Health

Influenza is known as an airborne infection caused by viruses

Introduction

Influenza is known as an airborne infection caused by viruses, it is transmitted through the air. Pathogens spread via droplets through the air (e.g.) sneezing, coughing, skin contact, talking, and through open wounds- skin infection (Loubet and Launay, 2017). These transmission routes can cause the person to become infected with influenza. The tiny droplets of mucus and saliva can be transmitted to the person, as the microorganisms which are in the virus are small and remain in the air for longer periods of time, especially in smaller crowded places (Mike Boyle, Kathryn Senior, 2008, pg. 447.)

The influenza virus affects the epithelial cells which line the nose and the throat. The droplets breathed in and out of people contain the flu viruses, this is how Influenza is commonly spread and this leads to outbreaks throughout the world. (Mike Boyle, Kathryn Senior, 2008, pg. 449.)

Antiseptics are chemicals which kill bacteria, destroy microorganisms on living tissues. They also work in conjunction with antibiotics. As static antibiotics slow the growth of bacteria down, and Cidal antibiotics kill the bacteria/microorganisms (PMC, 2001). Antiseptics can be applied to the skin, mouth, nose. (e.g.) broken skin, applying alcohol to the broken skin will kill microorganisms also the alcohol will damage the membranes of the pathogens, denature the proteins, targeting the bacteria prominent area which has been affected (World Health Organization, 2016).

26.0% South African population has H.I.V which is largest number of patients globally. 5% of the world’s population, southern and eastern Africa has the highest epidemic of H.I.V(Unicef,2011). 48% of the worlds H.I.V infections are amongst adults in Africa and 55% of the infected children also belong to various countries of Africa. Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe have over 10% prevalence rates (McGillen et al. 2016).

The H.I.V epidemic in the United Kingdom is relatively low compared to Africa’s epidemic involving the disease. Estimated 102,000 people living with H.I.V. The disease is only spread into small areas of the UK, especially amongst men who have sexual intercourse with black/Asian other minority ethnic backgrounds. The UK has progressed medically with the help of antiretroviral treatments. 96% are open to accessing treatments and services available to them, 94% have already been suppressed. (Avert,1986-2017). The UK has been more socially open about H.I.V and its effects on the patients who have contracted the disease.

Social barriers in the U.K are stigma and discrimination attached to H.I.V, as this prevents the population affected by H.I.V from accessing the services they need to prevent or suppress the disease. 1,500 people living in the UK have H.I.V and majority of people still hold stigmatizing attitudes towards people with H.I.V (Lipman, 2017). People have found health care professionals to be very judgmental and don’t trust the confidentiality of their medical records within the UK (Trickey et al. 2017). This can lead to depression due to the social fear of being attached to having the label of H.I.V. This can make the individual feel lonely, not being able to trust anybody, in fear of losing their job and livelihood (avert.org. 1986-2017). The United Kingdom is a welfare state, whereas in Africa, the epidemic is widespread due to the lack of available services. In the UK treatment and services are free of cost and in African countries this is not the case (Black et al. 2009)

The immune system is involved in which different cells and complex tissues are involved to fight infection which may occur in the body. We can overcome different types of infections by pathogens due to our immune system. The importance of non self and self is important in determining whether the immune system will fight the infection or keep the body positively healthy. Immunity can be acquired artificially by injecting someone with antibodies against a particular disease and this is known as passive immunity. Passive immunity is only helpful in serious cases where urgency is required, so the individual does not develop a serious life threatening diseases such as Tetanus and Rabies. (Givens and Reiss 2002, pg. 134-135) Immunisation is inoculation which can prevent many diseases attacking the body (Doherty et al. 2016). These may include Rubella, Polio, Tetanus, Tuberculosis vaccinations and few strains of Influenza virus. Sometimes the individual may get a booster after a certain period. Immunisation saves lives of many people and has a high success rate. (Peter Givens, Michael Reiss,2002, pg. 134-135.)

