Percy Morales

Percy Morales
Biology 160

Return of the Whoop! The resurgence of Pertussis

Part I

1. The illness is transmitted from one person to another through aerosol droplets. It begins as a mild respiratory infection, progresses to a cough, develops into a paroxysms of cough (whoop) before symptoms wane over weeks to months (duration is typically 6 – 10 weeks). Some symptoms include only sneezing, low fever, and slight cough and then within a several days you develop the whooping. The mechanism is 2) microscopic droplets carrying Bordetella pertussis are inhaled; 2) bacteria hook to cells lining the throat whose hairlike “cilia” sweep away foreign objects; 3) bacteria reproduce and migrate toward ciliated cells of the lungs; 4) bacteria release a toxin that paralyze the cilia and kills cells; 5) toxin released in the lungs spreads throughout the body; 6) Pneumonia may develop if tiny air sacs deep in the lungs become infected.

Part III

1. A vaccine is an inactive or weaken version of the virus given to a person to build memory white blood cells that will attack the virus if it comes in contact with a more serious dose of the virus.

2. The difference between a cellular and an acellular vaccine is a cellular vaccine is the whole cell that is killed and acellular carries an inactivated toxin and one or more bacterial components that is much less concentrated than the cellular vaccine. There are lower side effects with acellular vaccines than cellular vaccines. Only some of the antigens will be primed through acellular vaccine rather than the cellular vaccine because it is the whole cells and protects against the entire virus.

3. An organism can become more powerful in the midst of diminished vaccination by increasing the level of toxins it can grow and mutate other varieties that are more difficult to fight off.

4. Parents may choose to refuse to vaccinate their children is they think that vaccines harm their children and may be effected by the side effects of the vaccinations. They also think that if the virus is not harming anyone why would people need to protect against it. Lastly, faith healing into thinking that some extraordinary being may help their child fight off diseases through faith.

5. Consequence of diminished vaccinations is that it creates a small population for the bacteria to mutate and evolve into a different strand of the virus that the vaccine may not fight against. If there is a place for the bacteria to evolve than the herd immunity will decrease. The herd protects the vulnerable by fighting the virus in almost all individuals except for a few. If there is a new strand of the virus than that could affect the whole community.

6. There is a resurgence of the whooping cough because more parents are refusing to immunize their children and the herd immunization is being less effective. There are may be more people who do not take the boosters so their level of immunity may be lower than if they finished the whole set of boosters. The strands of the virus may be different and mutate that out smart vaccines.