Vibrio cholerae, the Human Immune System, and Vaccines
Cholera remains a drastically severe disease, killing hundreds of people each outbreak. When ingested, it attaches to the mucosal lining of the intestines and disrupts the normal flow of ions so that there is more sodium, chloride, and water in the intestinal lumen than normal and results in massive diarrhea. Cholera has made a global impact and been endemic in almost all parts of the world. Cholera control strongly emphasizes sanitation, clean drinking water, isolation, and careful food preparation. Two ways our body works against cholera as a self-limiting disease are sloughing cells and the secretory immunoglobulin (sIgA) antibody produced by mucus throughout our body. There are currently three types of available vaccines: parenteral, whole killed V. cholerae O1 added with a recombinant part of one of cholera toxin’s subunits (WC/rBS), and another one based on genetically manipulated V. cholerae CVD103-HgR. Research on finding a safe, effective vaccine continues today in order to stop such a distructive disease.
Cholera, a devastating epidemic disease, has been around for hundreds of years and now annually kills 120,000 people worldwide (Weekly Epidemiological Record, 6). It is acquired by consuming water contaminated with feces or ingesting food that has been washed with contaminated water. Cholera is caused by a gram-negative, rod shaped bacterium called Vibrio cholerae which can be further classified into two separate biotypes (El Tor and classical) and multiple other serotypes.
Once inside the body, V. cholerae attaches and adapts itself to the mucosal epithelial lining of the intestines then produces an exotoxin, cholera toxin (CT), which disrupts the norma...
... middle of paper ...
...e cholera pandemics, and gained much knowledge from each one, but it still manages to persist in the environment and continues to be a huge issue. Unfortunately, many developing countries still have inadequate water supplies and sanitation but there is not much that can be done. Many mysteries remain unanswered and so the search for a safe and effective cholera vaccine continues on.
Sources:
Drasar, B.S., B.D. Forrest. Cholera and the Ecology of Vibrio cholerae. London:
Chapman & Hall, 1996.
Salyers A., Abigail, Dixie D. Whitt. Bacterial Pathogenesis: A molecular approach. Washington D.C.:
American Society for Microbiology, 1994
Weekly Epidemiological Record No. 16. 2001. World Health Organization. July 25. 2007
World Health Organization. Guidelines for Cholera Control.
Geneva, 1993
Salmonella is one of the most common food-borne diseases that attack an enormous amount of people in poor countries every year. It is shown that “Today, it still attacks some 17 million people in poor countries each year, and kills about 600,000 of them. Back before antibiotics such as chloramphenicol, typhoid was very much feared” (Trek 1). Despite the advance in technology and medicine, Salmonella is
Vaccine safety is one of the most controversial topics in today’s public discourse. Everyone has heard of them, but few know why they are so encouraged. A vaccine contains a weak or dead version of a microbe. This creates a small scale invasion of the immune system, which activates cells to destroy the microbe. Once these cells have been made they are always there to provide protection. This protection is immunity, for those cells are then able to recognize any live version of the same microbe and attack it immediately. This can save lives but also be dangerous, vaccines carry many other components which can cause side effects. These could be simple adverse effects such as a small cold or, in the rare case,
Almost no one on Earth has any immunity at all to this virus, which makes ordinary vaccines useless against it. The sudden spread of the virus into Europe foreshadows an epidemic development that could be worldwide. Ultimately, there is no way to protect ourselves against epidemics. They will keep disappearing and coming back in new forms.
However due to globalization, import and export viruses is more easily transmitted. Over the past century the global community especially Asian has been affected with new strains of the influenza virus. The changes in the virus can occur in two ways “antigenic drift” which are gradual changes in the virus over time. This change produces new strains that the antibody may not recognize. “Antigenic shift” On the other is a sudden change in the influenza virus which ‘’ results in a new influenza A subtype or a virus with a hemagglutinin or a hemagglutinin and neuraminidase combination that has emerged from an animal population,” as seen with H5N1 virus. This change leaves people defenseless against this new virus. (CDC, 2013) Currently there is no vaccine to combat all strains therefore “Planning and preparedness for implementing mitigation strategies during a pandemic requires participation by all levels o...
The main diseases that showed the most virulence during the time were cholera, yellow fever and consumption now known as tuberculosis. The 9th census mortality data showed that 1 out 7 deaths from disease were caused by tuberculosis and 1 out of 24 disease deaths were resulting from cholera. . Until the 1870s...
A.1 Concerning John Barnes, how was cholera communicated? What were the modes of disease transmission? What is the correct epidemiological term for the modes of transmission that were identified?
Cholera is a water-borne disease caused by the spreading of toxins throughout the intestines by the Vibrio Cholerae bacterium. Bad hygiene and other unsanitary conditions such as contamination of food and water can result in this unpleasant infection. As stated in the Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, “contamination starts when a person infected with cholera steps into a community water supply.” Cholera is more common in places with poor cleanliness and insufficient water treatment. These locations include environments consisting of brackish rivers and coastal waters such as an underdeveloped country like Africa. Cholera can affect anyone but is usually targeted at younger ch...
