Infectious disease is considered an ever evolving issue world-wide. A number of health officials and idealists believed that the threat of infectious disease would have been eradicated by now.1 Infectious disease remains the leading cause of death across the globe and the third leading cause of death in the United States.2 Within the scope of infectious disease, the most common cause of illness is viral respiratory tract infections, also referred to as VRTI.3 Recently, a new strain of virus related to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome commonly referred to as SARS has been identified.4,5 The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome is a viral infection that affects the respiratory tract in humans and has recently been discovered in a small number of animals.6 Although the disease is fairly new, considerable research has lead to significant findings on the epidemiology of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome infections, including clinical manifestations, treatments, transmission, and virological characteristics of the virus causing the infection.
The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome now also referred to as MERs-CoV was initially discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012.6,7 Similar to SARS-CoV, the patient presented with acute pneumonia and renal failure in June 2012.5 After culturing sputum sample from the patient the MERs-CoV virus strain was identified for the first time in a human host. Following the initial patient’s diagnosis and treatment a subsequent patient was treated in the United Kingdom and was believed to have been infected in Qatar.7,8,9 According to the World Health Organization Middles East Respiratory Syndrome Research Group, from April 2012 through October 2013 a total of 144 confirmed MERs-CoV cases has been identified (...
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...surveillance biases, and transmissibility. Lancet Infectious Diseases [serial online]. January 2014;14(1):50-56. Available from: Academic Search Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 9, 2014.
11. World Health Organization. Novel coronavirus update – new virus to be called MERS-CoV. Europe: World Health Organization; 2013. Available at http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/communicable-diseases/influenza/news/news/2013/05/novel-coronavirus-update-new-virus-to-be-called-mers-cov. Accessed on March 9, 2013.
12. against the novel human coronavirus MERS-CoV. Virology Journal [serial online]. September 2013;10(1):1-8. Available from: Academic Search Alumni Edition, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 11, 2014.
13. WHO, CDC urge vigilance. Nursing [serial online]. September 2013;43(9):27. Available from: Academic Search Alumni Edition, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 11, 2014.
"Plague." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 June 2012. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
The medical field is a vast land of beauty but with great beauty comes immense horror. There are many deadly viruses and diseases found in the medical field. In the novel, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, the author discusses the many deadly viruses found in the field. The viruses are widespread due to the errors that occur when the viruses are in the presence of human beings. The effects of the errors performed by the human race include a decrease in population and wildlife. The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes.
National Institute of Medicine (2007) Ethical and legal considerations in mitigating pandemic disease Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK54163/
Introduction: Rhinovirus, pictured above, is best known as the common cold. It is a member of the picornaviridae family along with more virulent viruses such as polio and hepatitis A. The viruses of this family are characterized as small (20-30nm genome) positive polarity RNA viruses consisting of one genome segment and a nonenveloped capsid. Unlike the its more lethal relatives, Rhinovirus is designed to attack a host numerous times during their lifetime. It is the perfect pathogen. It is estimated that adults suffer from 2 to 4 infections with the virus each year. The statistics below show the toll that the virus has on the United States Population:
Zell, R ‘Global climate change and the emergence/re-emergence of infectious diseases’, Journal of Medical Microbiology, vol. 293, 2004, p. 16-26.
