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Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and muscle cramps may also occur. Diarrhea can be so severe that it leads within hours to severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. This may result in sunken eyes, cold skin, decreased skin elasticity, and wrinkling of the hands and feet. Dehydration can cause the skin to turn bluish. Symptoms start two hours to five days after exposure.
Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus Escherichia that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms. Most E. coli strains are harmless, but some serotypes (EPEC, ETEC etc.) can cause serious food poisoning in their hosts, and are occasionally responsible for food contamination incidents that prompt product recalls. Most strains do not cause disease in humans and are part of the normal microbiota of the gut; such strains are harmless or even beneficial to humans (although these strains tend to be less studied than the pathogenic ones). For example, some strains of E. coli benefit their hosts by producing vitamin K2 or by preventing the colonization of the intestine by pathogenic bacteria. These mutually beneficial relationships between E. coli and humans are a type of mutualistic biological relationship — where both the humans and the E. coli are benefitting each other. E. coli is expelled into the environment within fecal matter. The bacterium grows massively in fresh faecal matter under aerobic conditions for three days, but its numbers decline slowly afterwards.
Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea or diarrhœa, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin with loss of the normal stretchiness of the skin and irritable behaviour. This can progress to decreased urination, loss of skin color, a fast heart rate, and a decrease in responsiveness as it becomes more severe. Loose but non-watery stools in babies who are exclusively breastfed, however, are normal.
Shigellosis is an infection of the intestines caused by Shigella bacteria. Symptoms generally start one to two days after exposure and include diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and feeling the need to pass stools even when the bowels are empty. The diarrhea may be bloody. Symptoms typically last five to seven days and it may take several months before bowel habits return entirely to normal. Complications can include reactive arthritis, sepsis, seizures, and hemolytic uremic syndrome.
Shigella is a genus of bacteria that is Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, non-spore-forming, nonmotile, rod-shaped, and genetically closely related to E. coli. The genus is named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who first discovered it in 1897.
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis or the 100-day cough, is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable bacterial disease. Initial symptoms are usually similar to those of the common cold with a runny nose, fever, and mild cough, but these are followed by two or three months of severe coughing fits. Following a fit of coughing, a high-pitched whoop sound or gasp may occur as the person breathes in. The violent coughing may last for 10 or more weeks, hence the phrase "100-day cough". A person may cough so hard that they vomit, break ribs, or become very tired from the effort. Children less than one year old may have little or no cough and instead have periods where they cannot breathe. The time between infection and the onset of symptoms is usually seven to ten days. Disease may occur in those who have been vaccinated, but symptoms are typically milder.
Gastroenteritis, also known as infectious diarrhea and gastro, is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract including the stomach and intestine. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Fever, lack of energy, and dehydration may also occur. This typically lasts less than two weeks. It is not related to influenza, even though in the U.S. it is sometimes called the "stomach flu".
Travelers' diarrhea (TD) is a stomach and intestinal infection. TD is defined as the passage of unformed stool while traveling. It may be accompanied by abdominal cramps, nausea, fever, headache and bloating. Occasionally bloody diarrhea may occur. Most travelers recover within three to four days with little or no treatment. About 12% of people may have symptoms for a week.
Global health is the health of the populations in the worldwide context; it has been defined as "the area of study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide". Problems that transcend national borders or have a global political and economic impact are often emphasized. Thus, global health is about worldwide health improvement, reduction of disparities, and protection against global threats that disregard national borders, including the most common causes of human death and years of life lost from a global perspective.
Meningococcal disease describes infections caused by the bacterium Neisseria meningitidis. It has a high mortality rate if untreated but is vaccine-preventable. While best known as a cause of meningitis, it can also result in sepsis, which is an even more damaging and dangerous condition. Meningitis and meningococcemia are major causes of illness, death, and disability in both developed and under-developed countries.
Paratyphoid fever, also known simply as paratyphoid, is a bacterial infection caused by one of three types of Salmonella enterica. Symptoms usually begin 6–30 days after exposure and are the same as those of typhoid fever. Often, a gradual onset of a high fever occurs over several days. Weakness, loss of appetite, and headaches also commonly occur. Some people develop a skin rash with rose-colored spots. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Other people may carry the bacteria without being affected; however, they are still able to spread the disease to others. Typhoid and paratyphoid are of similar severity. Paratyphoid and typhoid fever are types of enteric fever.
The discovery of disease-causing pathogens is an important activity in the field of medical science. Many viruses, bacteria, protozoa, fungi, helminthes and prions are identified as a confirmed or potential pathogen. In the United States, a Centers for Disease Control program, begun in 1995, identified over a hundred patients with life-threatening illnesses that were considered to be of an infectious cause, but that could not be linked to a known pathogen. The association of pathogens with disease can be a complex and controversial process, in some cases requiring decades or even centuries to achieve.
