Author: mollieag

Today we are going to talk about Omalizumab. So this is it, the last post on this long journey into the microbiology world. And I mean we have talked about a lot we’ve talked about our favorite topics, vaccines, to go going epidemics in other parts of the world to the ongoing epidemic that is happening in our very lives today. Our last topic has to do with antibodies. But not just any, we are going to talk about monoclonal antibodies. What is this you ask? Well deep breaths I’ll explain and I’ll even talk to you about a specific one and what it does to you.

So what exactly are Monoclonal Antibodies?

From our previous conversations we know that our body makes its own antibodies right? We’ve talked about IgM and IgG specifically but we also mentioned how there is a IgD, IgE and IgA. All of which respond in their own way in the body providing protection against invaders. But we also know how technology is always changing and because of so scientists can now do many things. According the Medicinenet, scientists can now make antibodies similar to those made body and can even make them act in similar ways of the antibodies in the body. The way they do this is clone immune cells and make those clones produce antibodies. These antibodies then bind to one antigen. This is why they are called monoclonal because they bind to one antigen. Now there are such things are polyclonal antibodies which are clones of multiple immune cells that synthesize antibodies and these antibodies can bind to multiple antigens. But today we will just focus on monoclonal antibodies. Next, we are going to talk about a drug that works by having monoclonal antibodies.

Omalizumab

Aka it’s brand name, Xolair. In general (via Wikipedia) this drug works to reduce allergic sensitivities and can also be used to control severe allergic asthma that is hard to control with other treatments such as corticosteroids. So essentially this drug helps people’s allergies chill out when they start to go crazy. And we will discuss how it does this. So how does it really work? So we have to start by talking about how our immune response works to be able to talk about how this drug works to counter that reaction.

Allergic Reactions

When an invader enters the body there are many paths that can happen in response to said invader entering the body. One of these paths is that the invader is taken up by APCs which are Antigen presenting cells. APCs then take the antigen and show it to T-Cells which helps activate T-Cells who then go along to activate B-Cells. When B-Cells are activated they differentiate into plasma cells. These plasma cells undergo a thing called class switching and affinity maturation where they become better cells with stronger receptors to bind to, also during this process they are told which antibody they are supposed to produce and release. When there is an antigen that is classified as an allergen B-Cells are told to make IgE. When IgE is released they then go to bind onto IgE receptors on other cells, such as basophils and mast cells. When they bind they cause the mast cells to activate and release histamine. This release of histamine is what causes your normal side effect in allergic reactions, such as hives that cause the redness, itching, burning or stinging. Like we learned in class the activation and actions of B-Cells are part of the immune system that requires more specific responses meaning that this is a part of the acquired immune system because of all of the activation signaling. (Information from Lecture, The textbook and the NCBI)

Our Drug

So now we know exactly how our body responds to an allergen we can fully understand how our drug works. So for our drug to lower allergic reactions according to the Indian Journal of Dermatology, our drug works against IgE. Which we know makes this sense because IgE causes the release of Histamine which causes our severe allergic reaction. So working against IgE makes sense. In order to do this it works by binding to free IgE. Our drug has a greater affinity of binding IgE than IgE does to binding to other cells. Meaning it’s easier for our drug to bind and holds on tighter to IgE than IgE would with other cells. Now our drug doesn’t bind to IgE that is already bound to other cells, but only free IgE. Which makes sense when like you think about it because the drug doesn’t stop an allergic reaction just reduces the severity of it. So to reduce the severity if we reduce the amount of IgE that can bind we can reduce the amount of histamine that will be released. This drug works by interacting with the products of the acquired immune system when it interacts with free IgE floating around.

Other sources such as medicinenet, says that our drug works by binding to the receptors on the cells that IgE would bind to instead of the IgE itself. Either way it’s lowering/preventing the chemicals that would be released by the cells activated by IgE.

