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The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI). They are so common that almost all men and women will get at least one type at some point in their lifetime. Nearly 80 million people are infected with HPV right now, most of which are people who are in their late teens and early 20s. Some strains of this can causing serious health problems and various cancers. Anyone who is sexually active could potentially, most likely, be exposed to this infection. It is spread by vaginal, anal, and oral sex and it can be even be transmitted when the infected individual shows no signs or symptoms. Wow this thing is scary, but lucky for us we have a vaccine that prevents almost 90% of HPV-related cancers.

The vaccine currently requires two doses, with the second given six to 12 months after the first dose. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all children receive this vaccination around the age of 11 or 12, however, it can be given as early as the age of 9. For the HPV vaccine to be the most effective, it should be typically given before possible exposure to HPV, which before you become sexually active. Giving the vaccine at this age allows people to be protect long before being exposed to the virus. Unvaccinated men and women ages 27 to 45 can also get the HPV vaccine; however, they should talk with their doctor prior.

Two licensed HPV vaccines, the bivalent and the quadrivalent vaccine have been proven to be safe and effective against cervical infections associated with precancerous lesions. An large increase in vaccine effectiveness with increased precancerous lesions is because of most cancerous HPV types 16 and 18. With current vaccines, research is beginning to switch from attempting to reduce HPV to trying to control high-risk types.

Evidence from an update of the Phase 3 Costa Rica HPV Vaccine Trial is indicating that the “protection provided by a single dose of the HPV vaccine may be as durable as protection from the two-dose series.” They believe this will improve vaccination rates since it is only a single dose versus a two-dose series, which lowers the cost of the vaccination since you only have to get one shot. This increase in vaccination would also decrease the rate of the various cancers caused by HPV because more people would be vaccinated. Either way, whether it’s one dose or four doses with a booster every couple of years, I believe people should get vaccinated regardless.

Something else that is scary is that the CDC has set an 80% HPV vaccination goal for adolescents this year, and only less than half of all teens have been vaccinated. One of the main reasons why this is the case, is because parents did not received a “strong recommendation” of this vaccine by their children’s physician or that they were not given enough information about the importance of this vaccination. We need to do something about this! We need to properly educate our healthcare providers and families about the importance of this vaccination. Matter of fact, ALL VACCINATIONS.

Welcome to the world of microbes! In this world of microbes, there are a group of organisms that are classified as superbugs. These things are really nasty and ruthless. Superbugs are basically germs that that have formed resistance to many antibiotics that were once able to treat that specific infection. Antibiotics are vital because they help save many lives. The current rise in superbugs are due to the fact that antibiotics are being used too much and improperly, which allows certain organisms to develop resistance over time. Basically all of these deadly organisms are going to take over the world by killing off humans with their antibiotic resistance, because idiot healthcare workers are prescribing antibiotics for a VIRUS.

Antibiotic resistance is a huge healthcare problem and it can soon lead to a human apocalypse. The only way we can potentially save all of humanity is stop prescribing unnecessary antibiotics, start prescribing the correct antibiotics, and reduce the spread of infection. The thing that scares me the most is that some bacteria have become resistant to almost all of the easily accessible antibiotics, which means we’re screwed.

Now if you do not how this whole superbug thing works, here’s a breakdown:

Essentially, antibiotics were created to kill various bacteria that cause infection. Antibiotics can’t differentiate good bacteria from bad bacteria, so they basically kill everything in hopes to kill bad bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant organisms find their way to survive over the other organisms. From there, they can multiply and thrive and become dominant and spread throughout the world. Wow, I guess Charles Darwin was right when he conceptualized “survival of the fittest.”

So here are a few things you should know about antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic resistant does not mean your body is resistance to the antibiotics, it means the bacteria that has infected you has built up resistance that causes the antibiotics not be effective against it. Secondly, anyone can be affected by antibiotic resistance at any point in their life. Stop spreading germs! Get vaccinated and wash your hands! Remember, antibiotics DO NOT work on viral infections. Attempting to treat viruses with antibiotics is what got us in this situation in the first place. Lastly, antibiotic resistance is all over the world. Make sure you are up-to-date in vaccines and speak with your healthcare provider prior to traveling out of the country, so you receive important information about health in that specific area.

