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Radiation sickness, which is known by the medical term "acute radiation sickness" (ARS), and for the general public called radiation poisoning or radiation toxicity, is a series of symptoms that occur after exposure to large amounts of ionizing radiation in a short period of time. Radiation sickness is usually caused by strong field exposure and has a characteristic series of symptoms that appear in a specific order. Continue reading to understand what radiation sickness is.

Steps

1. 1 Find out the cause of radiation sickness. Radiation sickness is caused by ionizing radiation. This type of radiation can take the form of X-rays, gamma rays and corpuscular radiation (neutron beam, electron beam, protons, mesons, and others). Ionizing radiation causes an instant chemical effect on human tissue. There are two possible types of exposure, namely radiation and contamination.Exposure involves exposure to radiation waves, as described above, and contamination involves contact with radioactive dust or liquid. Acute radiation sickness occurs only with radiation, while the result of infection is the penetration of radioactive materials under the skin and their transfer to the bone marrow, which can lead to cancer.
   • Non-ionizing radiation appears in the form of light, radio waves, microwaves, and radar. It does not pose a threat to the body.
2. 2 Identify the development of radiation sickness. Radiation sickness usually begins when a person's body (or most of it) has been exposed to very high doses of radiation, which in a short period of time can penetrate into it, reaching the internal organs (usually within a few minutes). A threshold dose is necessary for the manifestation of the disease, the dose size is the most determining factor for the effect on health. The following amounts and levels of exposure indicate the severity of exposure to radiation:
   • Big dose (> 8 Gy or 800 rad) of radiation to the whole body in a short period of time; this means that death is the most likely outcome within a few days to a few weeks.
   • Moderate a dose (1-4 Gy or 100-400 rad) of radiation can cause symptoms that appear within hours or days after exposure. Symptoms will develop in a fairly predictable manner and there is a good chance of survival, especially when quick medical care. Such exposure is likely to increase the likelihood of cancer later in life, compared to a person who was not exposed to radiation at all.
   • Low a dose (0.05 Gy or 5 rad) of radiation means that there will be no radiation sickness afterwards and there is probably a low probability of the observed health consequences in the future, although there may be an increased risk of cancer compared to the average person.
   • One sharp dose of radiation to the whole body can be fatal, while exposure to the same dose over several weeks or months may have much less effect.
3. 3 Learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of acute radiation sickness. Exposure to radiation can lead to acute (immediate) and chronic (delayed) symptoms. Doctors can predict the degree of radiation exposure from the moment of onset and the specificity of symptoms, where the level and extent of symptoms depends on the dosage received and symptoms appropriate to each person's dose. The following symptoms are fairly standard for a person suffering from acute radiation sickness:
   • Nausea, vomiting, lack of appetite, and diarrhea may appear within minutes to several days after radiation exposure, these are known as "signs of illness onset." These symptoms usually occur 2 to 12 hours after exposure to 2 Gy or more (hematopoietic syndrome).
   • After a day or a half, symptoms may appear and disappear, and the asymptomatic period may last for a week, this is known as the "incubation period". The person usually looks and feels good in a short amount of time, after which he or she falls ill again, while experiencing loss of appetite, fatigue, shortness of breath, general weakness, pallor, fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and possibly even convulsions and coma. During the week of “wellness”, the patient's blood cells in the bone marrow, spleen and lymph nodes are depleted without regeneration, resulting in serious damage to the number of leukocytes, platelets and red blood cells.
   • Skin damage can also occur. It presents as swelling, itching and redness of the skin (like a bad tan). Redness of the skin usually occurs at a dose of 2 Gy. Hair loss can also occur.Like the gastrointestinal symptoms mentioned above, skin conditions come and go, it may seem like the skin is healed in a short time, and then complications may reappear.
   • When a blood test is performed on a person who has been exposed to radiation, little bodies in the blood cells are usually visible. This means there is a greater risk of contracting infections caused by low white blood cell counts, bleeding due to low platelet counts, anemia due to low red blood cell counts.
   • Exposure to radiation up to 4 Gy or more will lead to an upset of the gastrointestinal tract, due to which a person experiences severe dehydration in the first 2 days, then the disease subsides for 4-5 days, during which the patient "feels good", but then dehydration returns with bloody diarrhea as bacteria from the gastrointestinal tract invade the body and cause infection.
   • A person who suffers from cerebrovascular accident as a result of exposure to 20 to 30 Gy of radiation in a single dose is likely to experience mental confusion, nausea, vomiting, bloody diarrhea and shock. Blood pressure drops over a period of several hours, and eventually the patient goes into convulsions and coma and dies within a few hours to a few days.
4. 4 Apply for immediate medical attention if you think you or someone else has been exposed to a lot of radiation. Even if you have not experienced the aforementioned symptoms, it is always a good idea to get tested as soon as possible.
5. 5 Realize the consequences. There is no (yet) one-size-fits-all treatment for radiation sickness, but the dosage level determines the consequences, and most likely, a person exposed to radiation of 6 Gy or more will usually die. For a person who has suffered severe radiation poisoning, supportive treatment is usually made up. This means that the doctor will prescribe medications or suggest procedures that relieve symptoms and help the patient cope with them as soon as they arise. In the case of severe exposure, where death is the most likely outcome, family and friends should be prepared to spend time with the patient (if permitted) and be supportive in any way that relieves the patient's anguish.
   • Treatment may include the use of antibiotics, blood products, colony-stimulating factors, and medically indicated bone marrow and stem cell transplants. People on treatment will often be separated from others to avoid catching infections (so you won't even be able to sit by the sick person's bed). Injections may be needed to calm anxiety and create comfort.
   • Most of the deaths due to radiation sickness are caused by internal bleeding and infection.
   • In a person who has survived radiation exposure, blood cells begin to be produced again after four to five weeks. However, fatigue, lethargy and weakness will persist over the next few months.
   • The lower the lymphocyte count after 48 hours of exposure to radiation, the worse the chances of survival.
6. 6 You need to be aware of the potential chronic (late) effects of radiation. This article was primarily written to recognize and respond to acute radiation sickness in which a medical emergency is needed. However, even after surviving acute radiation sickness, a person may later experience its chronic effects, such as cancer. Animal studies have shown that severe radiation exposure can lead to birth defects caused by irradiated germ cells, but this has not yet been shown in humans who have received radiation up to now.