The Down Side

According to medicinenet the side effects are as follows:

• Headaches
• Viral Infections
• Upper Respiratory Tract Infections
• Injection-site reactions such as:
  • Pain
  • Redness
  • Swelling
  • Itching
  • Bruising
• More Serious Side Effects include:
  • Difficulty breathing
  • Fainting
  • Low Blood Pressure
  • Swelling of the Tongue

They also reported that taking this drug made patients more susceptible to cancer.

So yeah that’s about everything. I know this blog was a lot longer than usual but it does give a lot of information. Information which could be helpful if you have severe asthma/allergic reactions. And if not then at least you have…jeopardy knowledge. I hope you have learned a thing or two throughout our microbiology journey. I know I have. If you have made it this far, thanks for reading!

So we have already talked about most of the epidemics that are going on we’ve talked about the flu, we’ve talked about COVID, and we have even talked about the Ebola outbreak in Congo. So what else is there to cover? There is another outbreak that is occurring and it is an outbreak of meningitis. The location for this outbreak? Ghana. According to an article from Modern Ghana, the outbreak is a new serotype that has never been seen before. If you don’t know serotype is just a different way of saying strain. So like you know how you have to get the flu shot each year? It’s because there are different strains of the flu circulating, adapting, and changing. This is also what has happened with COVID. If you look close enough at your lysol can and what it can and can’t kill you probably will be surprised to see that it kills coronavirus. So like how can they say that when it just started coming about? Well actually the coronavirus has been around a long time it’s just that the cause of this pandemic is a typically violent strain that has evolved from what we would normally see, but not actually see. So that is what is happening now in Ghana with their Meningitis outbreak, it’s a new strain that is particularly violent and they don’t have many defenses against it at the moment.

Meningitis is an inflammation of the tissue that covers your brain and spinal cord. Both of which are pretty important for your body so an inflammation can be very important. Just yesterday there was a press release where they declared that 258 people had contracted this rare strain of meningitis with 40 deaths in the last thirteen weeks. Since this is a strain that they have never seen before they reported that 70% of people who get infected with this disease die because there is no known vaccine strain. Which is what is happening in the COVID pandemic we are undergoing as well. This can be pretty dangerous because finding a vaccine takes time but we all know that viruses and diseases don’t just sit around a wait just to give scientists more time to find a vaccine. Unfortunately this press release as mentioned how their Government continues to brief the population on the COVID progress but haven’t mentioned much of the Meningitis outbreak, which at the moment is what is killing more people. Honestly this kind of sounds familiar to what our government is doing. We get COVID updates all the time but I don’t ever remember getting Influenza updates and we all know that the flu kills thousands a year but it’s just kind of brushed under the carpet. Which is sadly what it sounds like Ghana is doing with the Meningitis outbreak as well.

A more recent update from Ghanaweb hinted that this outbreak has been going on for a few months now as they report that there have been 409 people who have contracted this disease since February. From their statistics they have calculated that the disease has a 15% fatality rate. Which I mean seems like a small percentage but honestly that can be a pretty large number when you start increase the overall number. I mean think about it like shopping, if you were shopping and you got 15% sales tax instead of 7%. That’s a big difference. So put that into perspective with people, a 15% fatality rate of a disease has the potential of being devastating. Well at least what they have calculated was a 15% rate but later they reported that this serotype was a combination of Neisseria meningitidis serotype X as well as Streptococcus pneumonia which they then says averages to a 40% fatality rate. They did fortunately report that there is effective treatment available but yet no vaccine yet. Circumstances like this are what make it tough on infectious disease doctors when all of their patients are sick and they are working essentially against the clock to create a vaccine, kind of like what our doctors are doing today with COVID.

As I’ve mentioned before, although it doesn’t necessarily feel like it, Corona is not the only virus/disease going around. Places have been struggling with other previous diseases before Ms. Rona showed up and now they are having to deal with both at the same time. I remember when Ebola was all over the news like Corona was. Now of course it didn’t go to the extent that Corona has here but I remember it wreaking havoc in the Eastern hemisphere. I remember seeing nurses in PPE like they are today, except they weren’t here.

