By DENISE GRADY
Published: December 21, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/22/health/22virus.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=infectious%20disease&st=cse
The author of this article, Denise Grady, is a writer in the science department for the New York Times, and also has been writing for numerous magazines such as Discovery and Scientific America. She has a B.S Degree and a M.S in English from the University of New Hampshire. She is a very accomplished journalist, who has been awarded with many awards for her works in the scientific fields. She also received a commendation from the Newspaper Guild for "choice and excellence of crusading journalistic contributions in the areas of science and medicine," in 1986.
http://sciwrite.org/sciwrite/grady.html
In this article Denise focuses on a woman named, Michelle Barnes, and her fight with the very deadly Marburg virus . Ms. Barnes was just getting back from a vacation in Uganda, when she fell extremely ill with this rare virus. Symptoms of hers included a rash, the development of terrible abdominal pain, weakness, being very tired, and confusion. After tests revealed that she had a low white blood cell count and that her kidneys and liver were starting to fail she was hospitalized. After a while her muscles and pancreas started to become inflamed, and doctors had no idea what was going on. Even after having specialists in infectious disease looking up every tropical disease they could think of they got no answer. After a little over a week she left the hospital, but still was affected by abdominal pain, confusion, and exhaustion for over seven months. However, she found an article about a woman who traveled to the same place she did, and had died from something called Marburg hemorrhagic fever. After reading further she found out that it was believed that she caught the viral disease from exposure to bat dropping in the same cave in which she had visited. After being tested again for Marburg, test came back positive, and she was reported as the first case of Marburg virus every reaching North America. There is no cure, or vaccine against this disease, which has a high mortality rate, and one which can easily be transmitted through bodily fluids.
Experts say that it is amazing that she survived, and that no one else caught the deadly disease from her. They have warned that this disease easily could have traveled around the world by plane, and exposed itself to countless of other victims. Denise did a really great job at the end to emphasize how close it was to having an outbreak of this very dangerous disease. Ms. Barnes’s case is considered to be very mild, even though she almost died, and took her over a year to fully recover. This goes to show how deadly this disease really is, only being exposed to a very little amount can cause death.
I choose this article because there is still little known about this disease, and it goes to show how far we still have to go in the field of medicine. We have gone a long way with finding ways to prevent disease and cures, but I do not think we will ever be able to be finished with finding new ways to help cure people and fighting off new diseases. Ms. Barnes has allowed the National Institutes of Health to take blood samples from her in the hope of finding a vaccine and a way to help cure this disease. I find is extremely heart warming to find that she is making a scary situation and turning it into one in which can save the lives of others.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This was really interesting! I think that it helps show that there are a lot of diseases out in the world that are unknown to North America. It's also a little frightening to think that doctors had no idea what she had. If she hadn't looked it up and found out about it herself, she probably would have died. We still have a lot to learn.
ReplyDeleteThis shocked me! I cannot believe that someone could live with such a painful disease for more than 7 months and then on top of that survive it! Thats incredible. I was also suprised to read that the doctors could not find the disease, even after searching through all the different exotic diseases.
ReplyDeletei actually really enjoyed reading this article, i think that it was really interesting that she came across an article of someone who had the same thing going on.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how someone was able to survive an illness like that one. I am always interested to why someone has the ability to survive such a fatal illness from which a majority of people die from. I think genetics may have a role in this, but thats not a fact.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting, but also a bit scary. I think that it was scary that the doctors could not diagnose what was ailing her. I am also very suprised that she survived 7 months with this diesease, because it is so fatal, she must have a great immune system. I'm glad that she looked up her diease herself but its scary that the doctors could not figure it out, when there was an article that she was able to find and somewhat self-diagnose herself. Like megan said, we still have a lot to learn.
ReplyDeleteThis article was very interesting to me especially because I had never heard of this virus before reading the article. It is amazing that she finally was able to get an accurate diagnosis. She was a very lucky to have survived too. It was also very alarming that this was the first case in North America. Very interesting article!
ReplyDeleteI am intrigued by this article. It is scary to think that doctors could not determine what the disease was, especially considering that Ms. Barnes, who does not have a PhD, easily found an article about someone with similar symptoms after just a little bit of research. It is also a bit frightening to think that originally the test for the Marburg virus came back negative. It amazes me that someone with such a deadly disease could survive longer than seven months before even determining what the disease was. Also, it is strange to think that there are diseases that are unknown to the United States, which is one of the most established countries in the world. Ms. Barnes is very lucky. After seeing a doctor most people would not continue research. However, she did and if she didn’t she would probably be dead. Doctors need to be more attentive to their patients and do extra research if needed.
ReplyDelete