11 December 2003
umm...
so my mother asked me to e-mail her about vaccines and virues...I think that I may have gone a bit over board...
Here is some info for you about viruses. I would say that the following website from Web MD has some very useful information. http://my.webmd.com/content/pages/5/4068_101.htm?z=3074_00000_0007_00_01
But, I do not want to pass off your questions (which is totally unacceptable for anyone in the medical profession), so here is probably more information than you ever wanted.
There are two types of infections that most people get. They are either infected with a virus (flu or cold are just two types) or they are infected with a bacterial infection.
There are many different types of viruses. There are adeno, retro, roto, etc. All viruses are non-living and dependent upon a living organism for “life” or in other words, replication. (FYI: Scientist like to make classifications). So we start off with a shape and basic characteristics and go from there. Here is an example of how we would go about IDing a virus:
1. The shape of the virus.
(The first picture if a Bacteriophage (a virus that attacks bacteria!), the second (a) and third (b) are different shapes of viruses that are group liked that as they use either DNA (a) or RNA (b) for replication, see the 5th point.
Sorry - pictures do not come up on this site!
2. The way the virus gains entry into the body -air borne, contact, mucus membrane passed, etc
3. The type of cells that it infects: immune system cells (T-cells in the case of HIV/AIDS) or epithelial cells (in the case of HPV)
4. How the virus gains entry into the cells that it is infecting.
5. The method that is uses to replicate (reproduce new viruses) – does it use, DNA, RNA, mRNA, etc…
6. How do the new viruses get out of the host cell? Does it lyse (kill) the host cells when the new viruses are released? In this the host cell gets filled up with so many new little viruses, that it just explodes (ruptures, busts open the cell, you get the idea), and the cell is killed.
Sorry - pictures do not come up on this site!
The other method used by viruses is to modify the cell wall, making a gateway that the viruses will be shipped out of. There is a nice video clip here to explain how that happens using herpes as an example: http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~faculty/wagner/release.html
Okay so the actual point of all of this:
How come when a person gets vaccinated against the flu, does that person then get infected with a viral infection?
Simple answer: Because the vaccine the person received is specific to only that (or VERY similar) viruses.
How the Flu vaccine works:
The viruses used for the flu are inactivated (killed, although it is a miss leading name) virus that is either injected (or now a days can be given as a nasal spray) and your immune systems responds so the next time it sees it (usually alive ready to infect) your immune system is then ready to kill it. So when people say that they got sick from the flu vaccine – it is not actually true. They got sick usually as the immune system was getting over loaded and was too busy to properly deal with all the different things that were being introduced to it.
There are other types of vaccines out there too.
Some vaccines are given “alive” (and are usually given on the skin as in the case of small pox).
Some are passed through non-human tissue cultures so that they can lose some of the properties that cause them to attack humans. The virus is then collected, purified and then given to people.
Some vaccines are given in their weaken state – not exactly “alive” but not totally “dead”.
And some vaccines are not even the actual virus that you are looking for immunity from – i.e.: cow pox was given via injection until it was figured out how to purify small pox and give that safely.
With bacterial infections it is very important to get the correct type of medicine and to take all of it. Bacteria come in many different types – gram positive and gram negative is the first step in identification of the bacteria. Gram staining involves taking a sample of the bacteria (such as a swab of the area that is infected) and staying it with a couple of different chemicals. After the staining is complete, the sample is then looked at under a microscope. We are also looking to see if the cell well has picked up any of the colouring - hence the name gram positive, it has picked up the colour or gram negative, it has not picked up the colour. Here is a picture of the basic structures of a bacteria (please note not all bacteria are this shape, size or do they all have flagellum, or cilia (similar looking to pilus):
Sorry - pictures do not come up on this site!
Figuring out what type of bacterial infection is very important as some medicines do not work of some types of bacterial infections. Penicillin only works on gram negative bacteria – yet many people take it when they start to feel ill, as they cannot or do not want to go to their doctor – but this state of mind is leading to more problems as bacteria (The tricky and smart little buggers, are developing resistance to many of the antibiotics that we commonly use. That could be another paper for you all, if you were interested!)
As far as bacterial vaccines – Bacteria are trickier than most viruses. There are a few out there, but that is defiantly another paper.
