Return of the Whoop! The Resurgence ofPertussis Part I- The History of Whooping

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Return of the Whoop! The Resurgence ofPertussis

Part I- The History of Whooping Cough The year was 1893, and Pearl Kendrick was a young gidl growing up in Wheaton, Illinois, when she contracied whooping cough g cough, or pertussis, as it is sometimes called, is an illness that dates back to the year 1540. The first n France in 1578. It is a respiratory illness that is transmitted from one person to another ness begins as a mild respiratory infection, progresses to a cough, develops into re symptoms finally wane over weeks to months (duration ypically 6-10 weeks) through acrosol droplets. The ill paroxysms of cough (whoop) befor Pearl Kendrick was one of the lucky survivors. She recovered completely from an illness that during the e daimed more lives than meules, scarlt fever, twberculosis, diphthetia, and polio combined. Pearl never forgot the illness (Shapiro-Shapin, 2010) Although a continent away, she followed with great interest the news of two French scientists, Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou, and their work isolating the microbe that causes the "whooping cough," Bordetella pertussir Pearl developed as a woman, a scientist, and a researcher. She ultimately began her own study into the organism, Bor- detella pertussis. She studied the disease of pertussis. She remembered how you could feel fine with only sneezing, low fever, and slight cough, and then within several days you would begin "whooping" and be unable to take in any air In the year 1943, over 40 years later, Pearl with the help of her partner, Grace Eldering, formulated the first vaccine to combat Borderella pertussis. This was accomplished while Pearl Kendrick was the director of the Western Michigan Branch Laboratory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Massive vaccination implementation decreased the cases of pertussis more that 80% ofwhat they had been in the pre-vaccine era (Garrett, 2006) Refer to Figure 1 and fast forward to the year 2013 and the cases of pertussis have tripled since the 1980s. As of the yea 2012, 48,277 cases were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). So why is this vaccine- preventable disease on the rise? Reported pertussis incidence by age group:1990-2013* 140 120 80 GO 40 20 7-10 ?? 1990 1995 2000 2005 2013 Year Figure 1. Graph showing the gradual increase in incidence of perrussis by ag group. (Soure: CDC, htp//www.cdc-goxlpertussis/surv-reporting.html.) Question 1. Provide a description for whooping cough. Include symptoms, mechanism, duration, and recovery in your description Page 2 Renurn of the Whoop" by Lynn B. DeSanto

Explanation / Answer

Answer 1.

Whooping cough or pertussis is an air borne respiratory disease which is caused by Bordetella pertussis. The illnes begins as a mild breathing discomfort like sneezing, low fever, and after several days of incubation whooping cough appears. The infected person has difficulty in breathing. Symtoms disappear within 6-10 weeks.Vaccination is the effective and lasting way of preventing the disease. It has decreased the magnitude of the disease by 80%.

Answer 2.

Gram negative organism are those bacteria which do not retain gram's stain (crystal violet). Gram staining is a differential staining technique which distinguishes between gram positive and gram negative bacteria.

The strucure of cell wall of gram negative bacteria have many components which help it in causing the infection. These include filamentous haemogluttin which makes adherence to ciliated cells easier. Pertactin helps in the attachment of bacteria to airways of lungs. Apart from that these also release toxins like pertusis toxin and trachael toxin. The former prevents phagocytic activity while the latter causes paralysis of ciliated cells.Adenylate cyclase also causes disruption of phagocytic activity and initiation of infection. It is a cell membrane bound enzyme in the infectious agents.

Answer 3.

Bordetella pertussis is a gram negative pathogenic bacteria which is nutritionally fastidicious in nature. It cannot be grown in a normal laboratory as it causes infection. It is grown in Biosafety Laboratory Level-3 (BSL-3) which have proper ways and means of handling pathogenic organisms.

Answer 4.

Methods to evaluate Bordetella pertussis

1. Microbiological methods: These methods rely on the growth of bacteria in petri dishes and their visual inspection. here the colony morphology, color, elevation and smoothness are taken into consideration.

2. Biochemical methods: They rely on the biochemical reactions of bacteria like gram staining, methylene blue staining and indian ink etc.

3. Molecular methods: These rely on the molecular makeup of the bacteria .PCR is the most sensitive molecular method. It uses speficic primers and amplifies the DNA of pathogenic bacteria.

4. Immunological methods; These employ antibodies specific to the surface antigen of microbe. Flourescent labelled antibody provide visual inspection of the presence of microbe.

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