I’m pretty sure everyone has been told the effects of you accidentally stepping on a rusty nail. Don’t step on a rusty nail, or you’ll get tetanus. Well, that’s not quietly how it works, but you can kinda use that as an idea about how you acquire this disease.

Tetanus is an infection caused by Clostridium tetani. It is an endospore-forming Gram-positive rod. Now, if a bacteria is able to form an endospore that means that it can become dormant and can essentially reactive once it is in hospitable environment in order for it to become vegetative again. This is problematic because endospore are very difficult to kill.

Going back to the concept of the rusty nail, usually rusty nails are found typically in the ground somewhere. It just so happens that that’s where most tetanus endospores are, so since the rusty nail is the ground it can easily have tetanus endospores on it. Tetanus also happens to be an obligate anaerobe, which means it hates oxygen. So let’s just say you’re out in the yard one day gardening, and you get a deep penetrating wound from an old rusty nail. You mostly have just exposed yourself to C. tetani. Now since tetanus is an obligate anaerobe, it’s going to thrive in that deep would because there will not be any oxygen present and it can break its endospore and an come active again. Once it becomes active, C. tetani releases an A-B toxin in the blood called tetanospasmin, which can cause you to experience toxemia. It is not the bacterium that will kill you, but it is the toxin that is released into bloodstream that will.

One of the main symptoms of tetanus is muscle spasms, which is why you here this disease sometimes called “lockjaw” because the jaw is one of the first places to experience involuntary muscle spasms. Other symptoms are fever, headache, changes in blood pressure and heart rate, and even spasms all over the body. If think you have been exposed to tetanus please seek medical attention immediately to receive treatment.

Tetanus is an uncommon and very dangerous disease. Thanks to VACCINATIONS, the United States was able to decrease the deaths of tetanus to 99%. So basically to get this 100%, get vaccinated. I still don’t understand why some parents do not vaccinate their children, but that’s neither here nor there. There are FOUR, not one, not two, not three, but FOUR vaccinations you can get for C. tetani: DTaP, DT, Tdap, and Td. The CDC recommends every child receive five doses and a booster shot every 10 years as an adult to prevent you from contracting the disease.

In this week’s blog, I will be talking about polio. Now some may say, what is polio? Well, you should know what it is since most of you have been vaccinated for it. Polio aka poliomyelitis is a life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus, which is a single-stranded enveloped RNA virus. You know what that means y’all? It can SIMPLY be killed with hand sanitizers. Polio is a paralytic disease, which means it causes paralysis. I find it odd that only people with the paralytic infection are considered to have the disease. Is every case of polio associated with paralysis? Can the infected person be asymptomatic?

The poliovirus is highly infectious and is spread from human-to human contact. It is spread through contact with poop from an infected person and also through droplets as an infected person sneezes or coughs. It has a human-only reservoir and the portal of entry is the mouth. This virus mainly infects the throat and intestines, however, it can also the spinal cord, which leads to paralysis. About 25% of people infected with poliovirus will display flu-like symptoms, which last from 2-5 days. Most people infected with polio will not have any visible signs.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that children get the polio vaccine to protect against the virus. There are two types of the vaccines: inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and the oral polio vaccine (OPV). The IPV requires a series of four doses. The United States only use the IPV and do not use the OPV due to the fact that they want to eliminate the risk of “vaccine-derive poliovirus” that comes with OPV. Many other countries use the OPV because it is cheaper. Thanks to the US for not the OPV, because now polio-free! Yay!!!

Unfortunately, the poliovirus is still prevalent in other countries and remains in endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) was launched back in the late 1980s to combat the polio epidemic, which was around 400,000 cases each year. I’m satisfied to see this dynamic in statistics change from an epidemic to an endemic, which means we’re making progress. Vaccinations are important because we can completely eradicate this disease off the face of the Earth.

