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.).
After you’re infected symptoms can start 4 to 21 days but usually occur between 7 to 14 days and can last 6 to 10 weeks or sometimes even longer. In young children there are 3 stages that can occur, not necessarily the same stages for older children and adults. The first stage symptoms are more like the common cold which include runny nose, nasal congestion, sneezing, red or watery eyes, a mild fever, and a dry cough. These symptoms can last from several days to 2 weeks and at this stage is when you are more likely to spread the disease. Stage two is when your cold symptoms will start to improve but the cough will worsen. The cough gets so uncontrollable tha...
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...ver, seizures, shock, or coma. If you are moderately or severely ill you should wait to be vaccinated until you recover. If you have ever had a life threatening allergic reaction or have received a brain or nervous system disease within 7 days after a dose of DTaP you should not get another dose. Pertussis is not a disease to take lightly regular cough medicine will not work for Pertussis. If you have a prolonged or severe cough you need to contact your doctor because it may be Pertussis.
Works Cited
Department of Health, (n.d.). Retrieved from www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/pertussis/fact_sheet.htm
A look at each vaccine, (2013) Retrieved from www.chop.edu/service/vaccine-education-center/a-look-at-each-vaccine/dtap-diphtheria-tetanus-and-pertussis-vaccine.html
Pertussis, (n.d.). Retrieved from www.immunizationinfo.org/vaccines/pertussis-whooping-cough
Symptoms, which include diarrhea and abdominal pain, usually begin two to eight days after a person has been exposed to the bacteria and resolve within a week.
After an incubation period of five to ten days, or as long as 21 days, numerous symptoms can be observed. The symptoms come in two stages. The first stage consists of common cold symptoms such as sneezing, runny nose, low-grade fever, and a mild cough. It is during this time that the disease is most contagious, and it lasts from one to two weeks.
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).
My disease is Streptococcal pneumonia or pneumonia is caused by the pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae. Streptococcus pneumoniae is present in human’s normal flora, which normally doesn’t cause any problems or diseases. Sometimes though when the numbers get too low it can cause diseases or upper respiratory tract problems or infections (Todar, 2008-2012). Pneumonia caused by this pathogen has four stages. The first one is where the lungs fill with fluid. The second stage causes neutrophils and red blood cells to come to the area which are attracted by the pathogen. The third stage has the neutrophils stuffed into the alveoli in the lungs causing little bacteria to be left over. The fourth stage of this disease the remaining residue in the lungs are take out by the macrophages. Aside from these steps pneumonia follows, if the disease should persist further, it can get into the blood causing a systemic reaction resulting in the whole body being affected (Ballough). Some signs and symptoms of this disease are, “fever, malaise, cough, pleuritic chest pain, purulent or blood-tinged sputum” (Henry, 2013). Streptococcal pneumonia is spread through person-to-person contact through aerosol droplets affecting the respiratory tract causing it to get into the human body (Henry, 2013).
The Measles starts with a fever, runny nose, cough, red eyes, and sore throat. It is then followed by a rash that spreads over the body, starting first on the face along the hairline. The infectious period of measles is 4 days before rash onset through 4 days after rash onset. The measles are a highly contagious virus that lives in the nose and throat mucus and spreads through the air through coughing and sneezing. (WHO, 2016). The measles virus can remain airborne for up to an hour after the infected person has left the area. The measles are so contagious that if one person has it, 90% of the unvaccinated people close to them will become infected. Rarely can the virus be deadly. The incubation period for
Due to technologies and scientific methods of today’s healthcare, there are many ways to prevent Diphtheria from occurring. The best way to prevent this disease is to make sure, that everyone has an up-to-date vaccination shot. DTap is a vaccine that helps the body to build up protection against the diphtheria toxin that is released throughout the body (Prevention, 2013). This shot is given to children around the ages of four to six months and then a booster shot is given later on. Once they are an adult, a booster shot known as Tdap and Td is given in a single dose and it is recommended every ten years. By keeping up with vaccination shots, it can help maintain effective control in our environment.
