Vaccinations Assignment
Part 1
Question 1
The two distinguishing features between DNA and RNA are that: a. RNA has sugar ribose while DNA has sugar deoxyribose, b. RNA contains nucleo-base uracil and on the other hand, DNA has thymine.
Question 2
The two reasons which may lead to the patient getting negative results for the qPCR test is due to a. contamination, and b. the occurrence of problems at the time of nucleic acid extraction, c. amplification reaction inhibition. This makes the process to give false results at times.
Question 3
In my own opinion, the worse type of error is a False Negative since it can result in a doctor thinks that the patient is okay and hence lead health conditions deteriorating. This is due to the increased reaction of the pathogen in the victim’s body.
Question 4
The reason why a patient can see a ‘False Positive’ for the antibody test is due to cross-reactive microbial antigens interacting with assay (Den, et al., 2020). The results are said to be contaminated.
Question 5
The various types of macromolecules used for the qPCR test include proteins and lipids. These are the biological macromolecules present in the animals’ bodies. The common type of macromolecule utilized in an antibody test is protein.
Question 6
Labeled 3 is A and 5 is also A. The blank DNA sequence in the primer diagram is AGC respectively. The direction of DNA is as illustrated by the arrow
Question 7
- The type of test that I would want to support is the qPCR test if I would have $10 million.
- The reason why I choose the qPCR test is that is economical to use and relatively more accurate as compared to the antibody test which is more involving and time-consuming.
- The people or population that needs to be tested first is the vulnerable one, to a safe life. Testing the most affected people can help to curb the disease more first and thus ensuring life is not lost.
Question 8
The concern or question of interest about the coronavirus test is to know what the disease weakens in the human body. I would like to understand how the virus attacks the immune system to be able to know what could be the best step to take to help an individual develop a mechanism to survive with it even if it would be difficult to destroy it completely.
Part 2
Question 1
The live attenuated vaccine is dangerous to persons with a weak immune system in that the virus can overcome the individual. This can make the victim’s health to be at risk and can result in death. The reason is that the mild diseases evident in the introduction of the virus in one’s body may be overemphasized.
Question 2
The benefit of live attenuated vaccines is that it is economical to make. The risk of this vaccine is that it can revert to original pathogens hence causing the death of the victimized patient. On the other hand inactive is not likely to revert to original pathogen and hence safer for a person as it cannot replicate. The risk of inactive immune is that it requires multiple dosages hence not healthy.
Question 3
A vaccine should take the least time possible to save a life. Vaccine development phase 1 that should be shortened is the extraction of the pathogen and studying it. The virus’s biological tests equipment to understand its cycle are already available and time can be reduced to first develop a vaccine that can lessen the situation as a better medicine is developed. The step I would not shorten is virus analysis in phase II since for a better drug, the knowledge of pathogen is necessary.
Question 4
Biologically a vaccine may safe for human use but not preventing illness. This means the pathogen has mutated and has been replicated and hence overcoming the vaccine introduced in the victims’ body. The immune system responds negatively to the antigen introduced in the human body in this context.
Question 5
The US population is vaccinated for vaccine-preventable diseases like measles to avoid replication of the pathogen. This is to ensure that the intensity of the virus remains low and cannot develop into a new form that can weaken the body of the victims.
Question 6
From the vaccination coverage chart it clear that the rate of vaccine provision lowers with regions with low-income. The reason is due to the high costs of making vaccines or buying from the nations that have them.
Question 7
If a given nation develops a Coronavirus vaccine, the challenges of vaccinating the world are a. cost of producing the vaccine, b. accessibility of people in rural areas due to transport, c. economic rivals. It worth noting the process of releasing the vaccine could be surrounded by many other factors including the relationship between nations.
Reference
den Hartog, G., van Binnendijk, R., Buisman, A. M., Berbers, G. A., & van der Klis, F. R.
(2020). Immune surveillance for vaccine-preventable diseases. Expert Review of Vaccines, 1-13.