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The human papillomavirus is thought to account for most of all cervical and anal cancer, penile cancers, and oral cancers. But once again, we have prevention methods! So people never have to get the infection or the cancers that can develop from them! Science man, it’s amazing. Think about all the lives we can save and how that effects all of the loved ones that one person has touched or made an impact on. If we can safely prevent someone’s future grief I can’t think of a reason why not.

According to hpvvaccine.org, people under the age of 14 need 2 doses of this vaccine at least 6 months apart and those who are 15 and older need 3 doses over the span of 6 months. The vaccine provides almost 100% effectiveness from 9 different types of HPV. Also, hpvvaccine.org discusses the beginnings of the vaccine and the clinical trials it endured to ensure its safety. It states that the vaccine was tested on 20,000 females in 33 countries and 4,000 males in 18 countries before it was approved for use. These trials proved the vaccine to be 100% effective in preventing the precursors to cervical cancer in women, and 90% effective at preventing genital warts and penile and anal lesions in males. In my book, these statistics are well worth the slight adverse reactions of pain, swelling, and redness at the injection site.

According to an article released by University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, single doses may soon be just as effective at preventing cancers associated to HPV as the multi-dose series. This is amazing news! HPV vaccine coverage is less than 10% globally because of the lack of resources in many developing countries. This is far from the 80% vaccination rate we want to reach herd immunity standards. Ensuring people receive the recommended 2 or 3 dose series proves challenging in many countries due to lack of healthcare availability; so therefore, if we can create a one dose regimen we can insure the prevention of HPV in so many more people! A single dose series would remove the reasoning of the vast amount people that choose not to get or can’t get the vaccine because of the series requirement. Not to mention it would drastically reduce the cost of the vaccine making it more affordable for nations and patients. AND, that means we don’t have to get stuck as much (not a fan of shots). It’s a win win win situation.

That’s what you call antibiotic resistance

Superbugs are the bacteria that have acquired resistance to antibiotics. Um, not good. We have no way of beating these resistant bacteria once we’re infected, no way to speed up getting rid of them, it’s up to our own immune systems and sometimes that’s not enough. Resistant bacteria have developed defensive mechanisms to the only offensive move we know – antibiotics. If we loose the ability to use antibiotics we may no longer be able to treat bacterial infections. The number of deaths from bacterial infections will soar and we’ll have no other option but to come up with new ways to fight them. Antibiotics are like nonrenewable resources, once we exhaust them, they’re done – and we’ll have to find a new resource to use. The trick is to use them responsibly without completely using them up.

Miss-use of antibiotics is causing the emergence of antibiotic resistant organisms. People are taking them too often for things that aren’t bacterial infections, not taking them for the required dose – allowing the stronger ones to survive, and giving them to farm animals that excrete them into the environment.

For the cows?

We use antibiotics in farm animal production to fatten them up for sale. Cattle animals are grown on a steady stream of antibiotics from the time they’re born as just another ingredient of their feed. Some companies claim to be antibiotic free but we don’t necessarily know how long the animals have not been on antibiotics. Meat is considered antibiotic free if, by the time it reaches the market, it has no antibiotic residue. This means that cattle could have been raised on antibiotics their whole life and only taken off of them two weeks before sale in order to pass the drug test. Why are we wasting these miracle drugs on COWS?! There’s gotta be better ways people.

The 411 on things new and resistant

Some new organisms, as discussed by the Center For Infectious Disease Research and Policy, that are becoming resistant include Candida auris and Acinetobacter. Candida auris is a multi-drug resistant fungus that spreads quickly and has a very high death rate to boast about- one in three people will die once infected. Symptoms of Candida auris include fever, chills, and sepsis which can lead to coma, organ failure, and possibly death. Acinetobacter is becoming carbapenem-resistant and can cause UTIs, pneumonia, sepsis, and meningitis. These diseases are extremely worrisome because they can be very severe and now may be unstoppable. It’s like we used to have bear traps but now they’ve all rusted and all we can do is run.