Congo

Although I remember Ebola being this big epidemic, what I did not realize is that it is still going on in places. Places like Congo are places that not only have to deal with the Coronavirus like the rest of us but they still have the Ebola virus that they are dealing with. According to an article from Fox, they have been battling this out break for more than 18 months and it has taken the lives of thousands. The article states that not only do they have to deal with the crisis of Ebola, the now crisis of COVIS but also another ongoing crisis of insecurity with their government. They do still have hope though as preventative measures that are used again Ebola are effective against the new Coronavirus. This whole situation just sounds devastating when you don’t even hear about it because it’s like now every country is on it’s own and you only really hear about the really bad developed countries or just the one you live in.

I do think that it is interesting that when you look Ebola up Congo is one of the only countries that shows up with articles on them. I don’t know if this means that Congo is the only place still battling Ebola, but I doubt this is the case. According the an PBS article, there was a time where Congo almost declared the outbreak to be over but then had a new case confirmed just days before. I think it’s sad how they are still dealing with this outbreak from 2018 when the big one happen in 2014-16. I do think it might have to do with the insecurities the country has. This probably why they couldn’t get all the resources needed to help fight them. I also, don’t think this country is well-developed which doesn’t make the outbreaks end any quicker and Ms. Rona making her appearance I’m sure is just adding to the turmoil Congo is already facing with their infrastructure insecurities and Ebola.

It seems like every day, or week, I get on here to talk it’s about Ms. Rona. Well this week will be no different. But maybe this post won’t be as sad as we will be talking about new antibiotic testing for Ms. Corona. So maybe by the end of this discussion we will have a little more hope for the situation we are so unfortunately placed in. But before we talk about antibodies in relation to the coronavirus I need to go over some stuff before so we’re all on the same page. It has to do with the different types of antibodies in your body.

The antibodies inside you

So there are 5 different antibodies inside of you that your body produces in response to different foreign invaders. You have the IgM, IgG, IgA, IgD and IgE. The IgM is made first. If there is a foreign invader or “antigen” within you IgM is made first to be your primary responder. When you have an only IgM antibody titers, or aka antibody test, the test is testing for only the amount of IgM present within your blood. Since, IgM is the first antibody made it doesn’t have time to be specific to every antigen within the body. When you are IgM positive it means that the test recognizes IgM within your blood and that there is a present infection. After your body releases IgM, it starts producing and releasing IgG. IgG is an antibody that is more specific to what invader is invading. So when you get a test for both and you’re positive you have your general and specific fighters meaning that you have an infection going on and your body is fighting and remembering as it has specific antibodies against the attacker now. According to an article from USA today that is explaining what antibody test are for the Coronavirus, IgG show up when the body is clearing up the infection. So for someone who have primarily IgG antibodies it doesn’t necessarily mean you are actively fighting the invader. It means that you have been in contact with the infection, like if it is a latent version or if you have had it previously. Meaning, that you couldn’t necessarily infect others directly or as easily at that moment if you primarily only had IgG antibodies.

Immunity Certificates?

I know that was a lot of information thrown at you and I felt the same way learning about it but just remember you got IgM, the general and the IgG the specific ones. Articles such as the one from Newsweek, talked about the developing tests coming that would be able to test if someone has had the virus. These tests are the antibody tests that we just talked about. The only problem is though is that they don’t truly known a lot about antibodies from COVID. They don’t know how long antibodies produce stick around. They also brought up the idea of having like “immunity certificates” that show that you have had the virus and are somewhat immune to it now and that you would be able to return. I think this is an interesting but also very hard idea to do. Think about the people who get this disease but yet they don’t need to go to the hospital or they don’t even have symptoms so they don’t know they have it. How would they know if they should get this certificate? Would we really have to test every single person in the working force before we allow them to return?

