraid you cannot escape hearing about it at some point anyways.