E. coli’s growing resistance

An article by Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities discusses E. coli’s growing resistance to antibiotics. They have found that in many countries, E. coli is developing resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, which is the first go-to treatment for UTIs, some strains have up to 60% resistance. Also, the resistance to fluoroquinolones can range up to 85% due to the widespread use of them in outpatients. Once these antibiotics are exhausted we’ll have to find a new way to treat E. coli infections which will take who knows how many years of research and development, and in the meantime we will just have to suffer with the UTIs and other diseases. IDK about you, but that ish is not fun. SO PLEASE, be responsible with your antibiotics and take them as DIRECTED. Read all of the info – did you know you’re supposed to take them at the same time each day? Not just once a day, but at the SAME TIME? ON THE DOT? You would if you cared about using antibiotics responsibly and about the health of our societies. Tea.

this is your warning, prepare yourself, its sad 😦

There’s nothing more heartbreaking than diseases common to infants. Once a baby’s born they should be swaddled with love and snuggled. They’re so tiny and defenseless, totally reliant upon someone else, completely innocent. A parent wants nothing more for them to be perfect and healthy. These perfect moments can be robbed from families by disease.

Whooping cough is a disease caused by Bordetella pertussis bacteria and is common to infants. The infection starts like a normal cold (a stage called catarrhal) but it quickly sets that assumption straight with the next stage of the infection. The second stage (paroxysmal) is characterized by uncontrollable fits of coughing so severe that many infants break their own ribs. Those infected with pertussis struggle to breathe for six weeks and have to be hospitalized. Babies are tied to cords that will oxygenate their blood for them because they can’t breathe well enough on their own. The disease’s impacts don’t just stop once they reach the convalescent stage of recovery either. Long term brain damage can impact the child’s life due to the lack of oxygen reaching the brain.

But the good news is that this horrible disease is preventable with the TDaP vaccine in combination with tetanus and diphtheria. According to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the vaccine is made by taking toxins produced by Bordetella pertussis an inactivating them. These toxoids then elicit an immune response that prepares the body from future attacks. With this vaccine we have saved sooo many sweet and squishy babies from ever having whooping cough. LOVE THAT.

Alright, now we’re back to bad news. It has recently come to light that there is evidence that certain B. pertussis strains are adapting to the current vaccine, as researchers in Australia have discovered and reported in the journal Vaccine.The bacteria have slowly been morphing into a superbug over the years. They are also getting better at hiding, as many of the evolved forms may only colonize and appear as carrier infections without symptoms. This is good for the bacteria and very bad for us because we may be shedding disease without even knowing we had it. Scientists will need to make changes to the current vaccine to better combat the evolving bug before it changes completely and is able to run rampant.

I can’t stress enough how important vaccines are to human health and survival. There are so many horribly life threatening diseases in our everyday environment that are just waiting for an opportunity to take control. For example, poliomyelitis is a disease that attacks the nerve cells of the spinal cord, causing muscle wasting, and if severe enough, paralysis and death. It’s transmitted through contaminated food and water or person to person contact. How often do you eat and drink or interact with people throughout your day?

A LOT!

But, the more unbelievable news is that we have ways to prevent so many of these diseases and never ever have to encounter them or witness their destructive nature. Like ever. Following our polio example, there are two types of polio vaccines currently: IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine) and OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine). As it is discussed by The WHO, the IPV vaccine has a killed wild type strain of polio in it that is administered through an injection. With the introduction of the IPV vaccine, polio has been eradicated in many countries and there is evidence to suggest that IPV may successfully inhibit community transmission of poliovirus. The sister vaccine, OPV, is a mixture of three live attenuated poliovirus strains that’s administered orally. Because this vaccine does contain live strains there is an extremely rare chance that the attenuated virus may be able to mutate across generations and cause disease. But, even with this chance, the benefits of any vaccine far outweighs the risks. In the United States we haven’t used the OPV vaccine since 2000, but it is still being used in developing countries.

