The article, “Fighting Polio: What Happened In 2019 and What Is Next,” by Bruce Y. Lee summarizes some good and bad news regarding the Polio vaccines, and the disease itself. The first good news announced is that two of the three wild polio virus strains have now been globally certified as eradicated, leaving only the wild polio virus type 1. The other two were declared eradicated in 2015 and last year, respectively. I think that this is great news, although I wonder why type 1 is not eradicated with the other two. Could it be a problem with creating an effective vaccine, vaccine distribution, or virulence?

The second announcement made was that Reaching the Last Mile Forum in Abu Dhabi pledged about $2.6 billion in efforts to eradicate polio. While this is wonderful news, the article also mentions that the wild type 1 strain made a comeback in 2019. According to the UN News, there was only 28 reported cases in 2018 which jumped to 163 in 2019. Unfortunately, anti-vaccination propaganda has essentially hindered efforts to vaccinate people around the world. This false propaganda spreading about the harmful effects of vaccinations are contributing to the increased incidents of polio, and like we discussed in class, vaccinations are prepping your immune system to handle disease. By vaccinating people around the world, we have the potential to eradicate polio from Earth since it has a human only reservoir, but false propaganda is working against those efforts in which people are pouring literal billions of dollars into.

Lastly, according to an article written in Stat News, there are two types of vaccinations available for polio, the oral polio vaccine (OPV) and the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV). This article mentions that the IPV may be better than the OPV. The OPV is essentially liquid drops of weakened but alive polio viruses, but has been causing some problems. While this is not supposed to cause polio, they can in rare instances revert to disease-causing versions. Countries in Africa, Eastern Mediterranean, South East Asia, and the Western Pacific have experienced such outbreaks. I think that while this is a concern, the public needs to be educated and reassured that the benefit of receiving a vaccine outweighs the risk of not. It is also very important to note that new OPVs are in phase I and II of their clinical trials.

According to an article in the Lancet, the British Prime Minister has made an outline for a plan to promote accurate information about vaccinations. This was a response to the WHO’s statement saying that UK is no longer considered to have eliminated measles. In the US, there was around 2,000 cases of measles, a resurgence likely caused by misinformation spread about vaccinations by anti vax organizations. The WHO defines vaccine hesitancy as a “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services. The article states that “what once was a fringe opinion is becoming a transnational movement.”

Misinformation on social media is abundant and statements like “so, a baby can handle 8-9 viruses all at once via vaccination, but cannot handle one single virus when it’s wild caught?” is misleading and need to be disproved. Additional statements posted by anti vaxers read, “so glad I didn’t get my beautiful children vaccinated but it looks like the majority have already been brainwashed,” and “my baby boy got measles but he’s doing great all thanks to his unweakened immune system” are commonly posted on social media sites. These have the potential to transcend into a more public sphere for consumption. By educating the general public about the importance of vaccinations and by warning them about misinformation by anti vaxers on social media, we can all play our individual parts in keeping our communities safe. Vaccinations are important to maintain herd immunity for immunocompromised individuals that are unable to get vaccines due to health problems.

Lastly, The Washington Post published an article about a wealthy Manhattan couple has emerged as financers of the anti-vaccine movement giving over $3 million to groups in the past couple of years. The money is used to create fears about immunizations online. This is just another example of how mis-information gets spread to the public which unfortunately has caused measles outbreaks and increased preventable disease. In fact, the article also mentions organizations like the Children’s Health Defense that fights legislative efforts to tighten vaccine requirements and even raise money to support the Dr. Wakefield Justice Fund. It is crucial for health providers and educated individuals to keep fighting back against anti-vaccination campaigns.

As we learned in my Microbiology class, the human microbiome consists of ecological communities of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic organisms in a 1:1 human to bacterial cell proportion. According to Microbiome of Soil, Plants, and Animals a book edited by Rachael Antwis, Xavier Harrison, and Michael Cox, microbiota can fundamentally include algae, bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, and viruses. As a result of these organisms living in close communities, co-evolution has occurred over millions of years which contributes to commensal relationships we have with them. Co-evolution has also played a critical role in producing great diversity of these organisms which can be important in host cell health. In fact, the human microbiota has over 10,000 microbial strains and around 8 million unique protein encoding genes (Antwis et al).

There are many questions coming out of this emerging field of microbiome research. One of the main questions is how many different kinds of microbiota do humans have, and how do we identify them? One common way to identify many microbiota is to identify their 16S ribosimal sequence, a construct we learned about in class. The 16S sequence is unique to different organisms and can classify them based on their strain type. In an article by the NIH titled, “Defining the Human Microbiome,” researchers using the 16S technique showed that community microbiome structures differ depending on the host’s diet.

