Virulence

Disadvantages of Vaccines What is a vaccination? How do they benefit individuals? Is there any harm that can come from receiving a vaccine? A vaccination is defined as the injection of a killed or weakened infectious organism in order to prevent the disease. Scientists make vaccines by first making the pathogen, or disease-causing microbe, in mass amounts in a laboratory. The pathogens must then be altered to ensure that the disease is not actually triggered. Alterations of these pathogens can…

Introduction The 1918 Spanish Flu resulted in the exposure of one-third of the world’s population with an overall death estimate of 50-100 million people 1,2. In the United States, mortality rates were as high as 675,000 people representing 28% of the population2,3. The Spanish Flu affected the United States in three waves. Symptoms during the onset of Spanish Flu in March of 1918, were overall not perceived to be alarming to the American Population. Whereas during the second wave of the…

One of the leading causes of bacterial meningitis is Neisseria meningitidis, which can be acquired globally. N. meningitidis is normal flora in the human nasopharynx, but if an individual becomes susceptible, it can lead to bacterial meningitis. Incidence of N. meningitidis is strongly influenced by age. Infants have the highest risk for meningococcal disease. Low serum bactericidal antibody levels play a large role in those that are at risk for infection. Those with compromised immune…

I remember waking up with a bloody face. As I entered junior high, my family had moved to a town that had a racist streak. On the first day of school I made a remark identifying myself as believing in civil rights. The statement’s consequences arrived several months later when I was beaten unconscious by a fellow white student. At that time, I had never had a black friend, but the madness imposed on African Americans stormed into my world with the physical intimacy of violence. What do we know,…

Definition and Causes of Short Bowel Syndrome The patient in this case study was immunocompromised due to Short Bowel Syndrome (SBS) which predisposed her to discitis infection. SBS is a disorder that hinders the absorption of nutrients and fluids usually after extensive small intestine resection (Tee, Wallis, & Gabe, 2011). An average person’s small intestine is 600cm long (Sundaram, Koutkia, & Apovian, 2002). In SBS, the small bowel has been shortened at least 70 percent (Sundaram et al.,…

The Burkholderia Taxonomy and Genomics Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp) belongs to the Burkholderia genus which contains over 40 species that inhabit a variety of ecological niches. The majority of species within this genus are non-pathogenic soil-dwelling bacteria, but a few species are highly pathogenic to humans and can result in severe disease [1]. This includes B. mallei, an obligate mammalian pathogen and the causative agent of glanders, which primarily affects horses and other solipeds…

As defined by the Rand Corporation (3), agroterrorism is “the deliberate introduction of a disease agent, either against livestock or into the food chain, for the purposes of undermining socioeconomic stability and/or generating fear. Depending on the disease agent and pathogenic vector chosen, agroterrorism is a tactic that can be used either to cause mass socioeconomic disruption or as a form of direct human aggression”. The Department of Homeland Security defines agricultural bioterrorism as…

Malabanan, Joshua Yran P. Professor Cynthia Solem English 1A 05 December 2014 How E. Coli Can Make Us Die A 4-year-old Oregon girl has died from medical complications possibly resulting from an E. coli infection contracted sometime just before Labor Day weekend, according to the girl’s uncle, who spoke with Food Safety News. Serena Profitt of Otis, OR, died Monday at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. Her symptoms of E. coli infection first appeared around Aug. 29 with bouts of…

The last interview which Mahatma Gandhi gave to Margrate Bourka White in the early afternoon on 30th January, 1948 was on “His persistence in his theory of non-violence in the event of a nuclear attack on a city.” The Mahatma’s reply was that if the defenseless citizens died in a spirit on non-violence, their sacrifice would not in vain; they might all pray for the soul of the pilot who had thoughtlessly sprayed death on the city. This was the last message of compassion to mankind. Gandhi had…

Two courses of action, it was argued, were required. First, crypto-Judaism could only be overcome by the introduction of an Inquisition; second, Jewish influence over the conversos could only be overcome by their expulsion. These ideas, adumbrated in works such as Alonso de Espina's Fortalitium Fidei, continued to gain ground, and on 27 September 1480 the Catholic Monarchs appointed Inquisitors in Castile who began their work in Seville shortly after (1481). Conversos, often subjected to torture…