An article by Vax Before Travel discusses The WHO Emergency Committee’s 23rd meeting surrounding the outbreaks of polio in various countries. Apparently, the committee is very concerned with the number of recent outbreaks of polio, as it is up to 113 cases in 2019 compared to the 28 cases in the same period in 2018. The risk of disease has been increased by weak routine immunization, lack of access, and population movement. We need to continue spreading awareness of diseases and their vaccines until they are fully eradicated. We came so close to wiping this diseases off the face of the Earth, but then we got comfortable about where we were and started slacking. All diseases need is one foot in the door to come back stronger than they were before. We can’t let this happen!

I don’t want polio, you don’t want polio, polio is a no go all around.

Everyone knows fad diets aren’t good for you. Well, here I have something for you that’s way worse than those – the antivaxxination movement. It’s spreading and picking up force as it travels to all of the gullible Internet users, which is like most of society. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, information in today’s tech-savvy world spreads like bacteria, even if it’s not necessarily true. Also, NEWS FLASH not everything you read on the internet is true. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. Side note put aside, the attitudes surrounding vaccines need to be quickly set right by spreading the FACTS. People are doubtful of vaccines’ safety and effectiveness because of the talk going around lately and are choosing to ignore all the good they’ve been told about vaccines ever. All it takes is one wrong pull of the block to make the entire Jenga tower come crashing down. And by block, I mean vaccine misinformation.

The good news is that social media companies are working with The CDC and The WHO to stop the spread of misinformation. An statement by The WHO director general himself informs the public how they welcome the commitment by Facebook to redirect its users to accurate and reliable vaccine information on the WHO’s website. Let’s face it, how many of us turn to social media as our main news source? When you feel a weird tickle in the back of your throat what’s the first thing you do? You go right ahead and type it into your google search bar to let web.md diagnose you and come to the conclusion that you have cancer. The Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wants social media companies to come together and utilize their reach to make it more well known that vaccines work.

But wait, there’s more

On the other hand, good things are indeed still happening with vaccines. With further research and developing technologies we are getting increasingly better at creating more efficient vaccines in less time. Just yesterday, a San Diego lab created an experimental vaccine for the corona virus in three hours, as CBS news reports. Despite the disclaimer that it will have to undergo months of testing, there is hope of slowing down the novel virus, COVID-19, that has already killed at least 1,370 people worldwide.

Vaccines have saved wayyyyy more people in history than they have ever been blamed for hurting. For a little bit, there was a time when we had eradicated some diseases in specific areas. Like wow! Go science! But then we got too comfortable in our herd immunity bubble and now they’re back. SO VACCINATE YO KIDS.

So as it turns out, not all bacteria are harmful! We actually have a crap ton of them living in our gut all the time and need them to perform normal daily processes like digesting food and extracting energy from it. They like us because they get a place to live, and we like them because they keep us healthy – its mutualism. The mix you have can even influence your figure and can make you predisposed for being slim or thiccc.

The more ya know, right?

Tummy Aching?

A healthy microbiome is one that is extremely diverse, just like what a healthy forest looks like. You would expect a forest to have lots of different kinds of trees all living densely together and teeming with life. The same goes for your gut microbiome. So what happens when your forest gets clear cut? Or when it’s selectively harvested by antibiotics? Well you can experience a range from some mild discomfort to the whole “Bridesmaids” movie catastrophe. You know the scene I’m talking about.

A page by The Clevelands Clinic explains how many people who take antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection may experience an addition of an upset stomach to their symptoms list. Worst case scenario, people may develop a severe Clostridioides difficile infection that causes colitis, or inflammation of the colon. Ouch. While they were trying to kill off other pathogens they wiped out the healthy microbiota in their gut as well, leaving them susceptible for Clostridioides difficile to come in and set up shop.

