Analise Tenney
Problem Set #1
PHP 405- Dr. Caffrey
October 14, 2015
Chapter 15- All in Good Haste In 1993, news spread among the entire Navajo Nation of three strong young members of the community who unexpectedly died after suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS. Upon discovery that these deaths were interrelated through family, the state’s medical examiner alerted the forensic pathologist of the possibility of a communicable disease problem. The New Mexico Department of Health sent letters describing the mysterious disease to all state physicians and requested immediate notification of new cases. The disease pattern characteristically started with flu-like symptoms: fever, muscle aches, headaches. After a period of hours to days, symptoms intensified to coughing and irritation of the lungs caused by the capillary network in the lungs filling with fluid. Within hours, patients would be oxygen deprived resulting in cardiac failure or pulmonary edema, which led to their cause of death. The determination of this epidemic was restricted a specific Hantavirus. Hantaviruses first came to attention during the Korean War when soldiers fell ill due to an unknown disease. Later, scientists established that field mice were the carriers of this unknown disease. In the 1970’s, scientists discovered the presence of 11 other forms of Hantaviruses. Carriers of theses viruses were always rodents and exposure of the disease was due to inhalation or skin exposure of the animals’ excrements. Subsequently, the causative agent of the attack among the Navajo nation was accepted to be infected Seoul rats, which found their way into cargo holds of Korean ships and then escaped into U.S. Harbor cities. The first documented cases of this disease started in the Four Corners (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) but later stretched to as far as New York and Rhode Island. Successful isolation of the virus opened up for the creation of a vaccine and a screening test that could be used in rural settings. This unique new microbe was named Muerto Canyon, after the valley in which the Four Corners virus first appeared. Chapter 12- Feminine Hygiene (As Debated, Mostly, by Men) The chapter commences in 1982 with the introduction of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), which at that time, the pathogenesis of the disease was unknown and a controversial topic to public health authorities. During the 1970s, the tampon industry was thriving as women began entering the workplace. No regulatory agency or medical organization questioned the insertion of petrochemical products into environments such as the vagina requiring no safety tests on tampons. In January 1980, the …show more content…
The agency suggested that tampons play a contributing role, perhaps carrying the organism. Patrick Schlievert determined the presence of a rare toxin excreted by the staph strain and although there was a connection to tampon use, the real issue was the staphylococcal poison. This led to determining the set of 2 transposons (TSST-1 and beta-lactamase) linked to the new staph strain. Therefore concluding that possibly the TSS outbreak followed a unique event in which a plasmid that carried both transposon sets was absorbed into a staph bacterium under conditions that were ideal for rapid multiplication. After this discovery, one could take comfort in light of the fact that the disease was curable if rapidly diagnosed and treated. Being that the bacterium is unaffected by penicillin antibiotics, it was susceptible to other classes of …show more content…
Among a selective population of patients undergoing proteinuria and kidney dialysis at John Hopkins (persons at risk in the population), 6.5 present or 131 people tested positive for the serum that reacted with the Seoul Hantavirus antibodies. Microbiologist James LeDuc and scientist Jamie Childs were convinced that hantaviruses of various types were prevalent in rodents throughout North America and believed that they were responsible for the higher rates of hypertension and kidney disease seen among America’s inner-city poor. Both LeDuc and Childs were the first scientists to apply polymerase chain reactions (PCR) to the diagnosis and study of Hantaviruses, which advanced the diagnosis vastly with the ability to perform PCR analysis in order to identify which species of Hantavirus was causing unusual outbreaks. The importance of this rate is the ability to determine the percentage of people within the specific population who have developed a kidney problem as a result of the Seoul specific
Problem Set #1
PHP 405- Dr. Caffrey
October 14, 2015
Chapter 15- All in Good Haste In 1993, news spread among the entire Navajo Nation of three strong young members of the community who unexpectedly died after suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS. Upon discovery that these deaths were interrelated through family, the state’s medical examiner alerted the forensic pathologist of the possibility of a communicable disease problem. The New Mexico Department of Health sent letters describing the mysterious disease to all state physicians and requested immediate notification of new cases. The disease pattern characteristically started with flu-like symptoms: fever, muscle aches, headaches. After a period of hours to days, symptoms intensified to coughing and irritation of the lungs caused by the capillary network in the lungs filling with fluid. Within hours, patients would be oxygen deprived resulting in cardiac failure or pulmonary edema, which led to their cause of death. The determination of this epidemic was restricted a specific Hantavirus. Hantaviruses first came to attention during the Korean War when soldiers fell ill due to an unknown disease. Later, scientists established that field mice were the carriers of this unknown disease. In the 1970’s, scientists discovered the presence of 11 other forms of Hantaviruses. Carriers of theses viruses were always rodents and exposure of the disease was due to inhalation or skin exposure of the animals’ excrements. Subsequently, the causative agent of the attack among the Navajo nation was accepted to be infected Seoul rats, which found their way into cargo holds of Korean ships and then escaped into U.S. Harbor cities. The first documented cases of this disease started in the Four Corners (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah) but later stretched to as far as New York and Rhode Island. Successful isolation of the virus opened up for the creation of a vaccine and a screening test that could be used in rural settings. This unique new microbe was named Muerto Canyon, after the valley in which the Four Corners virus first appeared. Chapter 12- Feminine Hygiene (As Debated, Mostly, by Men) The chapter commences in 1982 with the introduction of Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), which at that time, the pathogenesis of the disease was unknown and a controversial topic to public health authorities. During the 1970s, the tampon industry was thriving as women began entering the workplace. No regulatory agency or medical organization questioned the insertion of petrochemical products into environments such as the vagina requiring no safety tests on tampons. In January 1980, the …show more content…
The agency suggested that tampons play a contributing role, perhaps carrying the organism. Patrick Schlievert determined the presence of a rare toxin excreted by the staph strain and although there was a connection to tampon use, the real issue was the staphylococcal poison. This led to determining the set of 2 transposons (TSST-1 and beta-lactamase) linked to the new staph strain. Therefore concluding that possibly the TSS outbreak followed a unique event in which a plasmid that carried both transposon sets was absorbed into a staph bacterium under conditions that were ideal for rapid multiplication. After this discovery, one could take comfort in light of the fact that the disease was curable if rapidly diagnosed and treated. Being that the bacterium is unaffected by penicillin antibiotics, it was susceptible to other classes of …show more content…
Among a selective population of patients undergoing proteinuria and kidney dialysis at John Hopkins (persons at risk in the population), 6.5 present or 131 people tested positive for the serum that reacted with the Seoul Hantavirus antibodies. Microbiologist James LeDuc and scientist Jamie Childs were convinced that hantaviruses of various types were prevalent in rodents throughout North America and believed that they were responsible for the higher rates of hypertension and kidney disease seen among America’s inner-city poor. Both LeDuc and Childs were the first scientists to apply polymerase chain reactions (PCR) to the diagnosis and study of Hantaviruses, which advanced the diagnosis vastly with the ability to perform PCR analysis in order to identify which species of Hantavirus was causing unusual outbreaks. The importance of this rate is the ability to determine the percentage of people within the specific population who have developed a kidney problem as a result of the Seoul specific