VARIOLA VIRUS Essay examples -- Essays Papers

VARIOLA VIRUSSMALLPOX INTRODUCTION The variola major virus major virus virus, which is the most virulent member of Genus Orthopoxvirus, is the causative broker of variola major virus. It specifically infects humans. The primary reason for infection in humans is due to its ability to evade the host immune responses, and avoid complement activation. Over the centuries, this by nature occurring virus has spread throughout the earth, through various environments, to cause severe outbreaks. The most devastation outbreak had a case-fatality rate of 40 percent in individuals who have not been vaccinated.The Variola virus is a double-stranded DNA virus. It has two envelopes the outer envelope is present only in the extracellular state. The outer bulge out or the upshot membrane, which surrounds the core of the virus, contains lipids and proteins and has a complex symmetry. The core, which has a dumbbell-shape, contains a large amount of the double-stranded DNA (186kbp), about 10 enzym es to mediate gene verbiage and lots of nucleoproteins- both specific and common. These proteins are involved in DNA transcription, as well as inducing cross-reactive immunity (IOM, 1999). The space outside the core contains lateral bodies which do not have any known functions. There are two forms of the variola virus variola major and variola minor. Variola major is the lethal strain, while variola minor is not lethal, but a mild strain, which is very similar to major but is only genetically different. The most common strain is the variola major, which produces the more severe symptoms, and with a fatality rate of 20% to 40%, within the 7th day of infection. The variola minor is the milder form of the disease that has a death rate of less than 1%. Surviving infection from... ...o, Pere, MD. Smallpox The Triumph Over the Most grand of the Ministers of Death. Annals of Internal Medicine. 1997 127635- 42. Ellner, P.D. Smallpox Gone but Not Forgotten. Infection. 1998 26 (5) 263-9.C DC overview www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/facts.aspCDC overview2 www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.aspCDC vaccine www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/vaccination/contraindictions-public.aspKoplow, David. Smallpox The Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge. 2003IOM(Institute of Medicine) Live Variola Virus committee on the assessment of future Scientific unavoidably for live variola virus. National Academy Press 1999.Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). October 1, 2002http//www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=ds00424Nature Reviews Immunology 2, 544 (2002) doi10.1038/nri868