A European physician, Professor A Weichselbaum, discovered the cause of the mysterious cerebro-spinal meningitis illness in 1887 and Penicillin was the first antibiotic used to fight the disease. In 1978 the first vaccine was created and mass vaccinations during that year caused a substantial decline in the number of meningitis outbreaks (Fredericks, n.d.). There are three main types of meningococcal disease serogroups: B, C, and Y. Worldwide there are also A and W-135. USA vaccines cover A, C, W-135, and Y but not B (Coffee, 2015).
2. If the diagnosis is in doubt, why are antibiotics administered immediately? If a patient has bacterial meningitis, it is known that they can become dangerously ill within 24 hours of showing the first symptoms. Acute bacterial meningitis can even be fatal in a few hours. If the physician suspects Heather has bacterial meningitis, they will treat her with antibiotics immediately.
Because natural selection occurred. As with Staphylococcus aureus, a few bacteria were resistant to penicillin. Therefore, they were selected over and over again to reproduce, until the entire population of bacteria became resistant to penicillin. A new antibiotic called methicillin became available in 1959 to treat penicillin-resistant bacterial strains, but by 1997, 40% of hospital staph infections were caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. Now, community-acquired MRSA (CA-MRSA) can spread freely through the general populace, particularly when people are in close contact.
Scientists felt there was more future for medicine. There were thousands of people were dying of incurable diseases. Paul Ehrlich the Nobel Prize Winner was the one who discovered chemotherapy to cure these diseases. He did lot of experiments to kill just the microorganisms not the human tissue. His first experiment was on the diseases syphilis.
Retrieved November 16, 2013 from ProQuest database. Swinyard, W. R., and Coney, K. A. (1978). Promotional effects on a high-versus low-involvement electorate. Journal of Consumer Research (Pre-1986), Volume 5(1), 41.
Bach Dang Mosaics II 2/5/2013 Blog 2 “Vaccination against smallpox” is a book written by Edward Jenner which describes the progress of vaccination to eradicate smallpox. From the first several pages of his book, Edward presents about the signs of the disease and the way he takes advantage of cowpox to weaken smallpox. On page 14, the author clearly depicts the symptoms and how they transfer from animals to humans who interact with them. In the history, Smallpox was introduced to Europe between the fifth and seventh centuries and was frequently epidemic during the period of Middle Ages. The disease had greatly affected the development of the Western civilization.
Microbiology in the News: Poop Pills Elaine Altman Breckinridge School of Nursing Microbiology Anu Gupta December 20, 2014 Microbiology in the News: Poop Pills Shawn Mulligan, 53, of Calgary, Canada, is among the first patients to test prototype poop pills to cure the recurrent intestinal infections caused by Clostridium difficile also known as C. diff. Even though the idea was distasteful when he thought about it, the results were quick and was life changing for him. Shawn was one of the first people suffering from a terrible gut infection caused by the germ C. diff, to get better using fecal transplants. The fecal transplants can be delivered through nose tubes, colonoscopies or enemas, but he was one of the first to have it transplanted through poop
TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME 3 Toxic Shock Syndrome was first discovered around twenty years ago. It was quickly linked to the use of super absorbent tampons which were consequently taken off the market. One theory states that the tampons were creating small cuts in the vagina which allowed the bacteria to sneak in. Another theory says that while using tampons the blood stays stagnant. This is a perfect breeding ground for the bacteria.
Though the reasons for this were not understood, the very beginning of the studies of medical geography. Another major turning point in this field was the major outbreak of cholera in the mid 1800s in London, when Doctor John Snow plotted the distribution of deaths from cholera throughout London on a map. A major point in medical geography is the spreading of diseases, which was the main storyline in the movie Contagion. The highly contagious unfamiliar, unnamed disease, which killed people at unbelievably high rates, started from one person, Beth Emhoff who made contact with many people in Chicago, and later spread to her son, who went to his school and spread it to people there, before he died from it. This is known as an epidemic, meaning a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time, with the exception that this outbreak was taking place almost worldwide.
227). Over the years health care expenditure has increased greatly. Studies have shown that health care expenditure has almost surpassed $2 trillion dollars in 2008 or to put it in perspective $7,681/person (http://www.ama-assn.org/resources /doc/health-care-costs/strategies-rising-costs.pdf). Some of the major factors to this increase in expenditure include technological advances, population growth of older adults, increased focus on specialty physicians, uninsured and the underinsured, and prescription medicine. (Sultz & Young pg.