Anti-vaccination movements were always presence since the start of vaccinations. You can thank Andrew Wakefield for the latest anti-vaxxer movement. In his 1998 article, he claimed to have found a link between the MMRV vaccine and autism, which sparked a lot controversy. This claim has been proven to be false. However, it has still led some people to be hesitant about vaccinations, a phenomenon termed “vaccine hesitancy.” Vaccine hesitancy is what public health officials call the “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines.” The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified this as one of top 10 global health issues in 2019.

Anti-vaxxer movements have become more prevalent of social media. Social media has become a major way of spreading a false narrative about vaccines, despite all out the accurate information out there. Recent studies have looked into how vaccine misinformation have spread on Facebook by anti-vaxxer advertisements have gained leverage on this platform. Researchers have found that 47% of ads on Facebook have been geared against vaccinations while 53% promote vaccinations. This is problematic because more people are being convinced that vaccines are not safe due to being misinformed.

Thankfully, Facebook has been taking steps to minimize anti-vaxxer content on their platform. Facebook ensured users find facts about vaccines across their sites where people seek out information and advice. Facebook has agreed to direct its users to WHO’s accurate and reliable vaccine information for them to use as a resource. Even though anti-vaxxers are the minority, public health officials are increasingly concerned by the come up.

Y’all we have to do something about this. You may think that this is none of your concern, but it is. Herd immunity is important in order to maintain a healthy community, so please get vaccinated and vaccinate your children.

Not many people know what a microbiome is and the importance of it. Hell, I just found out about it myself not too long ago. A microbiome is where all of the microorganisms live on your body. Now your first instinct may be, “I’m a very clean person and I do not have any bacteria or germs growing on me.” Well I’m sorry to have to break the news to you, but you do. This is good thing, however, because it is keeping you healthy and a live right now. It is also fighting bad bacteria that may potential harm you, it may even kill you.

Studying the human microbiome has led to an increase understanding of its importance for health throughout one’s life. The human microbiota consists of bacteria as well as viruses and molds. Yes, unfortunately, we are all moldy people. Human microbes typically colonize the skin, secretory glands, and mucosal membranes such as the GI and reproductive tracts. Your microbiota establishes a symbiotic relationship with your body by providing it nutrition, immunity and resistance from potentially harmful pathogens.

There are various factors that contribute to maintaining your microbiota, such as lifestyle, diet, age and genetics. Your microbiota is fully developed by the age of 3. Early exposure is critical in order to help develop immunity. The microbiome of newborns is similar to that of their mother’s vaginal and skin microbiota depending on whether the mother had a natural delivery or a C-section. The first stages of life are critical into developing your microbiota because studies have shown that the less diverse your microbiota is, the more likely you are to be susceptible to certain diseases.

A diverse, healthy microbiome is essential for you to live a long and healthy life. So here’s a tip. If you want to help diversify your microbiota, eat more fiber-rich foods and stay away from foods in rich in refined sugars.

Hey y’all! I’m back with some more new information about the coronavirus that you may feel inclined to know. Now before to dig a little deeper, I just want you to take a deep breath. Just want to give you a quick reminder that the coronavirus is an enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus. Since it is an enveloped virus, it can easily be prevented by simply washing your hands. Yay!!!

So here’s what we know as of today…

Confirmed cases of the coronavirus continue to rise with over 30,000 confirmed in China. One major concern is whether this virus will continue to circulate and for how long. If we are not able to get this virus under wraps, it may become an endemic, similarly to influenza. With this current outbreak, a ton of cases have been coming up that have been asymptomatic, which would only add fuel to fire of the possibility of this becoming an endemic. Virologists in China who were first to isolate this virus found that it can kill human cultured cells and enter into the cells by binding to the same receptor as the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). This has been a step in the right direction, because this may lead them to find how exactly this pathogen is spread.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has been working actively to strengthen the diagnostic capacity of this virus. They are shipping 250,000 test kits to 160 labs around the world to speed up this diagnosis process. It is said that each test kit can collect 700 to 800 patient samples with results ready in about four hours. Wow this sounds really efficient and very effective. I really hope this works. Chinese authorities have begun rounding up all residents infected with the virus into mass quarantine camps. These shelters are meant to hold residents who have milder symptoms of this virus. There are many concerns about housing people this way, one of which is being able to provide basic care to patients and protect them against possible future infection.

