Author: aliciamejia10

Hello! 

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection. It can cause several cancers like cervical, anal, oral, penile and others. In 2006, an HPV vaccine was approved by the FDA that claimed to prevent almost 90% of HPV related cancers. This was a pretty remarkable claim considering millions of people had died due to these related cancers. This vaccine is remarkable in its effects. It is predicted to save 60 million lives in the next 100 years from cancer and stop the onset of cancer in 75 million people. This is a prediction made by simply receiving your two dose vaccine. Receiving two vaccines could be the difference in a person getting a preventable cancer/dying or living.  

Although the benefits of this vaccine are substantial, there were studies conducted that clarified some concerns that the public had to the effects of the vaccine. Public officials were actually the first to raise concern because they didn’t know if the uptake of this vaccine would be prevented if individuals did not take the recommended amount of doses, and there were insurance coverage concerns as well. Health concerns were also raised due to patients having a temporary loss of consciousness after the vaccine had been given due to a fall in blood pressure. Research concluded that this is not uncommon in vaccines and these effects had a higher correlation of occurrence in adolescence. A policy was then made to watch adolescence for 15 minutes after an injection of any vaccine because this symptom was not specific to HPV. There were other health concerns raised due to this vaccine but studies continually failed to find strong correlations. 

Despite the concerns, this vaccine has astounding effects in preventing many cancers. I believe a wide concern for the parents of young girls is that they are simply “too young” to receive a vaccine of this caliber. I could see parents thinking that since their children are not sexually active when this vaccine is encouraged, there is no use in receiving it. This is a serious issue especially because adolescents immune system is most responsive at this time and there are high probabilities that they will come in contact with this infection. I personally would rather my child be protected in all forms even if sexual activity is not occuring. It is simply a preventative measure that could save their life later on. 

Hello!

This week’s topic will be on antibiotic resistance. I want to discuss the serious concerns that I have with superbugs and ways to slow the effects of antibiotic resistance. First off, a superbug is a strain of bacteria that has evolved over time to develop antibiotic resistance. This means that at one time antibiotics did have an effect in stopping the spread of this bacteria, but now they have little to no effect. According to an article in Medical News Today, one reason why these bacteria have adapted to antibiotics may be due to their overuse. In our society, people are quick to jump the gun and ask for antibiotics when they feel ill; however, it is important to note that if you don’t have a bacterial/fungal infection, antibiotics are no use to you. The consistent prescription of these medications have led to an increased evolution of antibiotic resistant microbes. Doctors are required to take the time to assess their patients and give them the correct medication. When you take antibiotics for an illness due to a viral infection, it is no use! It harms you by wiping out all the bacteria in your system that is affected by the antibiotic, leaving behind the few strands that were resistant. Then through natural selection, they replicate and over time can create a fully developed strand of antibiotic resistance. This realization is very frightening because if this antibiotic resistance continues to develop further, we will experience a period like the early 1900s where people died from common illnesses that antibiotics fight today. 

The CDC has released information on urgent threat bacteria to raise awareness on the development of these bacteria and who they primarily affect. In my microbiology class, we have learned about carbapenem antibiotics. These antibiotics target a wide range of gram-negative and positive bacteria. They are usually used as a last resort due to their side effects and to slow the process of antibiotic resistance. With this being said, an urgent threat to our population is the new Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter. This bacteria can cause infection in the blood, urinary tract, and lungs (causing pneumonia). This bacteria is multi drug resistant even to carbapenems. People in the healthcare settings are most at risk. This is because they are already immunocompromised and are at risk due to being on ventilators, having catheters, or having open wounds. This gives easy access to bacteria to infect. There has been an increase in mortality rate due to the resistance in these drugs. This should raise great concern in the general public to help slow the rate of resistance in germs by taking the appropriate measures when fighting disease.  

There has also been antibiotic resistant bacteria do to the use of antibiotics in farm animals. Salmonella is an example we have also discussed in my microbiology class that has continued to have more antibiotic resistance due to its use in farming. According to the CDC, when these animals are consistently given antibiotics, the animals harbor resistant bacteria like salmonella where it can freely evolve and grow. We consume this bacteria if our food isn’t cooked properly, and we also drink it if our water becomes contaminated. According to my professor Dr. Crammer, meat is often sold with a “antibiotic free” label, but unfortunately, around the time of sale, the antibiotics are simply out of their system for those two weeks prior. These animals could have been raised with this consistent use their whole lives but still sold under this label because no antibiotic use would be detected at that given time of sale. Farm animals are commonly given antibiotics to preserve their health and also make them heavier so they are worth more in the time of sale. People are going to become ill for longer periods of time, become hospitalized causing them great debt, or die from infections we were able to control before if containment is not accomplished. This process can be slowed dramatically if we take the precautions necessary to make that change. Being informed about what you eat and what medications you are on is vital in slowing this crisis. 