So like, how do we get better from anything without making ourselves sicker?

You should be Pro Probiotics

Probiotics are a supplemental form of the microbiota living in your gut and they can have a number of health enhancing benefits, including prevention for some diseases evident in a variety of age groups. An article by The National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health outlines a few recent studies that have been conducted to explore the link between probiotics, our microbiomes, and disease. For example, they explored the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhea, including that caused by Clostridium difficile bacteria, and the analysis of 31 studies concluded it is moderately certain probiotics reduce the risk of diarrhea in patients taking antibiotics. Whew! Isn’t that good to know. Probiotics are also very helpful in supporting the microbiome of babies. When infants are born, they start with a clear cut forest, and it takes them about three years to plant, grow, and cultivate a strong and lively ecosystem. This leaves them extremely susceptible to disease over the first three years of their lives. It has been found that babies with colic, a disease that makes them cry a lot a lot, have differences in their microbial community compared with babies that don’t. A review with 471 participants found that a Lactobacillus reuteri DSM 17938 probiotic was associated with successful treatment for colic in infants. Music to tired mamas ears!

Probiotics can also just be taken for people who are relatively healthy to enhance their digestive and immune systems along with helping your body recover from a disturbance. So when you go to pick up your vitamins, immune gummies, and melatonin why not add a probiotic to the list?

What is it?

You know what the common symptoms of the flu are. It comes around right about the time that my tan fades and we start having more “girls nights in” than “girls nights out”. It starts with the “oh crap, I feel very, not good” which quickly turns into “oh crap, I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck”, along with the fever, aches, and runny nose. But what actually causes all the bad vibes? Well, there are four types of influenza virus A, B, C, and D, of which usually only A and B end up making you sick. They each have certain surface proteins that enable them to bind to your cells, and once they do your body holds nothing back in trying to shake them off. Your immune response is actually where most of your symptoms come from.

How does it change every year?

According to The CDC the influenza virus mutates each year by two methods: antigenic drift and shift. Antigenic drift is when there are small mutations in the genes that lead to changes in their surface proteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). These are what trigger an immune response in humans; so therefore, as they change over time the immune system’s memory cells won’t match up anymore. The second method is known as antigenic shift. A shift is an abrupt and major change in the influenza A virus that results in completely new HA and NA surface proteins on the virus. An example of a shift would be when an animal influenza strain gains the ability to infect humans. Usually when this happens, humans have no immunity to the radically new strain. Antigenic shifts have a more intense effect on humans due to the lack of immunity.

What is the effectiveness of this year’s vaccine?

The exact effectiveness of this year’s vaccine is not known right now as we are currently still in flu season, but according to The American Academy of Pediatrics the vaccine has been updated based on data from previous years to better match this season’s most virulent strains. In previous seasons, a decline in the effectiveness of the vaccine to influenza A(H3N2) viruses had been observed; and therefore, The World Health Organization updated their recommendation based on this information and the evidence of antigenic drift. Updates were made in the A(H1N1)pdm09 component as well as the A(H3N2) component for the Northern Hemisphere 2019-2020 influenza vaccine composition recommendation.

Regardless of just how effective the vaccine this, even a low effectiveness does not discredit the importance of receiving a vaccine. Even little immunity is better than no immunity at all. It has been proven that those who received the vaccine and still got the flu had signs and symptoms of less severity than those who did not receive a vaccine. So go get yo wife, yo kids, yo friends, and yoself vaccinated anyways.

Information released by the Center For Disease Control has identified the novel corona virus as the 2019-nCoV strain. Symptoms can include fever, cough, and shortness of breath, which during the cold and flu season, may be easily mistaken for other illnesses. The CDC believes the virus has a variable incubation time ranging from two days to two weeks. This means that a person may be infected and unknowingly spreading the disease to others for an extended period of time. This is a long and dangerous time in the world of viruses which spread quickly.