Last but certainly not least, Chinese doctor, Li Wenliang, who was one of the first to warn authorities about the Wuhan coronavirus has died. Wenliang was said to die from the coronavirus, according to hospital officials. He warned them about this virus back in December 2019, but he was silenced by the police. He was questioned in January after he told his some of his medical school classmates about this virus that was similar to SARS. The police forced him to sign a piece of paper basically saying that this was all a rumor and not true.

Interesting… Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me? Let me hear your theories about how Dr. Wenliang knew about this coronavirus emerging and why the police silenced him in the first place in the comments below. Until next time… Bye y’all!!!

We are at peak of the most germ-iest time of the year… FLU SEASON! Now I know we have this whole thing going on about the coronavirus, which don’t get me wrong, it’s terrifying. However, please do not forget our infectious and deadly friend, Influenza. The flu is an enveloped, single-strand RNA virus with a segmented genome. Having a segmented genome enables antigenic drift to occur, which are subtle mutation to the genes that allow your antibodies not recognize this organism because it constantly changing. THIS WHY YOU NEED TO GET THE FLU VACCINE EVERY YEAR PEOPLE, BECAUSE THIS VIRUS DOES NOT LOOK THE SAME EVERY YEAR!

The flu in a contagious respiratory illness that infects the nose, throat and lungs with the influenza virus. It causes mild to severe illness and may even lead to death. Some common flu symptoms may include cough, runny or stuffy nose, headache, sore throat, fatigue, and body aches. Some people, but not all people may experience fever/chills and some children may experience vomiting and diarrhea. The onset of symptoms from exposure and infection begins in about 2 days and people are most contagious in the first 3-4 signs and symptoms. The flu virus is primarily transmitted through droplet nuclei when people with the flu sneeze, cough or even talk. It is less common to contract the flu from fomites, but it is still possible. Please continue disinfect surfaces to minimize the spread of the virus and other germs.

People over the age of 65, people with certain chronic conditions, pregnant women and children under the age of 5 are at high risk of contracting the flu because they are immunocompromised. Children are more likely to get infected with the flu than people over 65. Fun fact: Children younger than 18 are more than twice more likely to develop a symptomatic flu infection than adults 65 and older.

The most important action you can take against influenza is to get the vaccine. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), recent studies have shown that getting the flu vaccination reduces the risk of getting the virus by 40% – 60% among the overall population during flu season when the circulating virus is well-matched with the vaccine. The current flu vaccines tend to work better on influenza B and influenza A(H1N1) viruses and have little protection from influenza A(H3N2) viruses. The CDC says there has been at “least 19 million flu illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths from flu this season.” For this flu season, the more predominant virus is influenza B/Victoria viruses. There has not been enough data to determine the effectiveness of this year’s flu shot, however, it is still better to get vaccinated to prevent the flu and any other complications that come with it.

As Dr. Kramer always says… “It’s better to have little protection than no protection. Stop touching your face and wash your hands!”

Coronavirus. Now after reading that, how does it make you? Does it give you chills? Does it make you feel uncomfortable? Maybe it has you questioning whether you have contracted this deadly virus. I know there’s a lot of crazy stuff being said about this virus. Well, I’m here to give you the real scoop, with ACTUAL facts.

Let me give you a little history on coronaviruses. Human coronaviruses have been around for a long time and are known to resemble the common cold. Coronaviruses are “large, enveloped, positive-strand RNA viruses” with the alpha and beta genera infecting humans. Coronaviruses are mainly seen in bats, which suggests that they are the reservoirs for the virus. Now you’re probably wondering if this virus is in bats, how the h*** did humans get it?