According to the article, “Microbiota Research: From History of Advances,” since the beginning of the Human Microbiome Project, an international project to identify the types and roles of the human microbiome, there has been special emphasis on the microbiota residing in the human intestines. For example, dietary changes can lead to significant changes in bacterial metabolism of fatty acids and amino acids. Not only that, but these gut bacteria are important in allowing mammals to digest compounds via metabolic pathways that are not explicitly coded for in the mammalian genome. This allows us to extract even more nutrients and energy from the food we eat. Not surprisingly, antibiotics can deplenish your natural gut micrbiota, leading to decreased taxonomic richness, diversity, evenness which can cause more susceptibility to disease. In fact, after a course of antibiotics, it can take up to 3 or 4 years to reestablish your microbiota (Ursell et all). A rich and diversified microbiota can enhance digestion and overall health though metabolic pathways, as I mentioned previously, that the host cell can use to flourish and grow.

The WHO situation report – 18 was released today summarizing the current status of the coronavirus. As you remember, last Thursday it was announced to be a global health emergency. Today, no new countries have reported any cases of the 2019-nCoV in the past 24 hours. As of now, 72 State Parties were identified to be implementing travel restrictions. The most confirmed cases of coronavirus are in Hubei, China with 22,112 total confirmed cases.

The United States has 12 confirmed new cases with 10 a travel history to China, and 2 cases with possible or confirmed transmission outside of China. Additionally, out of 216 cases reported outside of China, 15 were detected while asymptomatic. Since coronavirus has a long incubation period, early detection is very important to prevent further spread. While people are asymptomatic, they are not expressing signs or symptoms, so the person can infect other people without knowing they are sick. The WHO has issued strategic objectives that include limiting human transmission via close contacts and spread from China, isolate patients, and identify and reduce the animal source.

The WHO also states that they are working closely with the International Air Transport Association to provide advice to cabin crew and airport workers. Additionally, the WHO has provided a protocol for detecting early cases. In fact, a report by the CDC has announced a laboratory test kit to test for the 2019 novel corona virus that can be shipped to qualified international laboratories around the world. Lastly, they have recommendations and advice for the public. They advise the public not to contact people suffering from acute respiratory infections, to frequently wash hands, and to avoid unprotected contact with farm or wild animals.

The flu is a viral infection that infects your upper respiratory system and transmitted through the inhalation of air droplets. Not only can you get the flu from inhalation of air droplets, but also through touching infected fomites and then your eyes, nose, or mouth. Signs and symptoms include fever, aching muscles, chills, sweats, headache, cough, fatigue, and sore throat. According to an article by the Mayo Clinic, especially susceptible people include children younger than a year old, adults older than 65 years old, people who work in crowded facilities, people with weakened immune systems, people with chronic illness, pregnant women, and obese individuals. Additional complications may include pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, heart problems, and ear infections. The CDC recommends the annual flu vaccination for everyone over 6 months old. As we learned in my microbiology class, the flu is an enveloped virus and therefore is able to be prevented from washing your hands and using hand sanitizer. It is also important to keep your hands away from your eyes, nose, and mouth.

A statement from the Director of National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, the 2019-2020 flu season is on track to be as severe as the 2017-2018 season, which was the deadliest in at least a decade. As of 3 January 2020, the CDC released that so far at least 6.4 million people have had the flu, 55,000 people have been hospitalized, and 2,900 people have died. While the vaccine does not appear very effective so far in the season, it is important to keep in mind that statistics can skew interpretations. In reality probably, the vaccine has helped a lot of people in not getting the flu, but certain strains may not be as fully covered. Just because there is not full overage, it does not mean the vaccine is useless. It is still important to get a yearly flu vaccine because they can always offer partial coverage.

While these statistics are devastating, but I think that it is important to remember that common practices such as washing your hands and not touching your face can be very effective in preventing the spread of the flu. In fact, I did not know until recently that the flu is an enveloped virus and can be killed easily by alcohol wipes and soap. The public needs to continue to hear these messages and also messages about getting the flu vaccine as well. I think that these small details go unnoticed and it is the news outlets responsibilities to transcend this information to the public. They also need to include messages about the annual vaccines as well. Even if the annual vaccine is not the correct strain, it can still help aid in the antibody response that could make the difference in severity and possibly even life and death.

As many of you know, the novel coronavirus has been all the rage in the news and other public health platforms. The virus’s first appearance in humans appeared on 31 December 2019, in the Huebi Province of China. At the time, the WHO China Country Office received reports that it was pneumonia of “unknown etiology.” According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) official situation report number 1, between 31 December 2019 and 3 January 2020, a total of 44 cases were reported. The most recent situation report released by the WHO on 30 January 2020, there are 7,818 confirmed cases in 18 countries. As you can see, this virus is spreading very quickly and across boarders and is labeled as a novel acute respiratory disease. Let’s try to understand why this virus is so effective and transmissible by looking at its fundamental structure.