Today’s Testing

So we’ve went over antibodies, we went over the test they are creating to see if you had it. Now we will briefly talk about the tests to see if you have it. Talking to my mother, who is a nurse and has to perform these tests, they sound terrifying. They take this really long cotton swab, go in your nose and all the way to the back of your throat and then swab. Which to me sounds horrifying, painful, awful. According to NewScientist, today they then take that swab and look for genetic sequences that are specific for coronavirus. If the swab has this genetic sequence then they believe the virus is present. Which honestly sounds pretty simple. But they did say that China reported that their tests came back with a lot of false negatives and false positives. Meaning that they weren’t completely accurate but I’m not going to lie I have my suspicions about these because China lied about a lot information about this virus in the beginning. Now I don’t know if that’s true or not but you never really know what’s wrong and what’s right in today’s society. Or at least it seems.

While all of this with Ms. Rona going on, there have been advancing in the medical world in other fields. A new T-cell Therapy that is going through clinical trials has been showing promising results. So I don’t know much about curing cancer other than it’s hard and it’s hard because it’s like your cells just went hay wire growing and are getting angry and not letting your body do it’s thing by getting rid of it itself. I know you can get rid of cancer by either just cutting it out completely and hoping you got all of it and/or going through chemotherapy which tries to eliminate cancer that way by I think shrinking it? Either way I know that fighting cancer is a long, hard and not fun process. There have been new ways coming out to fight cancer like T-cell therapy.

New Trials

According to an article from the New Atlas, there has been a new treatment that is in trials on curing cancer. This treatment is called CAR T-cell therapy and it works by taking immune cells from the patient and treating them to fight the cancer when they are re-entered into the body. There has been previous clinical trials but the most recent focused on a set of patients with late-stage mantle cell lymphoma. A large precent of the patients responded well to the therapy and a little over 60% entered remission because of it. They said that this treatment is good for patients who have relapsed and have limited options. The sad part though is that it has serious side effects, from infection to neurological effects. This treatment is also very expensive. But honestly I’m not surprised because drugs/treatments that seem to be super effective but yet also danger always seems to be super expensive as well. I could understand the danger aspect though because they are literally taking out the bodies’ defense system to “reprogram” it essentially. This can allow different bad things to happen to the body which is most likely why the side effects are so drastic.

According to AJMC, Mantle cell lymphoma is a type of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that typically has poor prognosis. The article also mentions how patients with this type of cancer typically become resistant to chemotherapy. Which is a big deal because this cancer isn’t a type that you can just “cut out” because it’s every where so chemotherapy would be the next step. But then if they become resistant they have no options. Until now of course with the new T-cell therapy but like we said earlier this type of treatment has scary serious side effects and is super expensive. This most likely makes it harder for patients to get because I’m sure they already have a stack of bills from previous attempts of treatment. I don’t think chemotherapy is that cheap either, then this as the last case scenario is definitely pushing it as this is crazy expensive as well. But overall from the multiple types of trials they have ran their results look promising it’s just now the fact of money, resources and the gamble with side effects.

This is what a bored college girl has been saying for the past two weeks now. That bored college girl is me. Sitting in the house all day is not fun but it’s necessary, which I totally understand. But having a best friend who lives at the beach and seeing these rising temperatures is making me crave for this to be over soon. I mean hopefully it would end soon if people would listen and stay inside but we all know that isn’t happening. So what are other ways this could get stopped soon, or if not stopped how can we prevent this from happening? Welp, you got it, it’s our favorite topic! Vaccines!

Trials

According to an article released from the National Institutes of Health, they have started human trials for a vaccine against COVID-19. This trial started in Seattle and included 45 healthy adults who volunteered and the trial will last approximately 6 weeks. The first patient received the vaccine on March 16. The vaccine that is in trial is called the mRNA-1273. The article says that the vaccine works by telling the body cells to express a certain protein that we hope will then cause an immune response. A lot of vaccines work this way by wanting the body to elicit an immune response but they do this in different ways. Some give like a mini version of the disease so the body can go ahead and fight it off so when the body really comes into contact with the disease it will know how to fight it off. I think this was an interesting approach because I’m not a hundred percent sure if I’ve heard of a vaccine wanting to like interact with the mRNA of a body cell. I mean I’m sure it’s possible. I’m just a little concerned though because the way they are wording it, it is as if they are hoping that this happens they don’t really know if it will do this. Like they are hoping the protein will elicit an immune response. I mean I get it you can’t fully know but I don’t know if I would have worded it like this in the report because it can cause doubt.