Hello All!

One of my favorite things to do is hike and be outdoors. Because of this, it was really important for me to get my tetanus vaccine. Tetanus is an infection caused by the bacteria Clostridium Tetani. According to the CDC, it is uncommon but very serious so getting a vaccination is highly recommended. It is caused by spores of bacteria in the environment especially metal but also dirt. There are several vaccinations and some of them protect against other diseases as well

There are various symptoms to tetanus. It is commonly known to cause lockjaw. This is a painful tightening of the muscles in the jaw making it hard to breathe and swallow. It can cause stiff muscles, seizures, headache, and sweating. It is not contagious, meaning another human cannot deliver this disease. It is caused by infection in a deep wound like if you were to step on a nail. Minor abrasions to the skin will not cause you to have tetanus because it is an anaerobic bacteria, meaning it cannot infect when oxygen is present. 

Although it is not common to be infected, it is very important to consider getting this vaccination. The benefits highly outweigh the cons when getting the vaccine. I had an accident in the past where I could have gotten tetanus due to a deep wound. I was running down a mountain (I was in Cross Country in High school) when I tripped on a rock and gashed my knee. It was very deep and filled with dirt. An accident like that could have caused me to become seriously ill, but I thankfully had that protection and you should too!!

Welcome Back! 

This week, I wanted to gain a better understanding of the Polio or Poliomyelitis virus. I wanted to understand what Polio is and exciting recent news. Polio is a naked RNA virus. According to the CDC, it can cause paralysis. An interesting fact about it is that most people who have Polio don’t have visible symptoms. 1 in 4 people will have flu-like symptoms. A really small population will have serious symptoms like paralysis, meningitis, and paresthesia (feeling of pins in your legs). Post-polio syndrome can occur in children who seemed to have fully recovered; however, they will develop muscle pains, weakness, or paralysis up to 40 years later due to their childhood virus. This is very unfortunate. It would be awful to become paralyzed in your 40s due to a virus you can’t remember having. A big misconception that I had was the classification of who has Polio. Because it is named a paralytic disease, only people with a paralytic infection are considered to have it. 

Polio is very contagious, spreading person to person affecting the spinal cord and brain. It infects only humans, infecting the throat and intestines first. It enters by the mouth and is transferred through contact with human feces or a sneeze/cough from infected people. You are most likely to get this virus if you are around feces and don’t wash your hands. It can live in feces for weeks and contaminate water systems. It is important to note that even if you don’t have the symptoms and have the virus, you can still transfer it and infect other people who may show symptoms. Basically, you need to make sure you wash your hands and drink filtered water. This is one major prevention option!

Luckily, there are also two vaccines that have been used: IPV (inactivated polio vaccine) and OPV (oral polio vaccine). Since 2000, the US has just administed IPV in children. This was established to eliminate the small risk of individuals developing Polio due to the active vaccine. There are 4 shots that are administered for the IPV in children. In exciting recent news, wild poliovirus 3 has been eradicated worldwide as of October of 2019! Two of the three wild Polio viruses have been eradicated. Type 2 was eradicated in 2015! These are major milestones and we can thank vaccines for them. Billions of lives are saved from these milestones. As of October of 2019, the only countries where WPV 1 is located are Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is what the power of consistent vaccination can do! 

Let’s talk anti-vaxxing movement, 

There is a lot of vaccine misinformation that is spread that is important to understand. I have already discussed Andrew Wakefield’s experiment and the effects on the public in an earlier blog post; however, there is a lot of other widespread misinformation that influences the general public. Recently, celebrities have greatly influenced the population due to their bold claims about vaccinations. Their influence in pop culture is great and misinformation spreads quickly on such platforms. I was also a part of the community that did not understand the gravity of getting my yearly flu vaccine. I now know its effects and the harm it can cause to others through doing my own research. I hope I can deliver some information that may clear up your misconceptions on vaccines. 

An article posted in Medical News Today discusses common questions and concerns that people have with vaccinations. Before reading this, I also thought that receiving a vaccine causes you to become slightly sick; however this is a wrong assumption. You are given a dormant or very weakened version of a disease when receiving a vaccination. This causes your body’s antibodies to fight off the small infection, teaching your immune system how to combat the disease. This makes you stronger in the process and does not make you ill. 

