The indications of a Marburg virus infection can be very similar to other illnesses or conditions. However, symptoms can become increasingly severe as the disease progresses. This can lead to deadly consequences such as multi-system organ failure.
While diagnosis of #Marburg can be difficult and requires a molecular diagnostic test, if you are in an area with an outbreak and experiencing any symptoms it is important to be evaluated.
More information on Marburg virus infection symptoms can be found at the CDC: cdc.gov/vhf/marburg/sy…
as always, catch all my science videos over on YouTube where captions are available! 🙂
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mRNA vaccines are NOT gene therapy.
However, cell & gene therapies are emerging technologies that can help to reduce the burden of inherent genetic alterations that cause diseases. I describe a few of these breakthrough technologies below.
1. CAR-T cell therapy = a patient's own immune cells are engineered to express moieties that target a specific cell type in the body (often for oncology use)
2. CRISPR = a form of DNA editing to disrupt harmful genes or to repair mutated genes
(genes are DNA 😉)
3. Viral integration = removing the ability of a virus to cause an infectious disease, and using it as a delivery vehicles to carry (& integrate) therapeutic genes instead
*INTEGRATION is the key word here. Most viruses that are used as carriers (in development) do not integrate
Almost every unvaccinated person who is sexually active will get HPV (human papillomavirus) at some time in their life. And, each year in the United States (US) HPV causes ~36,000 cases of cancer for men and women.
Fortunately, the HPV vaccine protects against several strains of the virus that are known to cause cancer (cervical, vaginal, anal, etc). Since 2006 when HPV vaccines were first used in the US, HPV infections and precancer detections (on the cervix) have dropped more than 80%.
Additionally, over 15 years of monitoring continue to shown that HPV vaccines are safe and well tolerated. Preventing cancer is better than treating it, and HPV vaccination is cancer prevention.
Here I give a summary of how the bivalent mRNA vaccine boosters for Covid-19 work. The mechanism of immune response action is the same as the mRNA vaccine series made by Pfizer / BioNTech or Moderna. But this time we get two sets of instructions in one shot.
The first set of instructions encode for our bodies to make the original spike protein on SARS-CoV-2 (ancestral strain). The second set of instructions encode for our bodies to make a mutated form of the spike protein, such as the Omicron variant spike protein.
I want to emphasize that targeting multiple serotypes (strains) of a pathogen in one vaccine is not new. This technique is used in many vaccines like the HPV vaccine that targets 9 strains or the pneumococcal vaccine that targets 23 strains.
“What is the treatment for monkeypox? How does it work?”
Here I give a short overview of how the drug Tecovirimat (TPOXX) works for the treatment of smallpox / monkeypox / or other vaccinia virus type infections. TPOXX can be administered by IV injection or as an oral pill.
In the US, TPOXX is FDA approved for the treatment of smallpox disease for adults and children and is currently in the Strategic National Stockpile. Its use for other orthopox virus infections, including monkeypox, is under an Expanded Access Investigational New Drug protocol.
This allows for the use of tecovirimat (#TPOXX) for primary or early empiric treatment of non-smallpox infections (such as monkeypox) in adults and children of all ages [in the US].
Here I give a brief overview of how the vaccine against #Monkeypox works.
This vaccine is under various brand names including JYNNEOS (US), IMVANEX (EU), and IMVAMUNE (Canada) which is made by the company Bavarian Nordic.
More info in 🧵
This is a live, non-replicating vaccine which is derived from the Vaccinia virus, part of the Orthopox virus family. This family includes both smallpox and monkeypox, so pan immunity is achieved.
This falls under the more ‘traditional’ types of vaccines. It is not mRNA tech.
Remember that this is a two dose series, 4 weeks apart. Maximum immunity is achieved 2 weeks after your second dose.
The vaccine has been approved for those pregnant or breast-feeding, 18 years or older.
Here I breakdown the mutations within the #DeltaVariant of SARS-CoV-2 and how these amino acid changes are important to be aware of related to the virus’s ability to infect & be detected by antibodies.
Refresher on how to read the mutations can be found here:
SARS-CoV-2 does not mutate while floating in the air or being found on a surface. It mutates while it replicates, and replication occurs during transmission. Less transmission = less mutations.