Plasmodium

Spillover is not just a regular book about diseases. In this book, the author, David Quammen, dialogues about a multitude of zoonotic diseases, which are pathogens that can be transmitted from an animal into a human. There are eleven diseases that the author primarily discusses: Hendra, Ebola, Malaria, SARS, Q-fever, Psittacosis, Lyme disease, Herpes B, Nipah and HIV/AIDS. All of these are viruses, with the exceptions of Q-fever, Psittacosis and Lyme disease, which are bacterium. All zoonotic…

Mosquitoes are among the most dangerous living creatures when it comes to the number of deaths they cause worldwide. Their ability to carry diseases and transmit them to humans causes thousands of deaths each year and in 2015 alone, malaria was responsible for 438,000 deaths. The statistics are scary when one compares the number of deaths from mosquito-borne diseases to that of the deadly Ebola virus, which has recently killed over 1,000 in central and west Africa. The puny size of the mosquito…

harmless. The bacteria Staphylococcus lives on human skin and does no harm and no good. This relationship would be considered commensalism. Now, Protists are unicellular organisms from the kingdom Protista. An example of a parasitic protist would be Plasmodium which causes Malaria. The prostist enters the blood stream, clogging capillaries and blood vessels, while destroying blood, which leads to death if untreated. Protists can do good as well. The protist Zooxanthellae , has a symbiotic…

The practice of internal medicine in a conflict zone is a unique challenge. In counter insurgency/ counter terrorism (CI/CT) areas, the hostile environment, austere conditions and limited logistics makes the decision making more difficult. There is enough literature available on the role of surgeon in combat zone both internationally and in Indian armed forces1,2, however there is paucity of literature on the role of internal medicine specialists in combat zone 3, 4. This article is aimed at…

Evolution is a gradual process that produces changes that can be seen over generations. Evolution has several important aspects. The first of these aspects is that we all share a common ancestry and are, therefore, all related. The second aspect is that of natural selection (Pickrell, 2006). Natural selection is the process during which organisms become better adapted and more suited to their environment. This increases their chances of survival, and thus they are able to produce more offspring…

3. Why a malaria vaccine is required? When microorganism enter the body, the immune system fight these foreign antigens by production of T or B-lymphocytes that produces antibodies, which effectively neutralize foreign invaders. Human body take several days to produces antibodies, while microorganism attack and multiply in the body and produce serious illness before immune system can fit back, this is a reason behind the vaccine manufacturing and development (CDC, 20175; Sarkander et al., 2016;…

The process of natural selection makes it so organisms with characteristics further suitable to their environment outlive and reproduce more than those with less suitable characteristics. This process helps ensure that each generation becomes increasingly adapted to their surroundings so that they can ultimately live longer and increase population sizes. At first glance, diseases are the exception to this principle since they seem to be unfavorable attributes that have somehow continued to pass…

When I think about Sickle Cell Anemia, the first thing that comes to my mind is blood. When you get cut and a darkish red liquid comes out, that is called blood. Blood is a red liquid that carries nutrients, gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide, and iron throughout our body. (1) Blood connects to Sickle Cell Anemia because Sickle Cell Anemia is a disease that changes the shape of our blood cells. Instead of being circle, it becomes a sickle shape. This shape can have a negative effect, but it…

The operations of cloning have brought out an abundance of fundamental milestones laying concrete on rearing onto the likelihood for an acceptance of therapeutic cloning. There exists a manifold quantity for the, “applications of this technology in nonhuman animal models will undoubtedly contribute in a major way to vaccine development and the unraveling of teratological and genetic problems in human development as well as impacting wildlife conservation efforts” (Wolf, Meng, Ely, & Stouffer,…

II. Introduction HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. If left untreated, HIV can lead to AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome). The human body has CD4 (T cells) which play an important role in fighting off diseases and building human immunity. HIV significantly reduces the CD4 count level in the body making the body prone to opportunistic infections and cancer. Unlike other viruses, HIV cannot be completely removed from the body. Treatment needs to be continued throughout life.…