Pertussis, also known as “whooping cough,” is a highly contagious disease that affects the respiratory system. This disease is caused by the the bacterium, Bordatel la pertussis, which transfers from person to person through air droplets. Coughing, sneezing, or coming close into contact with an infected person can be very dangerous it is likely to infect a healthy person. Once Bord atella pertussis enters a person’s system, it sticks itself to the cilia in one’s respiratory system. Because the bacteria releases toxins once it binds to the cilia, the cilia gets damaged and begins to swell up the person’s airways.
Whooping cough has three stages: catarrhal, paroxysmal, and convalescent. The first, or catarrhal stage, usually lasts about two weeks. Once early symptoms are present, one may experience what seems to be a common cold: a runny nose, lowgrade fever, a mild cough, and even a
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Anybody from infants to adults are recommended to get the vaccine to prevent the contraction of pertussis. Pregnant women are especially advised to get the vaccine during each pregnancy to ensure a healthy condition for herself and her baby.
It is especially important for babies, infants, and pregnant women to take vaccinations against whooping cough because symptoms are most harmful for babies. In fact, babies who are younger than one year old usually need hospital treatment. There are also many other complications babies with pertussis can face; they can develop pneumonia, experience convulsions, develop apnea or encephalopathy, and some may even die.
Teenagers and adults who contract pertussis usually experience milder symptoms and complications than babies and children. Usually, in teens and adults, the complications that arise from pertussis occur from the coughing fits. Complications in teens and adults are rare; however, they can experience weight loss, have no bladder control, pass out, and even break a
Vaccines should be put in children when are born to prevent any diseases when they are
Bordetella pertussis is a highly communicable agent and is transmitted person-to-person via airborne droplets or direct contact with discharges from the respiratory mucous membranes of an infected person. This small, gram-negative coccobacillus is non-motile, aerobic and fastidious. B. pertussis colonizes the respiratory tract including the mouth, nose, throat and beginning of the lungs of young children worldwide. The bacteria bind to ciliated cells in the respiratory mucosa by producing adhesions. Filamentous hemagglutinin on the cell surface and pertussis toxin (Ptx) both help the bacteria in binding. Filamentous hemagglutinin binds to the galactose residues on the glycolipid of the ciliated cells. Ptx, in its cell-bound form, binds to the glycolipid lactosylceramide, which is also found on the ciliated cells. Ptx binds to the surface of phagocytes as well, causing phagocytosis of the bacteria. This mechanism may lead to enhanced survival as an intracellular parasite. Adding to its many purposes, Ptx deregulates the host cell adenylate cyclase activity. The A subunit of this AB toxin, affects the G protein responsible for inhibiting adenylate cyclase. This leads to an increase in cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) creating detrimental metabolic changes in the host cells.
For the disease to occur, Bordetella pertussis evades the host immune system and is disseminate in the lower respiratory tract. Inhaled bacteria droplets then attach to the ciliated epithelial cells in the nasal-pharynx and trachea. It is at this point that Bordetella pertussis produces virulent factors that are classified into two; adhesins and toxins. Adhesins mediate bacterial attachment to the epithelial cells while toxins that mediate the host immune system. Adhesins include; filamentous haemagglutinin, fimbriae and pertactin while toxins include pertussis toxin, tracheal cytotoxin and adenylate cyclase toxin(1). To understand the role of these virulence factors in whooping cough disease, a mouse model has been used (2).
Pertussis: Pertussis also known as whopping cough is a highly contagious bacterial disease that causes an uncontrollable, severe coughing. It is a serious disease that can affect individual of all ages with severe complication resulting in permanent disability in infants and lastly death. The fact that this 7-months old baby stay up night, inability to sleep can make it hard to breathe. Burns, Cotter, Harvill, Hewlett, Merkel, Stibitz & Quinn explained that pertussis is an upper respiratory infection caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacteria in addition to the systemic manifestations such as “lympocytosis, dysregulated secr...
The idea behind vaccines is to provide the body with just enough of the disease-causing substance to trick the body into producing antibodies against it. By injecting weak or dead infectious agents through the skin, it’s believed that the body will create the appropriate immune defense. Infants come into the world with antibodies they have gotten from their mother through the placenta. Infants who are breastfed continue to receive many important antibodies in the colostrum (the thick, yellowish premilk that is secreted during the first few days after a woman gives birth) and breast milk. During the first year of life, the immunity an infant gets from its mother at birth wears off. To help boost the fading ability to fight certain diseases, vaccines are given. Once the antibodies are produced, they stay around, protecting the child against the disease they were designed to fight.
Throughout 1918 and 1919, influenza spread quickly in three waves killing an estimated 50 million to 100 million people worldwide. With the best-recorded first case having occurred in Fort Riley, the contagious flu spread across military camps around the United States. Due to the world war, the influenza virus was brought over to Europe where it infected people in nearly every country. This disease would end up causing one of the greatest pandemics in human history, but would also catalyze great advancements in science and medicine.