Another misconception is that vaccines have too many unsafe toxins. Some vaccines do contain harmful ingredients in high amounts, like aluminum and mercury, but the dose that they are given is not enough to harm you. Humans come into more contact with these toxins in everyday life than they ever do in a vaccine. I mean aluminum is in most drug store deodorant. It is really important to weigh out the good and bad in these situations. I would rather have small amounts of aluminum in me than to die of chicken pox or measles.

Hello!

This week I will be discussing the human microbiome, specifically gut microbiota. I have always heard the phrase “you are what you eat”, but I have never truly understood what it meant. I always assumed that you will feel better overall if you eat food that is good for you like vegetables. I can testify to that. As soon as I begin eating unhealthy for a week, I can feel it. On the flip side, I also feel more energetic when I eat food that is good for my body. This understanding is what I will be discussing deeper today. 

According to an article published in Nature, what you eat greatly affects what microbiota is in your stomach and the functions they make. This has an effect on your overall health and how disease may occur. There are benefits to eating healthy besides weight loss. Flavonoids are microbes that are thought to provide health benefits, like improving blood pressure, when regularly consumed. Consuming these microbes encourages a community of healthy microbial growth. A study was conducted where healthy men were divided into two groups. One group consistently ate flavanol rich meals and the other did not. The two groups were assessed after a given time to identify their gut microbial community. The flavanol rich group consisted of  Eggerthella lenta bacterial groups with an abundance of Adlercreutzia equolifaciens. The group that did not consume an abundance of flavonoids had an inverse effect, consisting of little growth. This reveals that consuming healthy food increases your microbial variance. This is an important realization to make. Frequent consumption of fast food or unhealthy food may really damage the diversity of your gut microbiota. If you understand the long term effects of your actions, it may encourage you to change the choices you make daily. 

An article published in Science revealed a study that your stomach microbiome is better at detecting disease than your own genes. Researchers examined 47 studies observing the correlation between 13 complex diseases (meaning that both environmental and genetic factors cause them) and the gut microbiota. This correlation was compared to the 24-genome-wide association studies, which correlate genetic variants with diseases. This comparison revealed that gut microbiota was 20% better at distinguishing a healthy and ill person than the person’s genes. This shows the importance of your microbiota and the unique ability it has to give an insight into your body. For the most part, it is a mutualistic relationship so it is important to have it flourish on nutritious food. 

Here is the latest information on the Coronavirus:

Because this is an emerging virus, there is constantly new information that appears day to day. I wanted to share some worldly updates on this virus and see how its effects have changed this past week. Currently, there have been 910 deaths according to CNN. 908 deaths have occurred in China and 2 have occurred in the philippines. This number has surpassed the number of people that died from the SARS outbreak in 2003. This killed 774 individuals globally. The fact that this number continues to rise is very frightening, but there is hope for a new vaccine. 

Vaccines have been in preparation since the virus broke out. The first trial will be tested in an estimated 2.5 months, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. This is urgent because of the spread that has occured. Recently the Diamond Princess cruise was quarantined due to the coronavirus. This cruise ship was sailing off the coast of Japan. 70 individuals have been tested positive for the virus so far. It is unsafe to be in quarantined areas for this exact reason. Because we do not know all there is to know about this virus, large safety precautions should be taken. 

I am going to drive the same idea as last week about hygienic practices. Consistent hand washing is necessary to contain these viruses. Covering your mouth and nose while sneezing is vital considering transmission is through respiratory droplets. Avoid people who are sick and stay home if you are. The 910 deaths that have occurred in China could have occurred here under similar circumstances. This is a sobering thought, and it should not be taken lightly. As long as we are cautious and informed about these outbreaks containment is more possible. 

Hello and Welcome Back!

This week I will be focusing on this year’s flu! I know it’s one of the worst seasons of the year, and I want to see how it has affected us and what we can do to limit its effects! According to the CDC, this year there have been an estimated 31 million cases of the flu in the US alone. There has also been an estimated max of 30,000 deaths. This is one of the largests mortality rates due to the flu that has been seen in the past decade. Personally, I think it is really easy to forget how deadly this disease can be. I am lucky enough to have a strong immunity. When I get the flu, it is definitely not pleasant, but for others it is far more serious and precautions have to be taken to stop that spread. 