Person A, pathogenic organisms formulate the Antibodies within the body of person A after such pathogenic organisms manage to get through the body’s self-defence system, this results in a non-specific immune response. This is produced due to tissue damage.

The mast cells and basophiles release chemical signals which are Histamines. The chemicals will then pair with the white blood cells, which can remove the bacteria and any debris by Phagocytises. Inflammation could be considered to be a necessary pathological process of recovery since the immune system is alerted by inflammation in the body’s response to fight the pathogen. The surface molecules of phagocyte microorganisms are called Antigens which keep a memory of the micro-organism which has tried to invade the body.

The Antigen in person A had been stimulated during the specific immune system response, which then helps to produce the specific cells to then bind to the specific Antigen. Phagocytosis will occur so the Neutrophils (white blood cells) together with the monocytes are known as the phagocytes which will end up eating the pathogen and invade the body by phagocytises. The mechanism of white blood cells is meant to surround and devour the foreign body micro-organism through placing it within a vacuole and then digest the same with the utilisation of lytic enzymes. The bacterium is isolated within the neutrophil as the membrane of the same expands and the bacterium gets deposited inside the vacuole of the cytoplasm of the cells. Next, the lysosome of the cytoplasm would surround the vacuole containing the bacterium and would destroy the same through digesting it and smaller pieces of the vacuole would be left. This process would entail the remaining pieces of the vacuole falling apart with the remnants of the captive bacterium within such pieces

When person A could become infected by the virus, the B cells will release the chemical signals to the Lymph Nodes via the Bone Marrow, the Lymph Nodes will make the patient realise whether he could be unwell through inflammation which could be generated as a direct response to the infection caused by the foreign Antigen as the b cells respond to them. As the antigens of the pathogen produce specific antibodies, the antibodies are complex proteins. They will be able to move freely into the blood stream and get to the site of the infection. The Antibody is made up of b lymphocytes in response to the specific Antigen (Man, Karki and Kanneganti, 2017).

As the bird flu invades the patient’s body for the first time, each antigen activates one b cell, the b cell will multiply quickly and produce a population of cells. All the new cells produced are replicas/clones and will secrete specific antibodies, for invading the pathogen (Rynda-Apple, Robinson and Alcorn, 2015).

All the newly produced B cells will die, when the disease is cured. This is all a process of the primary immune response. The reason why person A has survived through the virus is because the body will respond quickly next time the virus infects the patient, memory cell.(Mike Boyle, Kathryn Senior,2008.).

In case of Person B, the vaccine will stimulate the body’s response network by producing a primary immune response to the pathogen, without becoming ill. The booster will also provide a secondary response as if the pathogen was to invade the body again, the body will produce a rapid response so that the person doesn’t become infected again by the virus. Various techniques may be used for immunisation and inoculation. A killed organism may be used for inoculation, a live non virulent which is not dangerous may be used, derived from many generations in the laboratory (Donovan and Craig, 2019). Antigens can be separated from the organism and chemically modified so it could not be harmful. Inoculation is artificially acquired immunity. The vaccine will help prevent the virus and save lives of others. By injecting somebody with antibodies against the disease, could also foster artificial immunity, like in this case person B will have the immunity against Bird Flu virus (Torres-Barceló and Hochberg, 2016.).

Toxoids are harmless and trigger the same type of immunity as normal toxins. These are used in vaccines against Tetanus, Diphtheria and other similar diseases. Genetic engineering has enabled medical staff and scientists to produce toxoids and vaccines which are benign (Marlow et al. 2017). Herd immunity could be provided to the general population through administering the mass vaccination projects for immunisation of a large number of people (Salisbury, Ramsay and Noakes, 2006).

Person C had survived the virus. This means that the memory cells would have encountered the pathogen before and would be remembering what the pathogen looks like. As then reproduction of a bigger number of B cells which are all capable of producing the specific type of antibody. This is the secondary response; the response is quick and effective with dealing with the pathogen than the primary response (Prue et al. 2017).

