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An ounce of prevention: A microbiology extra credit opportunity

Most flu shots are administered  I.M. (intra muscularly), therefore, at a 90 degree angle relative to the skin.

Most flu shots are administered I.M. (intra muscularly), therefore, at a 90 degree angle relative to the skin.

Bob and Sally go to get their annual Flu vaccine at the public clinic. Every year, the two go together and neither have contracted Influenza since they began five years ago.

This time, while he was getting his shot, he says to his nurse, “These shots are great. I haven’t been infected with the Flu for years, despite at least some of my co-workers getting sick every year.”

His nurse finishes his injection and then says, “Well, you might have gotten infected, but you’ve didn’t get sick.”

“What do you mean? Isn’t that the same thing?”

“Actually,” says the nurse, ” it’s not.”

Explain what the nurse means by ‘infection’ and ‘getting sick’ being different things. Include, in your explanation, why it is that a vaccine might not prevent organisms from getting into your body and even into your cells, but that they can still fail to make you ill. What cells and molecules are involved in protecting you in this way?

 
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Posted by on May 1, 2015 in Uncategorized

 

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A thoughtful article on the use and abuse of antibiotics

ImageEarlier today, I found this well written article on the era of antibiotics by Maryn McKenna (Published November 20, 2013). While I’m not sure I agree with everything in it – and have been spending time tracking down some publications to support or refute some data cited here (particularly in regards to the use of antibiotics in agricultural animals), the  summary of how antibiotics were first discovered and used and how researchers including Flemming feared an end of antibiotic usefulness, paints a vivid portrait of the problem at hand.

While we might typically think of antibiotics as being prescribed in a clinic following a positive test for strep throat or some other bacterial infection, that is just one example of their use. One element of this paper that I found particularly insightful was how easily overlooked are the myriad uses of antibiotics in situations such as surgical procedures or following chemo- / radiation therapy.

 British health economists … recently calculated the costs of antibiotic resistance. To examine how it would affect surgery, they picked hip replacements, a common procedure in once-athletic Baby Boomers. They estimated that without antibiotics, one out of every six recipients of new hip joints would die.

Let me know what you think.

 
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Posted by on November 24, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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epidemiology

I’m looking forward to discussing a bit of epidemiology in my Microbiology class on Tuesday. I’ve been looking at the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service website and a package of case studies obtained from them and I think we can manage at least some of the broader questions without losing valuable time that I am itching to discuss immunology.

While researching, I came across this site by Google that uses search engine terms as a method for tracking flu worldwide. The data is used to create a map like the one shown below.

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Previous years’ information yielded these data illustrating spikes in flu during the winter months last year.

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Posted by on November 8, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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My Semester starts tomorrow

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Click this image to go to the CDC’s flu-tracker website

This has not been a good weekend. I started feeling ill on Friday evening and have been getting progressively worse since then. I was unconsoled by my first exposure to free HBO and Cinemax as I watched ‘Contagion’ while my wife and son were out shopping. It took me a while to realize that I didn’t want to watch hundreds of people fall prey to a wildfire infection, but when I did, I was greeted with a post from the CDC’s FluView app sating that flu has reached epidemic proportions. 

Immediately upon receiving that post I developed generalized body-aches (which I’ll be damned if I can tell are psycho-symatic or not.) To be fair, I have had the flu once before… in about 1999… and there’s no question what it’s like. I couldn’t get off the couch for a week – quite literally. Luckily, I couldn’t eat or drink, so the sequelae to those processes sort of shut down too. So, no, I don’t think I have the flu this year.

What I do have is a semester starting tomorrow  with one class I am taking (introduction to C++ algorithms, or some such nonsense) and an in-service meeting where I teach. Then, on Tuesday I start teaching Microbiology and General Biology. What I need to do is get over this cold as soon as possible and get myself a flu shot, so I don’t have to stand in front of a class promoting the efficacy of these vaccines when I have not gotten one myself.

I admit it, I’m whining and I have no real purpose for this post other than to seek sympathy. This thing must be affecting my mind as well…

 
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Posted by on January 13, 2013 in Uncategorized

 

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Time to pick up a new book?

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Maurice Hilleman at Merck

My microbiology class next semester will be reading Paul Offit’s ‘Vaccinated‘. This book tells the story of Maurice Hilleman, the man who developed many  vaccines commonly used in children today. I’ve read this book once before, but I’m looking forward to revisiting it.

You can find a link to this book from the DHS website at:

Order Vaccinated 

 
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Posted by on December 5, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

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