The article I read was “From Square 1 to Peru-15: The Pursuit of a Cholera Vaccine”. It was posted on the Harvard Medical School website by Pat McCaffrey (and can be found at http://scienceprogress.hms.harvard.edu/peru15.html). Cholera is described as a worldwide and fast changing global disease but is especially prevalent in third world countries. There is estimated to be 1 million cases and 20,000 deaths per year. The main focus of the article though is creating a vaccine to combat it. Luckily, a team of scientists headed by John Mekalanos has discovered one vaccine, Peru-15, to protect against the “El Tor” strain in South America. First they removed the two toxins that allow the bacteria to do damage. They added “safety features” to make sure that the vaccine couldn’t regain the toxins. In order to accomplish this they deleted the insertion site and an enzyme. To replace the enzyme they added one of the toxins back in because it raises an immune response. Scientists plan to continue finding vaccines for different strains by altering the one they already have. They also hope to use derivatives of the vaccine to find others for organisms such as anthrax and West Nile Virus.
Pat McCaffrey writes about this advancement in a positive and hopeful way. He seems to support the scientists’ efforts to do more with the Peru-15 vaccine. This is shown in the way he describes their cause “The stage is now set for a large-scale trial to test the vaccine, known as Peru-15, to prevent the seasonal flare-ups of life-threatening diarrhea that dog the poor in Bangladesh and other regions of the developing world.” Although there doesn’t seem to be an author bio, I think it is a reliable article because it is being put on the website of a prestigious school, Harvard Medical School. Additionally the content of the article relates to what the school is all about. The author provides enough detail for it to be true and also has a quote from Mekalanos at the end of his article. In my opinion, the article is very informative and convincing.
Numerous aspects of the article relate to what we have learned in class. When describing how cholera works and what scientists did to find a vaccine, the different parts of bacteria are mentioned. Toxins are big in allowing the cholera virus to work and damage the intestine. Both of these we learned in our last unit, Microbiology. We have also talked briefly about cholera which is the main disease of the article. I think this is a good article for anyone who wants to know about cholera in modern times and what is being done to combat it.
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This article seems to be very interesting and informative. I knew cholera was prevalent in third world countries, but I wasn't aware that it affected 1 million people and killed 20,000 people a year. That number is a lot higher than I thought it was and I am glad there is research being done on vaccines to prevent it. One question that I am curious about is when will they start using vaccines to fight off cholera? Are they that close in the creation of the vaccine that they can give it out, or are they still in the beginning stages? I thought it was interesting how they talked about how the vaccine was made.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is awesome that third world countries are finally trying to combat this dangerous and common disease that kills 20 thousand a year. Even though it can be so easily avoided by either drinking cleaner water or boiling it before you drink it. Creating a vaccine would be beneficial but how many and to who will the give it, that's another question. but the progress made will hopefully prevent hundreds if not thousands of deaths.
ReplyDeleteI’m right on board with Zach and Molly. I tend to think of cholera as a disease of the nineteenth century, but, as Melissa and Emily’s articles and the epidemic scorecard have pointed out, it’s still kicking. The encouraging results of the Peru-15 trials are, as Zach said, amazing, especially if they bring about the virtual end of the disease. In addition, the article mentions that cholera often springs up in war zones; perhaps a vaccine would likely help put combat-devastated regions back on their feet. I foresee a problem, though: while humans are the primary cholera hosts, there are also cholera colonies on some shellfish, which can be transmitted to people who eat the shellfish raw or undercooked. New strains could arise there, and then be transmitted again to humans. New vaccines might have to be developed.
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be very interesting and having a vaccine for cholera would be great. After reading Emily's article about cholera and how the government was not doing anything to try to prevent it, this article offered new and more positive information. It is great to see that research is actually being done to find ways to prevent this disease becasue it is something that can easily be prevented. It is sad to see how people in third world countries are contracting this disease just because they don't have enough money to get clean water. It would be amazing to see a vaccine that could help them though.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad Melissa chose this article because it was very informative and also, like she said, relates to our latest unit in class. We had briefly talked about cholera so it was interesting to read the article and know about what was going on, for example knowing about toxins.
I am glad that Melissa chose an article that deals with this issue, because I was not aware of the severity of this disease in the present day. It is great that they are tying to make a stand agaist such a deadly disease that could be preventable only if people had clean drinking water. I am glad that they are making head way with this vaccine because if it does work, it will save the lives of countless numbers of people. While making this disease if great, we could also try to work on providing clean drinking water to such third world countries where this disease is killing thousands of people to perhaps stop this disease in its tracks all together. This was a very informative article, and I am very happy that Melissa choose it because it was very informative on this very important issue, and I could relate it to what we have talked about in class.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a very interesting article and like the others I was unaware of how many people were actually victim to this horrible disease. I knew Cholera was still a disease that affected people in third world countries but i never would have guessed that such a large number of people have died from it. In addition, i also thought it was very interesting how scientists have been going about making a vaccine for this disease. Its amazing how they can take the bacteria that causes the disease and then use it as a vaccine to prevent people from getting it. Melissa chose a very informative article and it relates a lot to what we have been learning in class.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked to learn that Cholera affects 1 million people a year and kills roughly 20,000, and it is great that scientists are working to stop this deadly disease. It is very important that these vaccines are being developed especially to help people in third world countries who are greatly affected by the disease. One question I have though is, will everyone be able to get the vaccine, even if they have little money and no health insurance? Finally, I think it is interesting how the article mentions the toxins of the disease and how that is what helped them to develop the vaccine, considering we just learned about these toxins.
ReplyDeleteWe talked about the big influence that Cholera has in other countries recently and i was intrested to see Melissa had done an article on it. Its good that the scientists are not only preparing for one strain of the disease but creating many different versions of the vaccine so that they can help as many people as possible.
ReplyDeleteLike Eric said, I too had always associated Cholera with the nineteenth century and didn't think that it was as big a problem today as it really is. You don't hear too much about Cholera in North America so it is astonishing to hear that a million people suffer from Cholera every year. I think its great that this article was published because hopefully it will spread awareness of this disease in less privelaged third world countries. Hopefully this spread of awarness will contribute to more help in the places that need support most.
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