Other ideas?

The University of Pittsburgh came out with another idea of how to deliver the vaccine, and a new vaccine for COVID. Their vaccine made mice produce SARS-CoV-2 antibodies which they thought were enough to neutralize the virus. Not only did they come up with this virus they came up with a new way of delivery. Their new version of delivery for their vaccine comes in the form of a patch. They described the patch as like the scratchy part of velcro. It has tons of micro-needles on it that will deliver the vaccine. They believe this will be a better way to deliver vaccines as the needles are large enough to draw blood or hit nerves (aka won’t hurt.) I think this is an interesting approach but a little concerning on the effectiveness. I’ve heard a lot that like vaccines have to go through the muscle in order to like really be effective so I’m worried that this delivery will be to surface level to really get into the body to be as effective as it needs to be. But I definitely think there should be more testing done on this to make sure this vaccine and delivery is truly effective.

While everyone is still focusing on the pandemic that is happening with COVID, once again there are still multiple other diseases/infections/viruses that are lethally spreading with nowhere near the same attention as COVID is getting. Today we are going to talk about Tuberculosis. You know the one where you gotta get shots and take multiple trips to the doctor to see if you have it? Okay, well maybe you don’t know but that’s what you have to do to get tested. You have to get like this shot and come back to the doctors in like a week and they check your reaction to the shot you were given and if it is larger than a certain size then you have it. I personally almost had to get this done because to volunteer at the hospital they needed two tests that showed you didn’t have it. But since you have to wait like a week from when you get the shot and then the second test has to be like a week or two after that, I didn’t have enough time to get it done before my application was due.

The Silent Spreader

Recently CNN released an article which discussed how there was a pediatric health care worker in Michigan who was positive for TB working in the hospital and possibly spreading the disease. I know you are probably like why would someone work if they were infected? Well, get this, they did not know they were infected. Which is the scary part because like who knows how many patients they came into contact with and spread it to them. Especially if they were a pediatric employee, typically children are more susceptible to diseases so this could have been a really bad. The Michigan Health Department said that they were working with medical groups to kind of like retrace the worker’s steps to see which patients could have possibly been exposed. They also encouraged those people to get tested with no cost to them. This situation is scary because it makes you think how many times has this happened before and no one caught it? Like at least they caught this person, although it doesn’t say how specifically. Unless they like started showing signs and symptoms and then they found it because they said they were diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis. But I also find it interesting that like if I had to be tested just to be a volunteer were they not tested before they got the job? Or did they get exposed to it on the job?

How do we control this?

CDC and the WHO have both posted ways to control TB infections. CDC recommends trying to control TB in healthcare settings. They said that this can be done by screening health-care employees once they are hired. They also recommend that hospitals have TB infection control plans. WHO has a 72 page book with their plan on controlling TB. I also found that there are TB infection control clinics? So, yeah I found that there is a TB infection clinic in Forsyth county, which is the county right beside me. So not only are places working nationally like the CDC and WHO but there are also local measures that are being put in place like this clinic. They also have TB skin testing clinics so you could go there to get tested. This might come in handy when there are times like these where doctors are overloaded and don’t necessarily have time to do tests so you can go to these clinics and get checked. There are multiple detailed measures that have been put into place to tackle TB whether that’s prevention or testing.

