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Magill’s Medical Guide, 9th Edition

Radiation sickness

by Hans G. Graetzer, , PhD

Category: Disease/Disorder

Anatomy or system affected: Gastrointestinal system, hair, skin, stomach

Specialties and related fields: Critical care, emergency medicine, occupational health, oncology, public health, radiology

Definition: An acute illness that occurs when an individual is exposed to a sudden, large dose of nuclear radiation or X rays.

CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS

Typical symptoms of radiation sickness are nausea, diarrhea, skin burns, internal bleeding, and severe anemia. The production of blood corpuscles in the bone marrow is inhibited, and the ability of the body to fight infection is reduced.

The severity of radiation sickness depends on the dose, which is commonly measured in units called rads (an acronym for radiation absorbed dose). For humans, a whole-body dose greater than six hundred rads is usually fatal. At 450 rads, there is a 50 percent survival rate. Below fifty rads, no symptoms of radiation sickness are observable, although the risk of cancer is somewhat higher than normal. Radiation therapy for cancer patients has typically been prescribed in total doses of about five thousand rads. Such large doses are not fatal for two reasons: first, only a small region of the body (the actual cancer site) is irradiated; and second, the therapy is given in smaller doses of about two hundred rads over a period of several weeks, so that the body has time to recover between treatments.

TREATMENT AND THERAPY

Once radiation damage occurs, little can be done to repair it directly. Immediate treatment involves washing the body with soap and lukewarm water to remove radioactive material, as well as monitoring of the levels of radiation in the body. This monitoring continues throughout the course of treatment, which centers on whichever parts of the body have been affected and focuses on helping the body’s natural processes of recovery. Vomiting and diarrhea can be controlled with drugs, while bacterial infections and wounds are treated with antibiotics. In extreme cases, bone marrow transplants can be performed to reestablish the formation of new blood cells. Donor cells are not likely to be rejected because the body’s immune system has been inactivated temporarily by the radiation.

Information on Radiation Sickness

Causes: Exposure to sudden, large dose of nuclear radiation or X rays

Symptoms: Nausea, diarrhea, skin burns, internal bleeding, severe anemia

Duration: Acute

Treatments: Drug therapy, antibiotics, bone marrow transplantation

See also Biological and chemical weapons; Bone marrow transplantation; Burns and scalds; Carcinogens; Environmental diseases; Occupational health; Radiation therapy.

For Further Information:

1 

Frigerio, Norman A. Your Body and Radiation. Washington, DC: US Atomic Energy Commission, 1966.

2 

Hall, Eric J. Radiation and Life. 2d ed. New York: Pergamon Press, 1984.

3 

Montemayor-Quellenberg, Marjorie, and Igor Puzanov. “Radiation Exposure.” Health Library, 20 June 2013.

4 

Ogura, Toyofumi. Letters from the End of the World: A Firsthand Account of the Bombing of Hiroshima. New York: Kodansha International, 2001.

5 

Perez, Eric, et al. “Radiation Sickness.” MedlinePlus, 1 Feb. 2013.

6 

Prasad, Kedar N. Handbook of Radiobiology. Rev. 2d ed. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 1995.

7 

“Radiation Exposure.” MedlinePlus, 26 Aug. 2013.

8 

“Radiation Exposure and Cancer.” American Cancer Society, 29 Mar. 2010.

9 

“Understanding Radiation: Overview.” Environmental Protection Agency, 23 Jan. 2013.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Graetzer, Hans G. "Radiation Sickness." Magill’s Medical Guide, 9th Edition, edited by Anubhav Agarwal,, Salem Press, 2022. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=MMG2022_1146.
APA 7th
Graetzer, H. G. (2022). Radiation sickness. In A. Agarwal, (Ed.), Magill’s Medical Guide, 9th Edition. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Graetzer, Hans G. "Radiation Sickness." Edited by Anubhav Agarwal,. Magill’s Medical Guide, 9th Edition. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2022. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.