Disease causing Platyhelminthes

Schistosoma Japonicum


The worm at maturity inside the host grows about fifteen mm in length.  The males have a groove on the ventral side and are shorter and stouter then the females.  They both have a sucker around the mouth.  The skin of them is coated with tiny ridges, spines, and sensory organs. They are a parasite that uses humans as a host.  The eggs trigger immune response that causes health problems.  The eggs cause fevers, weakness, liver damage, kidney damage, blood in urine, and abdominal pain.  This condition is called schistosomiasis.  They are found in China, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia.  The way they treat schistosomiasis is by a chemical treatment using the drug praziquantel.  A way to prevent these is to not come in contact with fresh water where they are commonly found. 

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Schistosoma_japonicum/

Paragonimus westermani

The adult fluke is 4-6 mm wide and 3-5 mm thick and 7-12 mm long.  They are reddish brown.  They have two suckers.  The health problems with paragonimus westermani is paragonimiasis, which   causes pain in the lungs and severe coughing that can have blood come up. They are found in Africa, Asia, and south and Central America.  It is most common in Southeast Asia because of the seafood.  It can be treated with a drug called praziquantel.  A way that it can be prevented is by cooking and freezing the food it is found in. 

http://www.parasitesinhumans.org/paragonimus-westermani-lung-fluke.html

Taenia Saginata


They can grow up to 25 meters, but are usually about 5 meters.  They have four suckers that attach to the intestines in a human.  The cysts that they make develop in muscle of the host animal.  People who are infected do not show symptoms until the worm is very large and then they feel full and nauseous.  They are most commonly found in Mexico, South America, and East and West Africa.  They use Praziquantel to help get rid of the tape worm from the body.  A way to prevent this tape worm is to inspect all beef and also to cook your beef very well. 

http://www.stanford.edu/class/humbio103/ParaSites2006/Taenia_saginata/index.html

Webquest Part 3

Part A

1.  What virus is believed to have killed more people in history than any other infectious disease?
The smallpox virus is believed to killed more people than any other virus.

2.  Who developed the first vaccine (inoculation)?     In what year?     Against what virus?
Edward Jenner was the one who developed the inoculation in 1796.  It was against smallpox

3.  Vaccines work by injecting people with similar, weakened, or dead forms of a pathogen in order to increase immunity in the host. To create the first inoculation, Jenner infected his patient with what virus?    Did it work?
Jenner infected his patient with the cowpox virus and yes it did work even though it was very unethical the way he did it. 
4.  What body system helps you when a pathogen (virus or bacteria) invades the body? Your immune system helps you when a pathogen invades your body. 
5.  Describe in detail how a vaccine help your immune system to fight off pathogens?
A vaccine exposes your body to a less threatening version of the pathogen in the vaccine and your body then recognizes and quickly eliminates the pathogens counterpart if it were to ever invade your body. 

Part B

Similar-Pathogen Vaccine is the Smallpox Virus

You begin with another virus that is similar to the virus and yet different enough not to bring on the disease once it enters your body. 

Attenuated Vaccine is the Measles Virus

You need to alter these types of viruses so that they will invade cells in the body and use those cells to make copies of itself.  The virus must be similar to the original virus to stimulate an immune response but not so similar to bring on the disease. 

Killed Vaccine is the Polio Virus

You need to disable this viruses pathogen's replicating ability while trying to keep its shape and other characteristics intact so that your body will generate an immune response against the actual pathogen. 

Toxoid Vaccine is Tetanus

You need to condition the immune system to combat a toxin produced by that invading virus or bacteria. 

Subunit Vaccine is Hepatitis B

You just use a small portion of the pathogen in the vaccine, just to stimulate an immune response in the body. 

Naked-DNA Vaccine is HIV

You use a gene from a pathogen to generate an immune response. 

2.  Choose one type of vaccine that is the most interesting to you and complete the interactive instructions.  Summarize the steps you took to create the vaccine.
Similar Pathogen Vaccine: Smallpox
1. Collect fluid from pustules on the cow's udder
2. purify to isolate the viruses
3.Fill syringe with the purified virus
4.Can now use as a vaccine

Part C

1.  How many people die from rabies each year? (How many people every 10 minutes?)
Every year 55 thousand die that is one person every 10 minutes.
2.  What causes rabies? 
A Bullet shaped virus causes rabies. 
 
