Infectious Diseases and Their Control - Past , Present , and Future
نویسنده
چکیده
Recent History of Viral Hepatitis Michael L. Alkan, Medical School for International Health For a long period of time, it was believed that viral hepatitis had two faces. One came in outbreaks, with a short incubation period and a relatively mild clinical course, without any sequelae. The other form was sporadic, prolonged, and followed by severe liver damage. During World War II, many soldiers who received plasma transfusions suffered from the latter form, justifying the name “Serum Hepatitis”. Pediatrician Dr. Saul Krugman observed that in his patients, who were all children with special needs hospitalized at the Willow Brook Institution, both forms of hepatitis were common. He started a research project, and deliberately infected the children with both types of the disease, ascertaining that they were two distinct diseases, caused by two different viruses. Dr. Baruch Blumberg, a geneticist, tried to identify different human races by their blood proteins, using as antibodies serum from multi-transfused subjects. He got a positive result with the blood of an Australian Aborigine, and named it “Australian Antigen”. This antigen was found by Krugman to correlate with severe hepatitis rather than with Australians, giving us a diagnostic tool for this type of hepatitis, from then on called Hepatitis B. The road to the development of a vaccine was now open. The detection of viral particles in the feces of American GIs in Formosa who developed mild hepatitis lead to the availability of both a diagnostic test as well as a Vaccine against this type of hepatitis, called Hepatitis A. Sophisticated RNA studies defined the cluster of “Non-Anon-B” cases as a different virus, named Hepatitis C, for which we do not have a vaccine yet. Conclusion: In the 20 century, viral hepatitis has become a vaccine-preventable disease through research which is coined “Unethical” in the 21 century.
منابع مشابه
Commentary: “Rabies in Iranian Traditional Medicine” & Reply to Commentary on “Rabies in Iran: Past, Present and Future”
متن کامل
Mizaj past, present and future
Temperament (Mizaj), as an individual factor, has great importance in traditional medicine and its use in diagnosis and treatment of diseases, as well as the individual lifestyle is very common. Since medicine moves toward Personalized Medicine, the root of individual differences will find its position in different aspects of medicine in early future. In traditional medicine, temperament is ...
متن کاملRabies in Iran: Past, Present and Future
Introduction : Rabies is a disease that has been known since antiquity. It is a highly fatal acute disease of the central nervous system caused by a lyssavirus. Prior to the discovery of the rabies vaccine, rabies-infected individuals fell victim to the delusions and superstitions associated with this disease. Though it has been neglected in many regions of the world, rabies remains one ...
متن کاملCombating Hepatitis C (HCV): A Review of Present & Future Perspectives
Abstract: Over the past few decades, the race against the treatment strategies of infectious HCV has gained a lot of momentum. These treatments include several therapies like Ribavirin, INF-α, DAA based pro-drugs, vaccines, and even naturally occurring compounds like herbal extracts as well as scorpion venom. All of these drugs have their specialized techniques and methodologies of administrati...
متن کاملA study of the status of the elderly; bacterial infections, their causes, prevention, and control methods
Background: On the 26th anniversary of the International Day of Older Persons in 2015 with the slogan "the elderly, advocates of dynamism, growth, and the youth of the population", 12% (900 million individuals) of the world population were above 65 years of age. It is estimated that this rate will reach 22% (2 milliard individuals) by 2050. The purpose of the present study was to dete...
متن کاملEnteric redmouth disease: Past, present and future: A review
Enteric red mouth disease (also known as Yersiniosis) is one of the most significant bacterial infections in coldwater fish farms that cause significant mortalities and economical losses in the salmonids fish farms, especially in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). ERM is caused by the gram negative pathogen bacteria Yersinia ruckeri that has five O-serotypes (O1, O2, O5, O6 and O7), five oute...
متن کامل