Hvistendahl, M, Cohen, J et. al. 2013. ‘New Flu Virus in China Worries and Confuses’ Science 340: 129-130
Today health care providers have more advanced information regarding prevention, disease reporting, competent training, vaccination schedules and education regarding disease prevention.2 Along with vaccines for influenza there are also modern antiviral drugs that did not exist in 1918. There are two classes of antiviral drugs that would be used during an influenza, “adamantanes and neuraminidase inhibitors, one or both of which have proven effective, in culture, against most of the currently circulating H5N1 viruses.”2 There are also more advance treatments to treat the accompanying diseases of influenza, such as pneumonia and bronchitis. These treatments include antibiotics, hospital intensive care units including ventilators that have the ability to aid patients who develop ARDS.2
Marburg virus belongs to the genus Marburgvirus in the family Filoviridae, and causes a grave hemorrhagic fever, known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever (MHF), in twain humans and nonhuman primates. Basic Safety measures for medical personnel and others who are taking care of presumed individuals who may be contaminated with Marburg disease. Marburg Virus, Akin to the more widely known Ebola hemorrhagic fever, MHF is portrayed by systemic viral replication, lowering the body’s normal immune response to invasion by foreign substances and abnormal inflammatory responses. Ebola and Marburg Virus are very similar in many ways Marburg virus was introduced first in the 1960’s. These pathological features of the disease subsidize to a numerous of systemic dysfunctions including
The “Aussie flu”, an Australian influenza virus, has made headlines on media worldwide. It is suggested that the Australian strain has spread to other countries, which has led to criticism of Australia’s Public Health policies. Although, is it possible to identify a strain’s source? If so, how did this “Aussie flu” become so harmful, could it have been prevented? The media is comparing this year’s flu outbreak to the 1968 Hong Kong flu, is it really the next flu pandemic? Influenza viruses are ever evolving and resisting to antibiotic treatment. This is a Global Health issue, particularly making an impact in Australia.
This extremely pathogenic zoonotic virus is now understood to travel from bat species, to equine intermediate hosts, to humans.[8, 10] The Hendra virus is listed as a Bio-Safety Level (BSL)-4, and can only be studied at a few adequately equipped laboratories worldwide due to its virulence.[1, 2] Case fatality rates
November 16 2002, A farmer in Guangdong province within southeastern China, entered a local hospital with an illness that was believed to be an extreme case of atypical pneumonia. Later, more and more patients begin arriving at hospitals across the globe with a serious illness that displayed all the signs and symptoms of what could have been atypical Pneumonia. The only difference was that these pneumonia cases were suddenly more severe than most cases throughout history. Soon after, these flu-like cases caught the attention of the World Health Organization (WHO). Due to the severity of these cases and how furiously infection took over, WHO established a global alert to all hospitals to be aware of a severe form of pneumonia that appears to
The occurrence of infectious disease and epidemics has speckled the history of humanity since the first civilization established itself. Considering that a large population can help to foster infectious diseases, and humans share almost 300 communicable agents with animals, the outbreak of epidemics is inextricably intertwined with revol...
Acute respiratory infections contributes predominantly to under 5 deaths in developing countries like Pakistan. National and international health organizations are working to reduce morbidity and mortality rates due to Pneumonia and other acute respiratory infections. Malnutrition has made children more vulnerable to ARI by weakening immune system. Pakistan’s National Nutritional Survey (NNS), 2011 revealed that stunting and wasting in children have increased in the last 10 years. 43.7% of children were stunted, which is higher than NNS 2001 (41.6%). Similarly wasting has increased from 14.3% in the NNS 2001 as compared to 15.1% in the NNS 2011. Underweight rates remained constant since last NNS (31.5%).
In 1918-19 approximately 50 million deaths were a detriment of the Spanish H1N1 virus pandemic; a respiratory virus. According to the World Health Organization, the second Influenza A H1N1 pandemic in 2009 spread to more than 200 countries causing more than 18 000 deaths. Before the World Health Organization had announced the official end of the pandemic in August 2010, in July 2009 the World Health Organization sent out a phase 6 warning that H1N1 could soon be a global pandemic. It is important to recognize that the 2 different outbreaks had different A/H1N1strains effecting the world population; this suggests A/H1N1has a high ability for mutation, severely complicating the human body’s natural immune mechanism of antigenic drift. (Qi-Shi Du et al., 2010)
World Health Organization “Frequently Asked Questions on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS),” Communicable Disease Surveillance & Response (CSR), March 24. (2003). World Health Organization . Retrieved March 29, 2004.