3.  Where is the rabies virus found?
Every where except Antarctica.
4.  What animals in North America can carry rabies (specific names)?
Raccoons, Skunks, bats, foxes, wolves, mongoose, dogs, and cats. 

5.  How does rabies spread?
Saliva is how rabies spread.
6.  What body system is affected with rabies?
Nervous system
7. Are rabies shot really horrible for people?  How are they given?
They don't hurt and they are given in your arm. 
8. What steps should you take to prevent rabies?
Always vaccinate your pets against rabies
Stay away from stray or wild animals

What Animals are most likely to be rabid?
Any animal that is not vaccinated but Most common are: Dogs, Foxes, Raccoons, Skunks, Bats

Describe rabies symptoms in humans. 
Start of Flu like then they go into hallucination, tingling at the wound site, you can't sleep, lots of salivating, you start to have respiratory problems, then heart problems, then you go into a coma, have paralysis and then die. 

How are acyclovir and herpes related?
Acyclovir is used to repress the herpes virus.

Webquest Part 2

For both the lytic and the lysogenic cycle the phage has to attach itself and inject its DNA into the host. Then in the lytic cycle the phages nucleic acid is replicated which makes the phages proteins produce more of themselves.  Then when they are ready the phage particles are released.  Then in the lysogenic cycle the phage's DNA is not replicated or transcribe so that means the DNA has to integrate into the host cell's genome.  Then the host cell can replicate while carrying the integrated phage genome.  But if these cells are exposed to ultraviolet light or to certain types of chemicals phage induction occurs and the DNA that was integrated enters the lytic cycle.

Webquest Part 1

1.       Who is credited with discovering the virus?

Robert Buist was the first person to see viruses, while doing a small pox experiment. 

2.       Is a virus a living thing?

Scientist are trying to figure if it is a living thing. 

3.       Viruses are incredibly small.  Why are we not able to see viruses with the compound light microscopes we use in the science lab?

You can not see viruses with a compound light mircroscope because they are smaller then a wave length of light. 

4.       What shapes do viruses assume?

Viruses come in a lot of different shapes but the most common are rods, crystals, cubes, spheres, filaments, and a tadpole shape. 

5.       How does a virus invade a host cell? 

They first attach themselves to the walls of a cell or a bacteria.  Then the virus's sheath contracts and drives its core through the cell wall.  Next the nucleic acid passes through the core into the host cell.  Then lastly, the first nucleic acid disappears and then hundreds of virions appear causing the cell to rupture, which lets all these copies start the cycle over again. 

6.

        

Bacteria and Health

Pathology

Pathology is the medical study of the nature and cause of disease.  It ranges from diagnostic testing and observing chronic diseases to genetic research and blood transfusion technologies.  It has been said that "Medicine Is Pathology." Pathology is used throughout all stages of life from pre-conception to post mortem. 

Exotoxins and Endotoxins

Exotoxins are usually secreted by bacteria.  They are usually proteins that stimulate a variety of host responses.  Exotoxins are usually secreted by living bacteria during growth.  Also virulent strains of bacteria do produce the toxin.  An example is tetanus and diphtheria.

Endotoxins are cell associated substances that are a structural component of bacteria.  They usually act in the vicinity of bacterial presence. They are part of the outer membrane of the cell wall of Gram-negative bacteria. Some examples are Salmonella and E. Coli


Antibiotic Resistance

Antibiotic resistance is a worldwide public health problem.  It occurs when strains of bacteria in the human body become resistant to antibiotics because of the improper use and abuse of antibiotics. Most physicians are prescribing antibiotics fro viral infections and most patients don't finish the full dosage so it might leave some bacteria alive and resistant to future antibiotic treatment.