Bibliography

• Avert, H.I.V in the United Kingdom,[online] available at:https://www.avert.org/public-hub [date accessed: 14/03/19]
• World Health Organization, 2016. Guidelines on core components of infection prevention and control programmes at the national and acute health care facility level. World Health Organization.
• Mike Boyle & Kathryn Senior, 2008, Human Biology, Third Edition, London, United Kingdom, Collins.
• Peter Givens, Michael Reiss,2002, Human Biology and health studies, second edition, Cheltenham, United Kingdom, Nelson Thornes Ltd.

H.I.V/Africa/ United Kingdom:

• Unicef,Cluver, L. Orkin, M. et al (2011), Across Both decades-protection and care for children affected by Aids/H.I.V. [online] available at: https://www.unicef.org/esaro/5482_third-decade.html [date accessed 14/03/19].
• McGillen, J.B., Anderson, S.J., Dybul, M.R. and Hallett, T.B., 2016. Optimum resource allocation to reduce HIV incidence across sub-Saharan Africa: a mathematical modelling study. The Lancet HIV, 3(9), pp.e441-e448.
• Lipman, M.C.I., 2017. Immunizing UK HIV positive adults against Influenza: delivering services that reflect patient choice. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses.
• Trickey, A., May, M.T., Vehreschild, J.J., Obel, N., Gill, M.J., Crane, H.M., Boesecke, C., Patterson, S., Grabar, S., Cazanave, C. and Cavassini, M., 2017. Survival of HIV-positive patients starting antiretroviral therapy between 1996 and 2013: a collaborative analysis of cohort studies. The Lancet HIV, 4(8), pp.e349-e356.
• Trickey, A., May, M.T., Vehreschild, J.J., Obel, N., Gill, M.J., Crane, H.M., Boesecke, C., Patterson, S., Grabar, S., Cazanave, C. and Cavassini, M., 2017. Survival of HIV-positive patients starting antiretroviral therapy between 1996 and 2013: a collaborative analysis of cohort studies. The Lancet HIV, 4(8), pp.e349-e356.
• Torres-Barceló, C. and Hochberg, M.E., 2016. Evolutionary rationale for phages as complements of antibiotics. Trends in microbiology, 24(4), pp.249-256.
• Black, S., Eskola, J., Siegrist, C.A., Halsey, N., MacDonald, N., Law, B., Miller, E., Andrews, N., Stowe, J., Salmon, D. and Vannice, K., 2009. Importance of background rates of disease in assessment of vaccine safety during mass immunisation with pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccines. The Lancet, 374(9707), pp.2115-2122.
• Man, S.M., Karki, R. and Kanneganti, T.D., 2017. Molecular mechanisms and functions of pyroptosis, inflammatory caspases and inflammasomes in infectious diseases. Immunological reviews, 277(1), pp.61-75.
• Rynda-Apple, A., Robinson, K.M. and Alcorn, J.F., 2015. Influenza and bacterial superinfection: illuminating the immunologic mechanisms of disease. Infection and immunity, 83(10), pp.3764-3770.
• Doherty, M., Buchy, P., Standaert, B., Giaquinto, C. and Prado-Cohrs, D., 2016. Vaccine impact: benefits for human health. Vaccine, 34(52), pp.6707-6714.
• Loubet, P. and Launay, O., 2017. Maternal influenza immunisation to reduce influenza infections and low birthweight in infants in resource-limited countries. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 17(9), pp.890-892.
• Salisbury, D., Ramsay, M. and Noakes, K. eds., 2006. Immunisation against infectious diseases. The Stationery Office.
• Donovan, H. and Craig, L., 2019. Why immunisation training matters. Primary Health Care, 29(2).
• Prue, G., Lawler, M., Baker, P. and Warnakulasuriya, S., 2017. Human papillomavirus (HPV): making the case for ‘Immunisation for All’. Oral diseases, 23(6), pp.726-730.
• Marlow, R., Metz, J., Chesshyre, E., Sarra, A. and Finn, A., 2017. Recent developments in immunisation practice. Paediatrics and Child Health, 27(3), pp.102-108.