Diphtheria And Its Effects On The World

Some strains of the bacterium Corynebacterium produce a toxin, and it is the toxin that causes the most serious complications of Diphtheria. (www.medicalnewstoday.com) To determine the degree of reactions to diphtheria toxoid, studies were carried out on approximately 300 men each. (history.amedd.army.mil pg.170) Diphtheria is often associated with a sore throat, fever, and the development of an adherent membrane on the tonsils and/or nasopharynx. (medicinenet.com) This is a disease that most people are familiar with. Some famous people who are golden in our history had family who died from Diphtheria such as Eleanor Roosevelt’s mother who died of the infectious disease in 1892.

This new vaccine would drastically change the way people battle against infections and reduce the number of people that get sick. Even in the 1950’s vaccines were already making an impact on society.

Vaccines change over time as science makes advancements and diseases processes evolve and emerge. Around 400 BC, Hippocrates recognized the now preventable diseases, such as diphtheria and mumps (Immunization Act Coalition, 2015). The first effort to immunize dates back to the 1100’s when children were inoculated with scabs from individuals who recently had small pox, with a technique coined as variolation. Then in 1796, Edward Jenner successfully created the first small pox vaccine (Immunization Act Coalition, 2015).

Vaccines have been used to prevent diseases for centuries, and have saved countless lives of children and adults. The smallpox vaccine was invented as early as 1796, and since then the use of vaccines has continued to protect us from countless life threatening diseases such as polio, measles, and pertussis. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) assures that vaccines are extensively tested by scientist to make sure they are effective and safe, and must receive the approval of the Food and Drug Administration before being used. “Perhaps the greatest success story in public health is the reduction of infectious diseases due to the use of vaccines” (CDC, 2010). Routine immunization has eliminated smallpox from the globe and

Most healthcare professionals and leaders attribute vaccination as the single-most important reason for increasing the health of the human population during the past one hundred years. As a result, required immunizations are common in the U. S. and other developed countries. However, there is a segment of society who argue against vaccination due to worries that immunizing negatively impacts future health. More and more information is becoming available that presents allopathic vaccination in an ugly light. (Sharma, 2003) For the past century, vaccines for diptheria,

The first vaccination invented was for smallpox in 1798 by a man named, Edward Jenner (Kotz, 2009). His work was herald as the leading scientific effort to control a transmittable virus by the measured consumption of a vaccination. Today, current medication is founded on Pasteur’s germ philosophy of infection (Link, 2005). Scientists now have vaccinations for almost everything from vitamin vaccinations to vaccines preventing illnesses.

I chose diphtheria for my term paper because it was a fatal disease before 1920 killing more children than any other disease. Each year there were more than 200,000 cases of diphtheria in the United States. Nowadays this disease is not that widespread and limited mostly to the countries of the Third World. This was achieved due to discovery of immunization. However, we still observe cases of diphtheria in the developed countries that do not have regular immunizations (Frey and Tish 2011). In 2014, there were more than 7,000 outbreaks of this disease in the world. Taking into account that 5-10% of those cases resulted in death, we should not underrate diphtheria as a life-threating pathogen (“Clinicians”, accessed April 10,2016).

Vaccines are arguably one of the greatest medical developments of all time. That being said, despite the amazing results they have shown against fighting disease, they have also encountered a great deal of controversy. In this paper, we will take a look into a few of the biggest obstacles vaccines have faced along the way.

diphtheriae is an innocuous Gram positive, bacillus shaped bacteria that, when infected with a specific bacteriophage, produces an exotoxin that is very damaging to humans and causes a disease known as diphtheria. Diphtheria affects the upper respiratory tract and is known to cause lesions throughout the pharyngeal area and on the skin. Transmission of diphtheria is through contact with bodily fluids including saliva. When left untreated, respiratory problems and cardiac difficulties can lead to death (WHO position paper, 2006). Prior to current prevention and treatment methods, in some locales, morbidity and mortality rates for C. diphtheriae were known to exceed 50 percent. Now, with modern science to thank, diphtheria morbidity and mortality rates have been reduced to 5 to 10 percent globally. Additionally, global incidence of diphtheria continues to decrease steadily due to increasingly standardized

Many vaccines have been created in the past 200 years, increasing survival chances, and controlling disease spread (Text 5). Most diseases that

Vaccines developed in the 20th century have been effective in keeping our society protected against infectious diseases. As technology advances and the genetics of various age groups differ, the effect on diphtheria vaccines will pose an adverse reaction amongst the adolescence compared to the elderly if the physiology and immune response of both groups are not carefully studied.

Diphtheria consists of a single protein with a disulfide bond linking two fragments (Henri, 2012). There are two types of diphtheria: clinical diphtheria and respiratory. Classical respiratory diphtheria is characterized by the formation of a gray-white pseudomembrane in the throat that is firmly adherent (Wagner, 2012). Clinical diphtheria is caused by toxin-producing corynebacteria. Diphtheria is related to three species Corynebacterium diphtheriae, C. ulcerans, and C. Pseudotuberculosis. Corynebacterium diphtheriae is common of potentially species and is associated with epidemic diphtheria and person-to-person transmission. Corynebacterium diphtheriae has four biovars: gravis, mitis, intermedius, and belfanti The rare Corynebacterium ulcerans is associated with cattle or raw dairy products.

In these days of modern medicine, most children are vaccinated early in life for diseases such as rubella, measles, and tetanus. Vaccines have been perfected to shield and protect our body from seriously life threatening diseases that could have the potential to wipe out large populations. Most of America and a lot of western countries see vaccines as beneficial and a common necessity for their children and themselves. However, this view has not always been accepted. In fact, vaccines were only first widely considered to be helpful for diseases when a man named Louis Pasteur began experimenting with rabies. We will start our journey of microbiological history with the discovery of anthrax and move forward through the creation of Pasteur’s rabies vaccine.

Diphtheria is a killer disease which can cause so panic when break out. I would have been more then extreme careful to contract this disease if I had lived in that time of the outbreak. Mingling with people execute the day to day activity either in school or at work would have been very difficult for me particularly the suspected zones of infection.

Bacterial: Toxins from the bacteria Corynebacterium diphtheria affect the respiratory system, heart muscle cells and nervous system.