Each day researchers are finding out about vaccines and are realizing that there are a lot more risks than benefits. Dr Phillip F. Incao explains: “Today, far more children suffer from allergies and other chronic immune system disorders than from life-threatening infectious disease. It is neither reasonable nor prudent to persist in presuming that the benefits of any vaccination outweigh its risk” (qtd in Spaker). While infectious diseases are becoming uncommon there is no need for any person to get vaccinated. There have been many issues surrounding vaccinations all around the world.
Valley fever cannot spread from person to person. Most people who are exposed to the fungus experience symptoms, but do not get sick. The signs—fever, cough, and exhaustion—are difficult to distinguish from the flu, and can last for weeks to months. In people with weakened immune systems, the infection can cause more severe conditions such as meningitis or death.
According to the Website Medicine Net, Whooping Cough (pertussis) is an acute, highly contagious respiratory infection that is initiated by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. Furthermore, Whooping Cough routinely sways infants and young children but can be stopped by immunization with the pertussis vaccine. Additionally from my research in Seattle Times it states that California had more than 9,000 situations, including 10 deaths. Washington has had 10 times the cases reported in 2011, and so has Wisconsin with almost 2,000 cases this year. although young kids are in much crisis then adults to getting influenced by the Whooping Cough due to not getting the vaccine when enrolling in a middle school or high school. The relationship between the pertussis vaccines and the present outbreak of the Whooping Cough is that in their states health officials are endeavoring to get any person they can vaccinated before the whooping hack disperse and sway more people because it was said that some persons may not be adept to get vaccinated due to having critical allergies, weak immune system from ...
A child’s immune system does not fully develop until about five years old (McMillan, Jane Sheppard) yet, children are bombarded with multiple vaccines such as five doses of DTap
Research also says that after 5 days the fever and other symptoms have disappeared but a cough and weakness may continue. Usually all symptoms are gone within a week or two. But its important to treat the flu seriously because it can lead to other viruses such as pneumonia and other life-threatening complications. For the most part it appears in infants, senior citizens, and people with long term health problems. People with the flu may not know but they are actually contagious from a day before they feel sick. It would usually be one week for adults and two weeks for young kids.
Measles Measles is a highly contagious disease. It is caused by an RNA virus that changes constantly. Measles symptoms usually include a bad cough, sneezing, runny nose, red eyes, sensitivity to light, and a very high fever. Red patches with white grain like centers appear along the gum line in the mouth two to four days after the first symptoms show. These patches are called Koplik spots because Henry Koplick first noticed them in 1896.
The discovery of the polio vaccine was an important medical and scientific breakthrough because it saved many lives since the 1950s. In the summer of 1916 the great polio epidemic struck the United states. By the 1950s hundreds of thousands of people had been struck by the poliomyelitis. The highest number of cases occurred in 1953 with over 50,000 people infected with the virus.
Today eighty percent of infants are being vaccinated for diphtheria; pertussis (whooping cough), polio, measles, tetanus and tuberculosis (Landrige 2000). This percentage is up from about five percent in the mid-1970s; however, the death toll from these infections is roughly three million annually. Millions still die from infectious diseases for which immunizations are non-existent, unreliable, or too costly. Vaccines all function with the same idea in mind, priming the immune system to swiftly destroy specific disease-causing agents, or pathogens, before the agents can multiply enough to cause symptoms (Landrige 2000). Classically, this priming has been achieved by presenting the immune system with whole viruses or bacteria that have been killed or made too weak to proliferate much (Landrige 2000).
Those who choose not to vaccinate their children are endangering the health of those unable to be vaccinated themselves, such as infants, pregnant people, and the immunocompromised, by jeopardizing community immunity. According to vaccine.gov, a federal government website managed by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, community immunity or “herd immunity” occurs when “a critical portion of the community is immunized against a contagious disease, most members of the community are protected against that disease because there is little opportunity for an outbreak” (Community Immunity). An infographic featured in an NPR article entitled “How Vaccine Fears Fueled the Resurgence of Preventable Diseases” illustrated the rise in measles cases in Western Europe and of pertussis (whooping cough) cases in the U.S (Doucleff). In the first eight months of 2014, there were eighteen measles outbreaks, and six hundred cases of measles.