So today is going to be different. Instead of discussing different things like the virus or the flu or other things I’m going to take the time to talk about what’s going on in my life. So it’s been going on two weeks I think since I’ve moved home from school. Not going to lie that was a sad day. Getting the email that we were getting an extended spring break I was a little surprised but getting the email that said we had to move out I was a little shocked. I never thought it would have gotten there. Then to hear that we were moving classes online I was sadden by the thought that I wasn’t going to get to return to Chapel Hill until August. This semester was actually going really well. It was the first semester where I felt like I was hitting my best stride. I actually wanted to be in Chapel Hill as much as I can, meaning that for once I didn’t feel like I needed to go home as often like I did in first semester. Also can we stop and take a moment on how everyone is taking all of the meat and toilet paper….like real question why toilet paper??

Zooom?

So I’ve never used zoom before this all happened and I mean it’s a pretty cool software. I mean it gives the ability to share your screen with other people which could help if you are working on group projects. But honestly doing all of class online is awful. I do not like it at all. It has made studying for me like really hard. Since moving home my whole routine has changed I can no longer go libraries to study, I can’t see my friends and it makes me upset. Honestly it makes me even sadder when I realize that I’m not going back until August. Personally I never thought it would get this serious. For a virus that can be prevented just by washing hands and not touching your face I really thought it wouldn’t blow up like this. I heard the rumors that like “oh we might not come back from spring break” and honestly I was like theres no way. I mean honestly my home life doesn’t seem too different from what it would have been like if this weren’t going on. (Minus the online class part and not being able to go back to school) But since both of my parents are considered “essential” and our family business is considered “essential” most of our daily lives are the same. I mean the main thing that changed is eating out, which we now can’t do and as a foodie that part is killing me the most.

From a daughter of first responders to you…

I’ve mentioned this before in previous posts but both of my partners are in careers where they are the first line of defense for this virus. My mother is a nurse and my dad is a firefighter. Thinking about it, it’s nerve racking when they go to work, knowing that at any moment they could be openly exposed to the virus. We’ve had to discuss our game plans essentially for what would happen if they get the virus. Luckily our house is set up that we could have a good place to quarantine someone if we needed to but it’s scary to even think about it. I mean for my dad if he gets exposed on the job he has to go to one of the city’s recreation buildings and self-isolate for two weeks. So if he gets exposed I won’t even get to see him for those two weeks. Seeing people not take this virus seriously is hard to see because I know they are only increasing chances of spreading which then means that like people like my parents are now at an even higher risk of exposure. The worst part? They can’t help if they are exposed to it but people can help prevent the spread, but they are not listening. I’ve seen a lot of people posting things that are saying thank you to first responders for their help and their bravery. Coming from a child of two first responders the best way you can thank them? It’s really simple, just stay indoors, do what you’re asked to do by your local government. This way we can stop the spread as quickly as we can. All you have to do is just take a break, chill, relax stay indoors and it will be over sooner than we know.

So it’s been a hot minute since we have last discussed this topic. When we did last talk about it, it was mainly in the Eastern hemisphere mainly in China. But of course we all know that’s not necessarily how it is now. Since I’m sure you, as like me, are practicing our social distancing staying indoors becoming bored out of our minds wondering when this will all be over. As a student who has been stripped away from the place that was her second home with her best friends I too am wondering when this will be over. But, I do feel as though things are going to continue to get worse before they get better. I’ve already heard too many rumors of what is coming next, from an implement of Martial law to the stopping of alcohol sales, I feel like at this point everything is just going to go crazy in the next month. Also, having both parent’s being on the “first line of defense” as first responders to say I’m worried about them is an understatement.

Martial Law?

If you are like me when you heard me say Martial law you were probably like what the heck is that and had to google it. (Or at least I did) Want to know why?? Because this has not been put until place since … well I can’t find a specific time but a very long time ago. According to an article from Military Times, Martial law is when the regular law or “civil rule” is replaced with military authority. It is temporary but it rarely is put in place. I know I’ve heard rumors that North Carolina is going into Martial law, well supposedly yesterday? But, I have yet to hear that it has actually happened or is going to. What I did read on the Military Times though is that Trump has ordered National Guard into places such as Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington. Apparently, their involvement is to help stop the spread of the disease. Personally I don’t really know how I feel about it because I feel like maybe it could help but also, like it could go really bad too..right? But there are governors like California Gov. Gavin Newsom who believes that a Martial law is not necessary at the time. Which I think is good that he can see the situation and believe that they can handle it on their own before it goes to that instead of just jumping to worst case scenario where they implement the Martial Law because they don’t know what else to do.