Tips

• 1 Gr = 100 glad.
• Every year the average person receives about 3-4 mSv from natural and man-made sources of radiation. (1 mSv = 1/1000 Sv)
• Geiger counters can only identify a person who has been contaminated with radiation, not a person who has been exposed to radiation.
• Radiation is measured in units that explain how much energy has been released: Roentgen (R), Gray (Gy), and Sievert (Sv). Although Sievert and Gray are similar, Sievert takes into account the biological effects of radiation exposure.
• Chronic infertility will occur at a dosage of 3 Gy (300 rad) in the testes and 2 Gy (200 rad) in the ovaries.
• A radiation burn is not a skin burn caused by fire. Instead, it is of the type in which the skin cells responsible for skin repair are burned by radiation. Unlike heat or fire burns, which are immediately visible, radiation burns usually take several days to reveal.
• Acute radiation sickness is not contagious or spread from person to person.
• Be aware that some parts of the body are more sensitive to radiation than others. This is why certain areas of the body, such as the reproductive area, are shielded from cancer by radiation therapy and so on. Reproductive organs, as well as tissues and organs in which cells multiply rapidly, are more prone to radiation damage than other parts of the body.
• Cell damage caused by ionizing radiation is very similar to DNA damage caused by daily metabolic processes (you are probably aware of the problem of free radical damage to our cells and the need for antioxidants to help repair damage). But so far, research has shown that some of the damaging effects of radiation are more complex than daily DNA damage, and therefore not easily repaired by our bodies.

Warnings

• The shorter the "incubation period", the higher the radiation dose.
• With a radiation dose above 8 Gy for whole body exposure, the chances of survival are slim. With this amount, the chances of recovery depend entirely on the prompt medical intervention and the type of care provided.

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