...influenza pandemic in one way or another; the use of quarantines were extremely prevalent among them. Also, the pandemic is directly responsible for the creation of many health organizations across the globe. The organizations help track and research illnesses across the globe. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for example, strive to prevent epidemics and pandemics. They also provide a governing body with directives to follow in case an outbreak does occur, and if one shall occur the efforts of organizations across the globe will be crucial for its containment. It is amazing that with modern medicine and proper organization that influenza still manages to make its appearance across the globe annually.
Unlike the first cholera pandemic in 1817, the second one also affected countries in Europe and North America in addition to Asia. Of the seven total cholera pandemics, many consider this one the greatest of the 19th century. Cholera caused more deaths, more quickly than any other epidemic disease of the 1800s. It is an infectious disease that causes severe diarrhea that can lead to dehydration and death if untreated. Eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae causes cholera. After the first pandemic had diminished throughout Asia by1824, the disease began spreading again from Bengal in 1826. It began with outbreaks in the Ganges River of Bengal and quickly spread throughout most of India. It had moved into Afghanistan and Persia by 1829 and surfaced in Russia in August of that year. From Russia, the disease travelled to Poland and eventually Hungary, Germany, Berlin, England, Scotland, and Wales. While the disease was penetrating most of Europe, it had also reached areas in Mesopotamia and the Arabian Peninsula by 1831. Thousands of Muslim pilgrims from Mecca died from the disease and carried it into Palestine, Syria, and Egypt that year. Mecca continued to be infected by cholera until about 1912. The disease also reached Portugal in 1833, from an English ship that docked in Portugal. Cholera’s path east of India remains
Vaccines have been around for hundreds of years starting in 1796 when Edward Jenner created the first smallpox vaccine. Jenner, an English country doctor noticed cowpox, which were blisters forming on the female cow utters. Jenner then took fluid from the cow blister and scratched it into an eight-year-old boy. A single blister came up were the boy had been scratched but it quickly recovered. After this experiment, Jenner injected the boy with smallpox matter. No disease arose, the vaccine was a success. Doctors all around Europe soon began to proceed in Jenner’s method. Seven different vaccines came from the single experimental smallpox vaccine. Now the questions were on the horizon. Should everyone be getting vaccinations? Where’s the safety limit? How can they be improved? These questions needed answers, and with a couple hundred years later with all the technology, we would have them(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
Jonas Salk, a virologist at the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP), used inactivated viruses (virus particles grown in culture and then killed by a form of heat) to create a polio vaccine. Salk drew blood from about two million children, which the NFIP checked for immunization. Through the collection of many HeLa cells and trial and error, the polio vaccine was ready in a year.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Despite such documented success we are still witnessing the deadly impact of vaccine preventable diseases. Millions of preventable cases of disease and death are still occurring in low and middle-income countries where disease burdens are often the highest. The time lag in the introduction of new vaccines between high-income and low-income countries has been a major issue. Some vaccines are introduced in high-income countries a full year before they are introduced to low-income countries where disease burdens are rapidly growing.
Over the years humans have tried every possibility to overcome the health problems, spread of epidemics and infections, disease control and have worked towards a healthy society free of disease and health problems. They have succeeded to a great extent. The book “Good germs, bad germs” describes that though the life expectancy is now far more as it was in previous eras. Epidemic problems and infectious diseases are now getting lesser and lesser and humans are being treated successfully. The hygienic conditions have also been improved so as to ensure least growth of microbes, germs, parasites and bacteria. Antibiotics have been invented to address diseases and infections caused by bacteria and viruses. With all these substantial efforts the biologists, physicians and scientists have triggered another epidemic which is even more severe. They have killed those microbes and bacterial species which were human friendly and as a result of either their disruption or mutation, pathogenic bacteria have even become more active and resistant to treatments. This has led to increased ineffectiveness of antibiotic drugs, low immunity and various infections and inflammatory diseases. The chlorinated water for drinking and food processing along with excessive hygienic conditions indicates our fight against these bacteria and germs. Further, these antibiotics are even given to the livestock which becomes our food and as result many of their resistant germs end up in our digestive tract and other organs. Thus, the war against microbes through excessive cleanliness and use of antibiotics has resulted in antibiotic resistance among humans, which has become one of the prominent problems of medical science
Human beings are vulnerable to diseases. It is inevitable that a person will catch a cold, fever, or something more severe in their lifetime. One of the greatest achievements in modern history that prevent or delay a disease is vaccination. There are hundreds of viruses and diseases that infect people yearly, and one of the most common ones is Rotavirus. Rotavirus is an infection that causes an inflammation in a person’s stomach and intestines which leads to extreme diarrhea. The virus is most common in infants and children worldwide, and results to the death of hundreds of thousands of
Vaccines create immunity that protects the body from infectious diseases. Most vaccines contain a small amount of the pathogen that cause the disease, which are died or weak. Having a small amount of the pathogen inside the body makes the defensive system build antibodies to fight and kill the microorganism. There are many efforts that have been done by scientists to develop an effective vaccines against typhoid fever. At the present time, only two types of vaccines for typhoid fever are available and being used (Vi PS) and a live attenuated S. vaccines are either given as a capsule or a single dose which should be taken at least a week before travelling to a country that has a widely spread typhoid fever.