This zoonotic virus was spread at seafood and animal market in Wuhan, China. In December, Chinese authorities reported multiple cases of this pneumonia-like disease with symptoms such as fever, difficulty in breathing, cough and lesions on both lungs. Since these cases, they have closed the market for sanitation, disinfection as well as collecting specimens from the environment for further testing.

We have learned that the coronavirus causes respiratory illness and can spread from human-to-human contact as well as saliva droplets. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a “public-health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC), which is their highest level of global health emergency. WHO has reported almost 8,000 cases in 18 countries including, China, Japan, Thailand, Australia and the United States. Wow, that’s so close to home. I know many of us are taking extreme cautions to make sure we don’t catch this nasty bug. Another huge concern about the coronavirus, is that there have been cases reported that have been asymptomatic. This very troublesome, because if there are asymptomatic carriers of this virus, then these individuals can spread this virus unknowingly, which makes it difficult to contain.

Here’s something to make you take a sigh of relief. There are working out vaccines and antivirals to prevent the further spread of this disease. Thank god for vaccines, right? So for all you Anti-Vaxxers out there, you may want to rethink that lifestyle. Apparently, coronaviruses come from the same family of viruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). So what microbiologists are doing is trying to see if the antivirals and vaccines that work for these viruses will work for this new coronavirus. Do you think they will be successful? Let me know in the comments below!

In 1998, Andrew Wakefield and a couple of his colleagues had the BALLS to publish a case study in the Lancet INCORRECTLY stating that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism. All hell broke loose when parents found this out! MMR vaccination rates began to drop drastically after this news. Now, I don’t know what type of logic he and his colleagues we were using when conducting this study. Apparently, they thought there was a link between the MMR vaccine and autism because both events usually occur around the same age. Even though, DR. Andrew Wakefield has DOCTOR in his credentials, I know that correlation DOES NOT EQUAL causation.

For this particular study, he “cherry-picked” 12 children who were referred to the Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine who were already diagnosed with regressive developmental disorder and enterocolitis. This falsifies his claim that his sample was consecutive, when it was actually VERY selective. Guess what? The people who funded Wakefield’s research just so happened to be funded by lawyers representing parents who were suing vaccine manufacturers.

Did he not think people were going to look into his research after making such a strong claim? No other independent scientist has been able to verify his research, so that should tell you something.  After a little more investigation into Wakefield’s research, there was said to be “no causal link established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data was in sufficient” (Rao).

Wakefield and colleagues were guilty of ethical violations and scientific misrepresentation. They were also guilty of deliberate fraud. It appears that their motive for publishing the false paper was that they were money-hungry.

Who puts millions of children and families, and even the whole world at risk for making such a false claim with insufficient data? Obviously, these guys because money is power, right? NO, that’s wrong. These researchers just caused a massive outbreak that could have been almost eradicated from the planet through the MMR vaccine.

To give you a little insight about what is going on around the world, about 169 million children missed out on their first dose of the MMR vaccine between 2010 and 2017. Parents who did not vaccinate their children are the main reason why there is an outbreak of the measles in several countries in the world today. It is very important that children receive two doses of the measles vaccine to be protect from the disease. In 2017, the global coverage for the first dose of the measles vaccine was 85% and it was 67% for the second dose. According to the World Health Organization, there needs to be 95% immunization coverage to maintain herd immunity. We’re all in this together y’all!

Psst… The United States of AMERICA, a well-developed country, highly-innovative and advanced in medicine, has the HIGHEST number of children who did not receive the first dose of the MMR vaccine.

Andrew Wakefield was a con-artist and basically tried to wipe humans off the face of the earth with his research, so he could get cut a nice, thick check.

Public Service Announcement: VACCINATE YOUR CHILDREN! THERE IS NO LINK BETWEEN THE MMR VACCINE AND AUTISM! IT WAS ALL A LIE!