Bacteria In History

Black Death(Plague)
The Plague wiped out complete villages in Europe in the 14th century.  Then it came to America in the twentieth century. It involves fleas, rodents, and humans.  The pest control was low at this time because of the time of hunger so desperate rats would go looking for food in the houses of people and die which made their fleas find a new victim. Also rats would travel on the ships and that's what brought it to America.  They tried different ways of getting rid of it like disinfection plans, which most of them made it spread faster because it brought rats out of hiding.   The plague still exists to this day but they can treat it with antibiotics but now there are resistant strains coming into play. 

Tuberculosis 
Tuberculosis has claimed many people throughout history but it reached epidemic proportion in North America during the 18th and 19th Century.  The first person to work with tuberculosis was Theophile Laennec.  Throughout years more people worked on it and then Clemens von Pirquet developed a skin test.  Then in the late 19th and early 20th century they developed the treatment for tuberculous.  The signs and symptoms of tuberculosis is bloody cough, fever, pallor, diarrhea, and swollen neck glands.  The way they treat TB is through antibiotics to kill the bacteria. TB is still found today.

1. http://www.rcpa.edu.au/pathology.htm
2.http://textbookofbacteriology.net/proteintoxins.html
3.http://www.acponline.org/patients_families/diseases_conditions/antibiotic_resistance/
4.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm00bu.html
5.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16949809
6.http://www.news-medical.net/health/Tuberculosis-Treatment.aspx

Anencephalic Babies

Hard situations make us think of the question is it right or wrong.  This question makes us think of all the possiblities that could happen on either side of the situation.  As if I do this, this will happen but if I do that this will happen. In my case study the hard situation is about if you should abort a baby,donate the organs of anencephalic babies or not do anything and let them live their lives.

The backround of the case is that anencephalic babies are born without a cerebrum or cerebellum but they do have a brain stem which allows them to breathe and allows their hearts to beat.  This means that the babies cannot see, hear, or feel anything which is said that they will never achieve the "personhood." Most babies do not live to be more than about ten days old except in some special cases.  There is about a total of 1000 anencephalic babies born each year.  Most women abort their babies, and the remaining five percent that are kept, fifty-five percent are born stillborn.  The rest of the them are to be said "born dieing."  Some of the parents want to donate their babies organs, but the doctors need to harvest the organs right away for them to be able to use them.  Also organs can't be removed from living humans so they must kell the baby to do so. 

There are three main ways to handle anencephalic babies.  One way is abortion, since anencephalic babies can be diagnosed prenatally the parents put abortion as one of their options, which sadly is 95 percent of people.  Then the remaining 5 percent that will have the baby but it will either be stillborn or live with the condition.  The parents that have the babies that live with the condition can either choose to let the baby live as long as possible or will choose to donate the organs. 

In the case of Baby Theresa the parents wanted to donate her organs, but the courts would not declare her dead.  She lived for a total of ten days and when she died her organs could no longer be transplanted.  In another case of Baby K the mother fought against the hospital, the doctors, and even the baby's father to keep the anencephalic Baby K alive.  The mother was motivated by a strong religious convicton and that God should decide how long the baby would live.  Baby K left the hospital when she was seven weeks old and from there she was moved into a nursing home.  Everytime she stopped breathing her mother would rush her to the hospital to be resuscitated.  Her medical bill ran up to $500,000 and she did live for two and a half years, but died of a heart attack. 

For this case the main question to be answered is if this was you what would you do in this situation?  If this was me I don't know exactly what I would do, but if you where to ask me today about it I would have the baby and if it were to stay alive I would donate the organs.  I'm a firm believer in donating just because I feel that I know that my baby won't survive at all, but if I give the organs up to another family that they can have their baby survive because they just need one organ, that would make me feel like my baby had a purpose in its short life. 

So its your choice to decide if this was you what would you do?

Kevorkian

When learning about bio ethics and studying the Dr. Death case I found out a lot about ethics.  The way that they are looked at and can go both ways.  In the Jack Kevorkian case it's all about should people be able to choose when they want to die.  Theres people that say yes and others that say no.  In this case Dr. Death helped with 130 sucides and was tried four times in court.  His cases are known internationally because of the ethics behind the case.