I hope this helps! If I missed anything, let me know!
Here is some info for you about viruses. I would say that the following website from Web MD has some very useful information. http://my.webmd.com/content/pages/5/4068_101.htm?z=3074_00000_0007_00_01
But, I do not want to pass off your questions (which is totally unacceptable for anyone in the medical profession), so here is probably more information than you ever wanted.
There are two types of infections that most people get. They are either infected with a virus (flu or cold are just two types) or they are infected with a bacterial infection.
There are many different types of viruses. There are adeno, retro, roto, etc. All viruses are non-living and dependent upon a living organism for “life” or in other words, replication. (FYI: Scientist like to make classifications). So we start off with a shape and basic characteristics and go from there. Here is an example of how we would go about IDing a virus:
1. The shape of the virus.
(The first picture if a Bacteriophage (a virus that attacks bacteria!), the second (a) and third (b) are different shapes of viruses that are group liked that as they use either DNA (a) or RNA (b) for replication, see the 5th point.
Sorry - pictures do not come up on this site!
2. The way the virus gains entry into the body -air borne, contact, mucus membrane passed, etc
3. The type of cells that it infects: immune system cells (T-cells in the case of HIV/AIDS) or epithelial cells (in the case of HPV)
4. How the virus gains entry into the cells that it is infecting.
5. The method that is uses to replicate (reproduce new viruses) – does it use, DNA, RNA, mRNA, etc…
6. How do the new viruses get out of the host cell? Does it lyse (kill) the host cells when the new viruses are released? In this the host cell gets filled up with so many new little viruses, that it just explodes (ruptures, busts open the cell, you get the idea), and the cell is killed.
Sorry - pictures do not come up on this site!
The other method used by viruses is to modify the cell wall, making a gateway that the viruses will be shipped out of. There is a nice video clip here to explain how that happens using herpes as an example: http://darwin.bio.uci.edu/~faculty/wagner/release.html
Okay so the actual point of all of this:
How come when a person gets vaccinated against the flu, does that person then get infected with a viral infection?
Simple answer: Because the vaccine the person received is specific to only that (or VERY similar) viruses.
How the Flu vaccine works:
The viruses used for the flu are inactivated (killed, although it is a miss leading name) virus that is either injected (or now a days can be given as a nasal spray) and your immune systems responds so the next time it sees it (usually alive ready to infect) your immune system is then ready to kill it. So when people say that they got sick from the flu vaccine – it is not actually true. They got sick usually as the immune system was getting over loaded and was too busy to properly deal with all the different things that were being introduced to it.
There are other types of vaccines out there too.
Some vaccines are given “alive” (and are usually given on the skin as in the case of small pox).
Some are passed through non-human tissue cultures so that they can lose some of the properties that cause them to attack humans. The virus is then collected, purified and then given to people.
Some vaccines are given in their weaken state – not exactly “alive” but not totally “dead”.
And some vaccines are not even the actual virus that you are looking for immunity from – i.e.: cow pox was given via injection until it was figured out how to purify small pox and give that safely.
With bacterial infections it is very important to get the correct type of medicine and to take all of it. Bacteria come in many different types – gram positive and gram negative is the first step in identification of the bacteria. Gram staining involves taking a sample of the bacteria (such as a swab of the area that is infected) and staying it with a couple of different chemicals. After the staining is complete, the sample is then looked at under a microscope. We are also looking to see if the cell well has picked up any of the colouring - hence the name gram positive, it has picked up the colour or gram negative, it has not picked up the colour. Here is a picture of the basic structures of a bacteria (please note not all bacteria are this shape, size or do they all have flagellum, or cilia (similar looking to pilus):
Sorry - pictures do not come up on this site!
Figuring out what type of bacterial infection is very important as some medicines do not work of some types of bacterial infections. Penicillin only works on gram negative bacteria – yet many people take it when they start to feel ill, as they cannot or do not want to go to their doctor – but this state of mind is leading to more problems as bacteria (The tricky and smart little buggers, are developing resistance to many of the antibiotics that we commonly use. That could be another paper for you all, if you were interested!)
As far as bacterial vaccines – Bacteria are trickier than most viruses. There are a few out there, but that is defiantly another paper.
I hope this helps! If I missed anything, let me know!
