What is radiation sickness?

When a large number of high radiations enter your body and touches your internal organs this causes radiation sickness. It takes much more to cause it than you get from medical treatments.

After the end of world war II doctors named it, that is also known as acute radiation syndrome.

It is not known yet, how many people died in those atomic bomb attacks due to radiation sickness. According to an estimation, 150,00p to 250,000 people were killed due to this illness.

Radiation basics:

Sievert (Sv) is an international unit used to measure radiations. Amount of radiations entering your body is measured in Sievert. When radiations in your body extends from 500 millisieverts or half a sievert, then symptoms of radiation sickness appear. More than 4 to 5 Sv is considered fatal. The workers who got radiation sickness received doses of radiation from 700 Sv to 13 Sv. These natural radiations are generally found everywhere like in air, water, and bricks. You got only 3mSv of radiations per year.

There are also man-made sources of these radiations like X-ray. You receive about 3mSv from it. A CT scan delivers 10mSV.

Symptoms of radiation sickness:

Like other diseases, the symptoms of radiation sickness are common. They can go away in few hours to weeks. But if they reappear, it can be worse. Symptoms of radiation sickness include:

· Nausea and vomiting

· Diarrhoea

· Fever

· Hair loss

· Headache

· Dizziness

· Low blood pressure

· Infection

· Fatigue

· Blood in stool or vomit

In some cases you skin is also damaged, like a sunburn and you get blisters and sores too.

Causes:

Radiations are a form of energy ejecting from an atom in a form of a wave of tiny particles of matter. Radiation sickness occurs when you are exposed to a high dose of radiations. For example, during an industrial accident, a huge dose of radiation is received.

There are some other possible sources of radiations exposure such as:

· An attack on a nuclear industry

· The detonation of a standard nuclear weapon

· The detonation of a small radioactive device

· The detonation of a conventional explosive device that emits radioactive material

Radiation sickness occurs when certain cells in your body are destroyed by high energy radiations.

Treatment:

Your stomach, intestines, blood vessels and bone marrow that make up blood cells are damaged by radiations. Amount of disease-fighting white cells reduce due to damaged bone marrow. Therefore most people died due to infections and internal bleeding after radiation sickness. Your doctor might give you blood cells transfusions to balance lost blood cells which will help you fight infections. Or he may give you medication or recommend a transplant to recover your bone marrow.

Also, some fluids are given to treat injuries such as sunburn. It can take up to two years to recover radiation sickness. You can experience other health problems after recovery such as risks of getting cancer will rise.

Complications:

Radiation sickness can result in both short term and long term mental problems due to:

· Mourning friends and family members who didn’t survive

· Experiencing a radioactive accident or attack

· Eventual risk of cancer after radiation exposure

· Dealing with an uncertain potentially fatal disease

Prevention:

In the period of radiation, emergency stay connected to TV, radio and newspapers to know about security measures that your local, state and federal authorities have recommended. Authorities will ask you to stay at home or evacuate from the area according to the situation.

If you are asked to stay at home, you need to follow these instructions:

· Turn off fans, heating units and air conditioners that bring airs from outside

· Close fireplace dampers

· Close and lock all doors and windows

· Move to inner room or basement

· Bring pets inside

· Stay put for at least 24 hours

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