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A. I learned the most about Meningococcal bacteria at the beginning of this assignment. It's first outbreak went unrecorded in 1805 and the first recorded outbreak was in 1840. It is said to have originated in Africa, which happens to be where it is most abundant today. There were a lot of failed treatments to combat this disease, including the use of mercury! I thought some of the treatments before true monoclonal antibodies came into play were absolutely ridiculous.

B. There were a lot of people that studied more on Covid-19, but I remember viewing a peer who did theirs on sickle cell anemia. Knowing that a blood and bone marrow transplant is the only cure for this is extremely scary! Red blood cells are originally shaped close to a circular bowl to carry oxygen, so when this disease has a strong impact on these red blood cells, it heavily restricts oxygen flow.

C. The main thing that would have opened up my padlet post would have been describing the types of meningococcal diseases. Meningitis doesn't always occur from the bacteria Neisseria Meningitidis. The reason I didn't include these were partially due to the questions specifically to structure the padlet, but also because it would need to be extremely extensive. There are subcategories of multiple types of disease, so determining and explaining all of them may lose the interest of my peers. I wanted to give the main/general sense of what this disease is, in it's most common form.

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Meningococcal disease is capable of having impacts at the society level, but it is less common, especially nowadays. At this point, meningitis is heavily monitored and regulated by vaccines, so outbreaks are much less common. In the meningitis belt in Africa though, it does affect the society. In this area, outbreaks happen about once a decade, in which case isolation is heavily encouraged by the leaders in those areas. This isolation can change the normal day to day activities of the societies. If you think about the lockdown of multiple states in the U.S. due to Covid-19, life would be similar in these countries in Africa. These societies did learn from the effects of the disease and anticipate the next time it occurs. They know the signs and symptoms of the disease, and therefore can identify and contain it in individuals, hopefully before an epidemic occurs.

Citation:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/meningitis

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There have been numerous vaccines that have gained FDA approval for combating meningococcal disease. One of which happened in 2005 after trials using Menactra. In the 19th century, governmental bodies and leaders paid aid to health organizations in an attempt to prevent the affects and spread of this disease. Many health organizations went the route of therapeutic treatments because a lot was still unknown about the disease, including where it was coming from. With new information being discovered, more and more ideas on how to combat it arose. Things such as alcohol, opium, and even mercury were once used as "treatments" for this disease. Once serums were discovered, world leaders became highly invested in the cure/vaccine. This is when more regulations were set on the public, including isolation of people known to have the disease. Many places now require people to have the vaccine for this disease, and it is administered at a young age by hospitals. Homogenous monoclonal antibodies are now the standard for this disease.

Citations:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7106525/

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In 1914, during the first world war, "direct injection of horse antiserum into the cerebral spinal fluid" was the main therapy to combat meningococcal meningitis, and it was actually effective! A couple decades later, in 1935, sulphonamides was the chosen agent to kill the meningococcal bacteria. Patients are often isolated and people in close contact with an infected individual are often given antibiotics as well. Doing so drastically reduces the chance of spread. There have been multiple vaccinations to combat meningitis over the years since 1935. Vacinations used today include "meningococcal conjugate, or MenACWY vaccines". These vaccines are administered by Menactra, Menveo, and MenQuadfi. MenQuadfi is a quadrivalent meningococcal vaccine, meaning it is affective against 4 different antigens! This vaccine uses "tetanus toxoid" as a protein carrier. Currently, the best way to combat this disease is to keep up with your vaccinations!

Citations: https://www.sanofi.com/en/media-room/press-releases/2020/2020-04-24-05-00-00-2021445

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FDA approves MenQuadfiTM, the latest innovation in meningococcal (MenACWY) vaccination - Sanofi

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FDA approves MenQuadfiTM, the latest innovation in meningococcal (MenACWY) vaccination

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The virulence of meningococcal disease is the harm done by this disease, on the host. One example of this include things such as mortality rate. This disease causes the inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, which are highly sensitive areas of the human body. This disease has a mortality rate of 12%, given that the infected individual is able to make it to a hospital and be provided with treatments. An infected individual that does not receive care, can have a mortality of up to 70%. This virulence has not always been here. Neisseria meningitidis has an ancestor in which it was derived from. This ancestor microbe was benign, and not virulent. Through adaptions, this microbe gained, "virulence genes encoding the serogroup C capsule and a phage linked to invasiveness". This bacteria has numerous virulence factors including endotoxins, porins, and capsule expression. These small changes had a dramatic impact on human life.

Citations: https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1802298115
https://www.healthline.com/health/meningitis-fatality-rate#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20World%20Health,Control%20and%20Prevention%20(CDC).

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Meningococcal disease occurs worldwide, but epidemics occur most often in the "Meningitis Belt", located across the countries in central Africa. Outbreaks occur in this region about once every 7 years, affecting 1 in every 100 people. This disease has a mortality rate of about 12%. Many survivors of this disease will have lifelong affects such as loss of limbs or loss of hearing. The bacteria takes less than 7 days after exposure to develop in a new host, causing the host to experience extreme discomfort and pressure in the head. It is said that about 1.2 million new cases will occur around the world each year.

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Neisseria meningitidis was first discovered by  Dr. Weichselbaum in 1887. Dr. Weichselbaum found this bacteria from a cerebral spinal fluid analysis from a patient whom had meningitis. Before the identification of this bacteria, there was a meningococcal outbreak in Geneva in 1805 that went unrecorded, while the first recorded outbreak was in Africa in 1840. This pathogen is classified as a NIAID Category B pathogen, and is therefore an emerging infectious disease.

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Meningococcal disease is a bacterial infection spread by direct contact of an infected persons oral secretions. It causes inflammation of "protective membranes" covering the brain and spinal cord (meningitis), which can lead to death. This disease is caused by the bacteria Neisseria meningitidis.

Source: https://www.cdc.gov/meningitis/index.html#:~:text=Meningitis%20is%20an%20inflammation%20(swelling,infections%20also%20can%20cause%20meningitis.
https://www.cdc.gov/meningococcal/index.html#:~:text=Meningococcal%20disease%20refers%20to%20any,cord%20(meningitis)%20and%20bloodstream.

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Meningitis is an inflammation (swelling) of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. A bacterial or viral infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord usually causes the swelling. However, injuries, cancer, certain drugs, and other types of infections also can cause meningitis. It is important to know the specific cause of meningitis because the treatment differs depending on the cause.

Generally, the germs that cause bacterial meningitis spread from one person to another. Certain germs can spread through food. How people spread the germs often depends on the type of bacteria. Read about common examples of how people spread the different types of bacteria to each other.

People can spread the viruses that cause viral meningitis to other people. If you have close contact with someone who has viral meningitis, they may spread the virus to you. However, you are not likely to develop meningitis. That's because most people infected with these viruses will not develop meningitis.

Having meningitis doesn't always mean you have meningococcal disease. And having meningococcal disease doesn't necessarily mean you have meningitis. Meningococcal disease is any illness caused by a type of bacteria called Neisseria meningitidis. These illnesses are serious and include meningitis and bloodstream infections (septicemia). More about meningococcal disease...

Get clinical disease information, as well as vaccine recommendations and vaccination resources, for common causes of meningitis.

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Meningitis is a disease caused by the inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord known as the meninges. The inflammation is usually caused by an infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis is also referred to as spinal meningitis.