The spread of smallpox is by inhaling air from an already infected person, which will cause the person who is inhaling to become infected themselves. Another cause of infection is coming into contact with an infected person sneezing or coughing. Another form of spreading the disease has is infecting a person when they come into contact with the puss that is inside the lumps on an already infected person's body, also the skin and body fluids, as well as intimate objects that have b...
they are unable to take care of themselves. Not only does this disease affect the person
When a child is born, the doctors start a regular vaccination schedule to keep them up to date. One thing that parents should be aware of is that before a child is two years old the blood cerebral barrier will still allow foreign proteins to directly enter into the brain where they might cause possible damage (Rau). If a child is sick then it’s best to wait until the child feels better before giving them a vaccine....
The bacterium Bordetella Pertussis causes Pertussis also known as the whooping-cough. This is an extremely contagious respiratory tract infection which causes the lining of the air way to become inflamed and damaged. This leads to an excess production of mucous which irritates the respiratory tract and causes the cough element of the disease. Pertussis can cause other serious illnesses and is usually spread through coughing or sneezing while in close contact with other people who then breathe in the bacteria causing disease. You can get Pertussis more than once sometimes even years apart at any age. If you have not completed the primary vaccination series you are at higher risk for severe illness. “Since the 1980’s, the number of reported Pertussis cases has gradually increased in the United States. In 2005, over 25,000 cases of Pertussis cases were reported in the United States, the highest number of reported cases since 1959. Approximately 60 percent of the cases were in adolescents and adults, a result of decreasing immunity in this population” (Department of Health, n.d.).
Influenza, normally called “the flu”, the influenza virus causes an infection in the respiration tract. Even though the influenza virus can sometimes be compared with the common cold. It also can cause a more severe illness or death. During this past century, pandemics took place in 1918, 1957, and 1968, in all of these cases there where unfortunately many deaths. The “Spanish flu” in 1918, killed approximately half a million people in the United States alone. It killed around 20 million worldwide. The “Asian flu” in 1957, in the United States their 70,000 people died. In 1968 the “Hong-Kong flu” There where 34,000 deaths in the United States.
The symptoms may vary on the infected. In most cases though the infected goes through two stages. The first stage is the acute phase followed by the toxic phase. During the acute stage some symptoms that appear
I first researched about baby vaccines. The most common are DTaP, HIB, Hepatitis B, Polio, PCV13 among others. All of these vaccines protect children from the most common illnesses around the U.S. While I was on the topic I researched how to protect a child from illnesses he/she wasnt vaccinated for like the flu and such. Keeping a baby fed and clensed is a good way of keeping the baby away from harmful germs and also insure the baby from getting sick. It is also nice to try to keep illnesses away from yourself to prevent it from spreading it from yourself to the child. Also there may be some cases of the child not needing/using vaccines to protect them from illness. Good things to talk to youre doctor about are the DTaP vaccine and PCV13.
Vaccines are approved by doctors who put the child’s safety first. "Vaccines are only given to children after a long and careful review by scientists, doctors, and healthcare professionals . . . The disease-prevention benefits of getting vaccines are much greater than the possible side effects for almost all children"(“Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child”). Doctors take into consideration any allergies or other negative effects that could hurt the child and not getting vaccinated could lead to outbreaks. One unvaccinated child led to an infection of measles in 131 people (Sun). Immunizations have reduced and eliminated many diseases that killed or severely disabled people just a few generations ago. For example, the smallpox vaccination
In the 1800’s the measles was a very dangerous disease, and when people who come in contact with it will die, if they have never been exposed to the virus before. The measles is transmitted through the air. The way that the virus is transmitted is that infected droplets are released by coughing, sneezing, and by talking. When the infected droplets that contain the measles are in the air, they are taken into the body through the mouth, nose and eyes of the potential person that could get the virus. People with low respiratory tract, which is the lungs and bronchi, are more likely to get the infection. During the next two to four days after the infection penetrates the body, the measles virus replicates in the respiratory cells and then spreads to the draining lymph nodes, where it reproduces again. Then it moves into the blood stream, carried by the white blood cells. This results in the virus being carried all over the body, which leads to infecting other places inside the body. During this time, the infected person feels fine and the measles infection and incubation stages are very unnoticeable. The next stage of the measles happens after eight to twelve days. The infected person has symptoms of fever, weakness and loss of appetite. Coughing and running of the eyes and nose are also seen. Now the infection is spreading all over the tissues through out the body. They also trigger the body’s immune system, which causes the symptoms. When the measles virus infects the immune system and interacts with the antibodies and T cells, a measles rash begins on the face and very quickly spreads to the body, arms and legs. The fever and cough become more intense after the fifth day. The rash turns into 3-4 mm red maculopapular lesions, which are flat and slightly raised. Pretty much this virus starts on the face, behind the ears, and moves downward all over the body. After awhile the rash begins to disappear, but the immune system is still weak. Making people who were infected with the measles more prone to other infections, making the immune system more susceptible to become infected, which in the early days of the measles caused many deaths.