Doctor, What’s Eosinophilia?

Doctor, What’s Eosinophilia?

Dear Dr,

I recently went to the laboratory to do a full blood count as recommended by a friend. The result came out and said I had 9% Eosinophilia in my White Blood Cell Count. Every other thing about the blood test was normal. The normal was supposed to be between 1 and 6 per cent. What can be wrong with me?

Jay Bulama-Spiff; Warrri

 

Dear Jay,

White Blood Cell count is a normal part of a Full blood Count test. After telling the total count, this test will break the white Cell Count into its differentials. Meaning, the blood contains red blood cells and white blood cells. The white cells are the defense component of the blood while the red cells function to carry and supply oxygen round the tissues in the body. The white cells, these defense agents, are of various types, namely neutrophils, leucocytes, monocytes, eosinophils  and basophils. That’s just like saying that the defense agents in a nation’s armed forces consist of the army, navy,air force, police and civil defense. The Differential Count tells us what percentage of the total count each of these five types of white cell represent in your own blood as against normal counts. Thus, for example, neutrophils are normally expected to be 40-75 percent while eosinophils make up1-6 percent. Physicians interprete your laboratory report to make a diagnosis of what the problem might be in your situation. In your own case your eosinophils were way high up in the 9percent range. Diseases that account for this Eosinophilia(high eosinophils percentage) include allergies of every type( food; drug; atopic hay fever); asthma; parasitic diseases(as in worms); fungal diseases, skin, endocrine, tumours/cancers, autoimmune diseases (HIV/AIDS is a classical one). What your doctor needs to do now is check your complaints and history; examine you thoroughly to find what may be the cause of your Eosinophilia. Most likely it will be worms; round-worms. A simple test of your stool will detect this and he will then give you medicines that will get rid of the worms – anthelminthics, we call them

Cheers

Dr. Caleb Bibbi Oluranti