The Global Coalition Against Child Pneumonia exists to raise global awareness about the deadly toll of the number 1 killer of children - pneumonia. Every year 155 million children under 5 get sick and 1.6 million lose their lives to pneumonia, more than all child deaths combined from AIDS, malaria and measles. Almost all of these child deaths occur in developing countries with most concentrated in just seven - India, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
IOMAI was a Biotech company founded in 1997 by Gregory Glenn M.D. of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Dean Lewis, a World Bank employee. The company was the first to develop the concept of transcutaneous immunization, delivery of vaccines to the skin using a patch or similar method. This provided a means to stimulate robust immune responses safely as the skin patch-based immunization targeted Langerhans cells in the skin. The patch technology underwent extensive evaluation in the context of a traveler's diarrhea vaccine which entered Phase 3 pivotal trials in 2009. IOMAI was acquired by Intercell in 2008 and the technology was the subject of a development license to GSK in 2009. Dr. Glenn pioneered needle free delivery to the skin and spawned general interest in skin-targeting vaccine technologies, including intradermal delivery and the use of the heat labile toxin as an adjuvant and the adjuvant patch.
Escherichia coli is a gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that is commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms (endotherms). Most E. coli strains are harmless, but pathogenic varieties cause serious food poisoning, septic shock, meningitis, or urinary tract infections in humans. Unlike normal flora E. coli, the pathogenic varieties produce toxins and other virulence factors that enable them to reside in parts of the body normally not inhabited by E. coli, and to damage host cells. These pathogenic traits are encoded by virulence genes carried only by the pathogens.
Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli are a pathotype of Escherichia coli which cause acute and chronic diarrhea in both the developed and developing world. They may also cause urinary tract infections. EAEC are defined by their "stacked-brick" pattern of adhesion to the human laryngeal epithelial cell line HEp-2. The pathogenesis of EAEC involves the aggregation of and adherence of the bacteria to the intestinal mucosa, where they elaborate enterotoxins and cytotoxins that damage host cells and induce inflammation that results in diarrhea.
Firdausi Qadri is a Bangladeshi scientist with specialization in immunology and infectious disease research. She has worked over 25 years on the development of vaccines for cholera and has expertise on other infectious disease like ETEC, Typhoid, Helicobacter pylori, rotavirus, etc. Currently, she is working as a director for Centre for Vaccine Sciences of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). She also serves as chairperson of the Institute for developing Science and Health initiatives. Her scientific achievements lie in enteric infections and vaccines including Vibrio cholerae and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli—major causes of severe diarrhea. She has also focused on studying the immune response in Helicobacter pylori infected people in Bangladesh and the responses in patients with typhoid fever as well as vaccinees. The Government of Bangladesh awarded her the Independence Award in 2023.
Hilleman Laboratories is a Delhi-based vaccine research organization. The firm is an equal-joint venture between US drug maker Merck & Co Inc and British charitable foundation Wellcome Trust. The research firm is named in the honour of Dr. Maurice Ralph Hilleman (1919–2005).
Jan Roland Holmgren is a Swedish physician, microbiologist, immunologist, and vaccinologist, known for his research on cholera and mucosal immunology, specifically, for his leadership in developing "the world's first effective oral cholera vaccine".
References
- 1 2 3 Bourgeois, A Louis; Wierzba, Thomas F; Walker, Richard I (2016). "Status of vaccine research and development for enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli". Vaccine. 34 (26): 2880–2886. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2016.02.076 . PMID 26988259.
- 1 2 3 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014). "Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC)".
- ↑ Lozano, Rafael; Naghavi, Mohsen; Foreman, Kyle; et al. (2012). "Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010". The Lancet. 380 (9859): 2095–2128. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)61728-0. hdl: 10536/DRO/DU:30050819 . PMID 23245604. S2CID 1541253.
- ↑ Gupta, SK; Keck J; Ram PK; et al. (2008). "Analysis of Data Gaps Pertaining to Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Infections in Low and Medium Human Development Index Countries, 1984-2005". Epidemiology and Infection. 136 (6): 721–738. doi:10.1017/S095026880700934X. PMC 2870873 . PMID 17686197.
- ↑ Kotloff, Karen L; Nataro, James P; Blackwelder, William C; et al. (2013). "Burden and aetiology of diarrhoeal disease in infants and young children in developing countries (the Global Enteric Multicenter Study, GEMS): a prospective, case-control study". The Lancet. 382 (9888): 209–222. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(13)60844-2. PMID 23680352. S2CID 205969172.
- ↑ Qadri, F.; Svennerholm, A. M.; Faruque, A. S. G.; Bradley Sack, R. (2005). "Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in Developing Countries: Epidemiology, Microbiology, Clinical Features, Treatment, and Prevention". Clinical Microbiology Reviews. 18 (3): 465–483. doi:10.1128/CMR.18.3.465-483.2005. PMC 1195967 . PMID 16020685.
- ↑ "WHO vaccine pipeline tracker". World Health Organization. Archived from the original on March 22, 2016. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
- ↑ Girard, M.; Steele, D.; Chaignat, C. L.; Kieny, M. P. (2006). "A review of vaccine research and development: human enteric infections". Vaccine. 24 (15): 2732–2750. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2005.10.014. PMID 16483695.
- ↑ PATH, bvgh (March 2011). "The Case for Investment in Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli Vaccines" (PDF). Retrieved 2 May 2012.
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