Most human coronaviruses are transmitted via the respiratory route when droplet nuclei are introduced to the air by an infected person’s coughing and sneezing. It can also be transmitted from direct person to person contact and via fomites. The disease is zoonotic, meaning it is carried by animals and it is rare were they infect humans. The first infection was animal to human but now human to human transmission is rampant. There is also currently no antiviral treatment for the disease.

The New York Times has released updated statistics and information on the situation as it is becoming a global crisis. The coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China but has now spread to nineteen countries outside mainland china and its territories. Countries near the outbreak without any reported cases are also taking precautions to prevent the spread of disease. Many have barred entry from china and shut down its borders including Singapore, Mongolia, and Russia, as The New York Times reports. The United States Sate Department has advised Americans not to travel to China. More than 200 people have died from the virus and increasing with about 9,800 infections confirmed.

Mass media has even made intentional effort to block false content surrounding the virus including false cures or posts that confuse about health resources available. This is extremely beneficial to society because most will believe anything they read or see on the internet and take it as fact. As a society we need to be working together to combat this viral disease and take all of the necessary precautions to prevent its spread.

The Crap

It’s amazing what catastrophe one fraudulent article can bring to a society in a world where information spreads like bacteria. People are so quick to believe anything they see or hear, especially if it comes from a respected and esteemed scientist. And why should they not? Scientists who publish their papers have an ethical responsibility to ensure the information they share is sound, professional, and true. But, what we have come to find out is that the information Andrew Wakefield published about the MMR (Mumps, Measles, and Rubella) vaccine and its link to autism is neither sound, professional, nor true.

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield, a British scientist, published a scientific research article fraudulently linking autism to the MMR vaccine when there was insufficient evidence to claim causation. An article by the Indian Journal of Psychiatry explains in depth all of the lies Wakefield deceived people into believing and just how unethically he conducted his research. To begin, Wakefield concluded his research on an extremely small sample size of only twelve children, which he selectively chose to best suit his claim. Also, it is now known that Wakefield’s research was funded by lawyers hired by parents suing vaccine producing companies. Um, hellooo bias. Wakefield deliberately published a fraudulent article for his own financial gain, completely disregarding the impact it would have on children and families globally. Since its publication twenty-two years ago, the article has been refuted by scientists and organizations all over the world (and even retracted by 10/12 of its own authors and the publishing journal), but yet parents are scared to vaccinate their kids. They would rather put them at risk for MMR than give them the life saving vaccine, all out of belief that they’re doing what’s best for their children.

The Impact

According to information from Time Magazine, it took twelve years for the fraudulent article to be officially retracted and nearly two decades for the United Kingdom’s immunization rates to recover after the initial publication. During those two decades, families in the UK experienced more than 12,000 cases of measles and at least three deaths. Measles had been declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, but in the aftermath of the Wakefield scandal, there has been a resurgence of it (with more than 2,216 reported cases). Wakefield continued to campaign against vaccination in his film, Vaxxed, which was released to independent theaters in Europe and America in 2016. After the film was released there was a four fold increase in measles cases and 35 deaths in Europe the following year.

The anti-vaxx movement has been trending all over the media lately and many people have been blindly believing what they see. The media does not do well with properly displaying the truth and informing society. So many are too quick to publish a “hot piece” that they don’t consider the implications of what they’re conveying. The truth may not be as flashy or shocking as the stories they want to tell, so they distort it into lies for society to soak up. But the fact of the matter is that vaccines do save lives and the trendiness of being anti-vax is destroying the health of our societies and putting others who rely on herd-immunity at risk. And that’s the tea sis.

Hello!

Welcome to the bloggiepoo.

Don’t forget who you are and what you represent! Be yourself, everyone else is taken. Be who you wanna be, Barbie Girl. Drink coffee like a Gilmore girl. Easy, breezy, beautiful, covergirl. Maybe it’s maybelline?

Peace out Girl Scouts 🙂