Bordetella pertussis in Canada
Introduction
Briefly introduce your topic here.
Description of Bordetella pertussis
Description of the microbe
The bacterium Bordetella Pertussis is the causative agent of Whooping Cough. This small bacterium (about .8um in length and .4um by width) cannot survive in the open environment, and therefore must reside in a host, and is considered pathogenic. This host is almost always a human, where its “natural” environment is said to be the mucus in the human respiratory tract. The optimum temperature of growth for B.pertussis is about 35-37C, which is the temperature inside a living human host.
B.pertussis is an aerobic gram negative bacterium that does not produce spores. Due to its lack of flagella, it is also immotile. It resides in the phylum Proteobacteria, class Betaproteobacteria, order Burkholderiales, and family Alcaligenaceae. Because it is an aerobe, it utilizes aerobic respiration. Therefore, the bacterium consists of an electron transport chain on its membrane, and is considered a chemoheterotroph. Like other gram negative bacteria, it possesses an inner and outer membrane, with a thin peptidoglycan cell wall in between. This cell wall is attached to the outer membrane via lipoproteins. Like other gram negatives, the outer membrane of B.pertussis is coated with LPS (lipopolysachharides), which are long sugar linked and lipid-anchored polysaccharides coating the outer membrane. LPS are endotoxins, meaning that they are toxic to host (or potentially other bacteria) cells when detached from the bacteria. However, B.pertussis consists of very unusual LPS compared to other gram negatives. Namely, it contains two forms of LPS that have a different phosphate composition than standard Lipid A form LPS.
Link to MicrobeWiki Page: Bordetella pertussis http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Bordetella_pertussis
Transmission of disease
How is it transmitted? Is there a vector (animal/insect)?
Prevention
Why is this disease a problem in [name of country]
Do lifestyle/environment/economics/political issues play a role?
What is being done to address this problem
Include anything being done by the local government or groups as well as efforts by non-local groups.
What else could be done to address this problem
Are there solutions that could be successful but haven't been implemented due to political or economic reasons? Are there successful efforts in other countries? Are there reasons why these efforts may or may not be successful in the country you've focused on? etc. etc.
References
Edited by Bryan Dieffenbach, Gorjan Hrustanovic, Patricia Lee and Andrew Chen, students of Rachel Larsen