A lot of focus has been put on the coronavirus, but in actuality the flu virus has taken way more lives and our focus should not drift from that. According to an article posted in CNN, the flu becomes especially dangerous when a secondary infection comes into play. This means that the flu may not kill you, but it can weaken your immune system to the point that if you get pneumonia after, that may. This is a virus that changes every year due to antigenic drift. This means that its virulence factors (pathogens ability to overcome your body’s defenses) can be more intense as it drifts. This year, it is the same strain meaning an antigenic shift has not occured but again this season should not be taken lightly. There are many precautions that we can take to stop the spread of the flu and hopefully not get it ourselves. 

First, everyone who it does not harm (due to other medical reasons or age) should get the flu vaccine! This is called herd immunity. It helps those who are more susceptible to getting it. Also, getting this vaccine reduces the risk up to 60%. I am not going to lie; before I was informed on the flu and its effects, I did not get the vaccine every year. Once I realized that it wasn’t primarily for myself but others who cannot get that benefit, my laziness and ideas about it changed. Another way to stop the spread is to wash your hands regularly. I do not mean splash them under water for 2 seconds and go about your day. I mean taking some time to lather in soap with warm water. Handsanitizer is also very effective! Covering your mouth and avoiding large crowds are also ways to prevent the spread of anything, especially the flu. I hope you take this into consideration when you go about your day!

According to an article in Science News for Students, the coronavirus is a single stranded RNA virus that has been around for a long time. This virus is round and is enclosed by proteins, giving it its name due to the “corona of the sun”. There are four major types of these viruses, and one of them causes the common cold. They are spread through the air and tend to be very mild affecting the nose and throat. There are two strands that have caused SARS and MERS, resulting in past global outbreaks. These coronaviruses cause severe infection by latching onto proteins that are on the outside of the lungs. This causes a far more serious penetration of the airways than the common cold. The damage to the lungs is what causes these strands to be so deadly. The SARS outbreak killed 1 in 10 people infected. The MERS outbreak killed 3 in 10 infected. The coronavirus has appeared to be less severe killing 4 in 100 people infected. 

According to MedlinePlus, there are interesting traits to this coronavirus. The virus can infect both animals and humans. It is spread like a common cold. Infected people who are coughing and sneezing can infect others around them by basic droplet interaction or touching objects people who are infected have touched. This can be a direct or indirect transfer. Symptoms include fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. The incubation period is 2-14 days. There is currently no vaccine. Treatments are just support for the symptoms of the virus like fluids and pain relievers. 

WebMD has published an article stating that this outbreak began in Wuhan, China. It is thought to be linked to a market that sold seafood and animals. The virus is thought to have been contracted from one of the animals in the now closed market. The outbreak began on December 30, 2019. There are currently eight cases in the US, but most cases reside in China. There is still a lot of information being processed so a lot of this “factual” information is apt to change once more research can be done. As of now, handwashing and general sanitation is a necessity to contain these outbreaks. 

Welcome Back!

Today I will be discussing Andrew Wakefield’s claims on how “vaccines cause autism”. The paper that he published in Lancet has since been retracted, but it is important to look at his claims and analyze where mistakes were made. His study consisted of 12 children with ages ranging from 3-10 years old. Eleven of the twelve children were boys. He focused on children with chronic enterocolitis and regressive development. This paper shocked the general population, and there was a lot of speculation in the scientific community about his findings. Afterwards, there were many sources stating that his experiment and his conclusions were not supported. 

An article published in the PMC journal stated that his small sample size and uncontrollable design led to fraudulent conclusions. It also stated that there were some conflicts of interest due to lawyers funding Wakefield’s research and those same lawyers being involved in lawsuits with the parents against vaccine companies. Experiments that have been conducted after the release of Wakefield’s paper have reflected opposite results. A paper that was published in PubMed revealed that there was actually evidence against the correlation with autism and the MMR vaccine or any measles vaccine. The sample size for this experiment was 8x larger than the sample size of Wakefields. This study also had a control group and did not go against any ethical guidelines. Although it was established in the scientific community that the MMR vaccine does not cause autism, there was a large effect on the general population’s views on vaccines.

An article published in PBS stated that in 2000, the measles had been completely eliminated from the US. In 2011 however, there were more than 200 cases that appeared. These outbreaks originated overseas in Europe. These outbreaks are thought to be caused by parents who did not vaccinate their children. This was due to the fear of their children developing autism. This has caused a risk of disease in the general population and related health complications. Because of this, the “wakefield fraud” has become one of the most serious frauds in medical history.