19. Read the text. Describe different genetic disorders:

BIRTH DEFECTS AND GENETIC DISORDERS

An estimated 2-3% of all newborn infants will have a congenital birth defect and an even higher percentage will have a genetic condition diagnosed later in life. With intensive care, more newborns with birth defects will survive. It is important therefore to develop a consistent allergen-reagin reaction stili cause irritation of the nose, still eliciting the typical sneezing syndrome despite drug therapy.

Asthma, Asthma often occurs in the “allergic'³ type of person. In these, the allergen-reagin reaction occurs in the bronchioles of the lungs. Here, the most important product released from the mast cells seems to be the slow-reacting substance of anaphylaxis, which causes spasm of the bronchiolar smooth muscle. Consequently, the person has difficult breathing until the reactive products of the allergic reaction have been removed. Administration of antihistaminics has little effect on the course of asthma bepause histamine does not appear to be the major factor eliciting the asthmatic reaction.

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12. Read and translate the text: jaundice

Neonatal jaundice is jaundice that begins within the first few days after birth (jaundice that is present at birth suggests a more serious condition). In fact, bilirubin levels in the blood become elevated in almost all infants and jaundice occurs in more than half. Usually this condition represents a normal physiological phenomenon and does not cause problems.

The cause of normal, physiological jaundice is well studied. During the embryonic life, the red blood cells of the fetus contain a type of hemoglobin different from one that is present after birth. When the infant is bom, his body begins to destroy the red blood cells containing the fetal-type hemoglobin and replaces them with the red blood cells with adult-type hemoglobin. The liver of the newborn infant is not mature, and its ability to process and eliminate bilirubin is limited. As a result bilirubin accumulates in the blood. Within- two or three weeks, the destruction of red blood cells completes, the liver matures, and the bilirubin levels return to normal.

There is another uncommon syndrome associated with neonatal jaundice, referred as breast milk or breast-feeding jaundice. In this syndrome, jaundice appears to be caused by breast feeding. Although the cause of this type is unknown there is a hypothesis that breast milk has some substances that reduce the ability of the liver to process and eliminate bilirubin. In breast milk jaundice, the bilirubin levels rise and reach its peak approximately in two weeks, remain elevated for a week or so, and then decrease to normal within several weeks or months. If there is no serious cause of this condition, for example such as biliary atresia, breast milk jaundice itself does not cause problems for the infant.

However prolonged elevation of bilirubin levels can cause neurological damage to the infant and therefore requires treatment. Therapy usually consists of phototherapy with artificial or natural sunlight and, in more severe cases exchange transfusion is administered.

The benign nature of physiologic and breast milk jaundice should be differentiated from hemolytic disease of the newborn. This • disease is a much more serious, sometimes life- threatening cause of jaundice in newborns due to blood group incompatibilities between mother and fetus, i.e. Rh incompatibility. This incompatibility results in hemolysis. Fortunately thanks to modern management of pregnancy this type of jaundice is rare.

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