Background book on Management of the Child with a Serious Infection or Severe Malnutrition
A guide for doctors providing health services for children. 2nd edition
UNAIDS/99.31E (English original, June 1999)
1st revision, April 2000
Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2001, 79 (4)
Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) (sometimes known as radiation toxicity or radiation sickness) is an acute illness caused by irradiation of the entire body (or most of the body) by a high dose of penetrating radiation in a very short period of time (usually a matter of minutes). The major cause of thi...s syndrome is depletion of immature parenchymal stem cells in specific tissues. Examples of people who suffered from ARS are the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs, the firefighters that first responded after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant event in 1986, and some unintentional exposures to sterilization irradiators.
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