An article in the New England Journal of Medicine explains the structure and virulence of the novel corona virus. Corona viruses are known to cause up to 30% of colds, but rarely cause lower respiratory infections. Researchers were able to identify this virion as a corona virus by examining its RNA genome, nucleocapsid, and large spikes. These spikes are able to fuse to receptors on the host cell membrane via the spikes and enter the host. The machinery used to replicate the viral genome includes a molecule called RNA polymerase, which is error bound and can cause mutations and recombination. The novel SARS-associated coronavirus could have arisen from a mutant coronavirus that gained new virulence factors and allowed it to infect the lower respiratory tract and have an 11% fatality rate (Vincent, 2020).

This article states that while we do not know where 2019-nCoV (the “n” for novel) falls on the scale of human-to-human transmission, it is crucial to have an aggressive response to this event. In my opinion, this warrants the attention to inform the public of sanitary practices. I think that this falls on the shoulders of health care providers, news reporters, and health organizations such as the WHO mentioned above. While it may pose a lower health threat on the individual person, the article concludes that it has a high risk on the population level and therefore strong action is required.

As a final note, I just received a news report stating that the WHO declared the coronavirus as a global health emergency, therefore making it more imperative that health measures are followed and the public is aware of prevention methods.

On February 28, 1998, Dr. Andrew Wakefield published an article in the Lancet that lead readers to the conclusion that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism in children. Wakefield, who eventually lost his medical license, used only 12 children in his study “with a previous history of pervasive developmental disorders and intestinal syndromes” (Wakefield, 1998). And he further states that the onset of behavioral symptoms was diagnosed by their parents in relation to the MMR vaccine. Additionally, in an article published by Nature Medicine, Eugenie Samuel Reich states that there is substantial proof that Wakefield falsified the children’s biopsies, which the Royal Free pathology service clearly stated were in normal limits. It is also important to consider Wakefield’s potential motives like monetary gain and lawsuits stemming from his article. This being said, there are numerous fundamental problems with the study to diminish credibility right off the bat.

The first problem is that the study only used 12 children, which is too low to provide accurate results let alone to suggest correlation or causation. The second problem is that he chose 12 children who had already experienced the onset of developmental problems and gastrointestinal problems. This means that there could be a number of other causative agents operating over their lives to contribute to these developmental problems that cannot accurately be linked to a specific event (Wakefield, 1998). It is important to take genetics and the environment into consideration, which is almost impossible to do in order to pinpoint the causative source. Lastly, the third problem is that the parents of the children are making the claim that the onset of their children’s issues are linked to the MMR virus. Scientific proof can not rest on the claims of parents, who are not experts in the field. There is a long, thorough process by which many credible peer-reviewed studies have to be enacted in order for there to be correlation between two events like a vaccine and the onset of autism. In Wakefield’s case, no other peer was able to verify or replicate his results.

More recently, there has been a resurgence in vaccine-preventable diseases like MMR due to hesitancy about parents vaccinating their children based on falsified information by Andrew Wakefield. In fact, the National Institute of Health published an article titled “Decline in Measles Vaccination is causing a Preventable Global Resurgence of Disease” that details that many countries are experiencing concerning measles outbreaks. This preventable tragedy can be prevented through a proven safe and effective vaccine. Unfortunately, this is a consequence caused by the cascade of false information beginning with the falsified article by Andrew Wakefield that discouraged parents from vaccinating their children. This is why public health knowledge is so crucial for doctors to translate to parents. The dissemination of this information is not just applicable to this particular case, but across many common preventable diseases and public health practices.

Good Evening! My name is Macy Lewis, from Burlington, North Carolina now attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There are many things that make me… me! I have always had a fascination with Biology and so that is what I study here along with Chemistry and Medical Anthropology. More specifically, I am interested in ocular health and have decided to attend Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tennessee to earn my doctorate in optometry next fall!

Outside of school, I work at Bell Eye Care and am so passionate about serving the public! I conduct MRI scans of the macula and optic nerve, take retinal photos, and administer visual field examinations! These are all very important for eye health and systemic health more broadly. I also enjoy optometry memes.

Additionally, I have always been a huge fan of working out and more recently have explored more into healthy living more generally. I work out at the UNC Student Recreation Center every morning and am also on the club soccer team here! I enjoy weight lifting, HIIT workouts, distance running, and of course playing soccer.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

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