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Morbidity of Malignant Mesothelioma
Human being's story on this planet has been a story of struggle, survival and success. Man in his entire history has fought some of the fiercest challenges that nature put in his road to evolution. In every such challenge, man has been able to come up triumphant and his march to success and glory has no other parallel. Once again that same spirit and courage is required to overcome a challenge that is threatening the very existence of mankind. This challenge is in the form of the cancer of mesotheioma.
Malignant mesothelioma is the cancer of the protective membrane around majority of the human body's internal organs. This membrane is known as mesothelium. The major cause of mesothelioma is the exposure to asbestos, which is quite commonly found in buildings, shipyards, oil refineries, iron mines, and many other places. Workers and other people who work in these places are the most vulnerable to the disease. Apart from that people who come in contact with these people also carry the risk of getting afflicted with the disease.
The major cause of worry regarding this disease is that the asbestos fiber or dust has a long latency period. Sometimes the latency could be as long as 30-40 years. It is only after such a long period that the asbestos manifests itself in the body and causes the formation of cancerous tissues. By this time the disease has already advanced into its last stages. Another worrying factor about malignant mesothelioma is the non-specific nature of its symptoms. Almost all of its symptoms are similar to the symptoms of other more commonly occurring diseases. As a result by the time the disease is detected it is already in its last stages where the best that a physician can do for his patient is to make the remaining years of his life less painful and more comfortable.
Every year thousands of people die due to malignant mesothelioma. The reason being that they were exposed to asbestos decades back, and it is only now, that the disease is being detected.
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