You are a biologist working for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta
ID: 81419 • Letter: Y
Question
You are a biologist working for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. You are working in the Special Pathogens Branch of the CDC where you and your colleagues study highly infectious viruses. Your daily work involves the investigation of viruses that cause several hemorrhagic (profuse bleeding) fevers, such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever, and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and other recently identified and emerging viral diseases, such as Nipah virus encephalitis. Describe several immunological diagnostic toots that may be used to aid in the specific identification of these viral pathogens by your team. Your Special Pathogens team Just received a call from a physician in Angola. She reported that at least one hundred people have become ill and are dying from a mysterious infection. Their symptoms include fever, vomiting, cough, diarrhea, and in some cases bleeding. The infection is highly contagious but she is unsure of exactly how it is transmitted. With no time to lose, your team packs up the necessary supplies including the mobile lab which has facilities for routine hematologic and biochemical studies, as well as for basic bacteriologic investigations, Serodiagnostic tests, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), and RNA tests can be performed here as well. You carefully to pack your Biosafety Level 4 suits (as seen in the photos on the website) to protect you from exposure to airborne pathogens. Your team flies out the next morning for Angola. What challenges will your team face in Angola? Upon arrival, what immediate actions will your team take to manage the outbreak? Five days have passed since you landed in Angola. The situation is devastating. Hundreds of people are side and many have died. In the villages temporary hospitals have been made out of tents. But even the caregivers (families and friends) are frightened to get too dose to the patients to give them food and water. You have seen many patients and they all have the same symptoms; fever, diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. The disease seems to spread most rapidly in families Irving dose together. You decide to send a blood sample from one of the victims for analysts at Americo Boa Vista Hospital in the capital city of Luanda. What immunoglobulins or other molecules would you expect to find in a healthy blood sample? What about in an infected blood sample? What Information about the immunological course of the disease can the scientists get from the blood sample? (s it possible to diagnose a disease based on the blood sample? How?Explanation / Answer
1.
Viral Haemorrhagic Fever such as Crimean-Congo, Ebola, Lassa, Hanta and Nipah are investigated commonly by these diagnostic tools:
Nucleic acid investigation such as real time quantitative PCR is the most modern one.
Sequence specific RNA marker detection by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)
visualization and characterisation of viral particles by electron microscopy followed by culture in BSL4 lab.
Besides the above tests several immunological diagnostic tools are:
Rapid Diagnostic Kit RD kits detection etc.
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
Time resolves florometric immunoassay
Counter-current immunoelectrophoresis
Electrochemiluminosence assay
Precipitin test
Heamaglutination test
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