Common symptom…anxiety

After reading a Washington Post article, discussing interviews with people who have the virus a common “symptom” everyone talks about is the anxiety they get with the virus. Some said that it was an anxiety for themselves and how their body would react to the virus. For others it was an anxiety focused on others, patients became anxious knowing they had a disease that could potentially harm their loved ones. I personally can understand this anxiety as like I said earlier my parents both have careers where at any moment at their job they can come into to direct transmission with someone who is positive for the virus. We have had to discuss what would happen if one of them were exposed. For example, my dad is a firefighter and just tonight he told us about a new protocol his work put in where if he was knowingly exposed to the virus he had to quarantine at a new recreation center put in place, for 14 days. Meaning we wouldn’t be able to see him for 2 weeks. My mother is a nurse and she talks about how she sees people everyday who possibly have it and they have recently set up a drive through system to get tested as she works in the ER. So reading this article I could relate because also as a person who is around their grandparents on almost a daily basis the anxiety that I could unknowingly give them something is terrifying on top of the anxiety of knowing that my parents could be exposed to it literally any day by just going to work. So please for the sake of my family and yours just stay indoors until this passes. I promise it will so be worth it in the end when we can all healthily be around our families. I know I can’t wait to be.

As everyone is hiding in their houses after buying their face masks, rubbing alcohol and aloe vera (to make their own hand sanitizers) from the Coronavirus, other ravaging viruses are now able to continue to quietly spread. For example, we’ve already mentioned how the flu is killing was more people than the Coronavirus is but still is being kept on the down low. But the flu is not the only one, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, or STD’s, are also a part of this group because numbers of different STD’s are also continuing to rise. Specifically, there are three STD’s that have had large rises in their numbers. These are gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis. According to a CNN health article, this is the 5th consecutive year that their numbers have risen. Which is surprising but also not at the same time. I mean it’s surprising because I would have thought we would have heard more about this but also not surprising because I’ve heard all the scary stories of how the younger generation aren’t the smartest when it comes to protection so like of course numbers are going to rise. But today we will just stick to one of these three to talk about, let’s go with gonorrhea.

Transmission

According to Medical News Today, Gonorrhea is a STI, Sexually Transmitted Infection that is transmitted through any form of sexual contact. If caught early there are treatments but if seen later it can cause long-time complications. For example, it can cause infertility in women as it can cause pelvis inflammatory by causing infection in the uterus and fallopian tubes. The scary thing about this is that many people don’t actually know they have it because they don’t always notice the symptoms. Which is what is scary because you need to catch on that you have it quick to be able to treat but how can you when you don’t know you have it in the first place. Those who do have symptoms though have burning during urination and can show signs of discharge in both males and females. Men can see swelling in testicles while women can have increased vaginal discharge. Also, to be clear from earlier, any sexual contact means any. In the words of Dr. Cramer, “if it has the word sex in the title…it is still sex.” So just keep that in mind.

Today’s Outbreak

A recent ABC article from October of 2019, stated how the three diseases we mentioned in the first paragraph are at an all time high. This article does state though that the numbers could be rising because more people are getting tested and treated. Since a lot of the main STI’s must be reported so the amount of cases can be tracked, we can see that the numbers have risen over time. But their claim is an interesting one to think about. They said that the reason numbers are rising is that more people are getting tested and treated. Which kind of makes sense but that also means that this disease has been out there a lot and people weren’t getting tested but now they are so our numbers are rising. But I feel like this isn’t a 100% true because with the way the world (more like my generation) is, umm I don’t feel like protection is their number one priority. So like I definitely feel that the number of cases are growing just in general. But also although rising numbers are not the best, at least more people are getting educated to get tested. So to sum this all up, just be safe out there kids. And be smart!