Posted by manang at 02:03 AM on July 24, 2004 as a stickied post.
Posted by manang at 06:20 AM on January 31, 2010 in medical blah blah.
yesterday, i came about this page (http://ph.news.yahoo.com/gma/20100130/tph-pinoy-prof-in-us-develops-anti-malar-ac8c905.html). It's about a Filipino doctor ( Dr. Rhoel Dinglasan) from John Hopkin's hosp
ital inventing a malarial vaccine. Target of the vaccine is to prevent the development of the malaria parasite in mosquitoes. The way i understand it, when the mosquito sucks a vaccinated person, malaria would be inhibited inside the mosquito.
questions: Does that mean the malaria would not be transmitted if a vaccinated person gets bitten by an infected mosquito? yes. Would the infected mosquito who sucked the vaccinated blood be unable to transmit malaria again? it seems so, though do correct me if im wrong. is it available now? no. clinical studies re just being planned right now. how often should one take the vaccine: ang kulit! hindi pa nga available.
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Parasites vs. vaccines. parasites are problematic because they are paraasites: they suck blood from you,they squat in your abdomen, they mulitply endlessly causing obstruction on your organs, or they destroy your skin,making you scray-looking. Viral vaccine usually work by helping your body recognize a virus and create antibodies to fight it off. a person receiving a vaccine is given either an attenuated virus (less potent/less strong than the actual virus) or a killed virus (coat only, no infectious part).
The parasitic vaccine Dr. Dinglasan created is a bit confusing to me. According to the article, the vaccine would target the mosquito and lock the parasites inside. the article also said that the vaccine they created contains an antigen that simulated the presence of malaria --> antibodies are then created by our bodies to fight future introduction of the parasite. now there's the part where i got lost. Yous see, if i were infected by malaria, it is still possible to get reinfected. This means that immunity from malaria is hard to come by. that alone could negate the article. maybe the writer didnt understand what the doctor said.
Immunity does not happen frequently, though some say that it may happen in some people lacking proteins called Duffy antigens (receptor sites for the parasite) in their blood (red blood cell is where malaria enters to multiply)--> this means people lacking this proteins would NOT have plasmodium enter its RBC. (plasmodium is the causative agent of malarial infection.) It has also been said that immunity may happen in some people living in malaria-endemic places. But it would happen only after constant and repeated reinfection!
Also, one should know that previous researches on parasitic vaccines had severe human side effects! why? because their structure is more complex than bacteria (not seen by the naked eye- only its manifestations, it is seen through a light microscope) or viruses (viruses are not seen though a light microscope)
conclusion: so if that parasitic vaccine by Dr. Dinglasan works,well, it will be awesome.
Actually, i found this article while stuying for my microbiology practicals and theo exam. lol. delaying ba?
self handicapping: i wasn't able to study kasi i found a great article on....
Posted by manang at 10:07 PM on January 26, 2010.
rawr.
i growl at myself for being too boring. slap slap. alertness is a fleeting state.
i am great. i am beautiful. i am excellent. this mantra was so 2 years ago.
hummhummm. coffee. i neeeeeed. coffee.
patho is boring.
Posted by manang at 11:19 AM on January 24, 2010.
what weekend? medicine is getting too boring. i hate monotony. there's so much to do, i know, but spending the whole day in class, diving into books at home all night is getting to me.
sometimes i want to quit med altogether. of course i wont. in the end i'll decide to continue drudging on all these stuff.
why do they have to feed us with too many stuff in too little time?! i mean come on, when they were studying, not much literature on viruses or dna were available. now they all want us to memorize all these freaking molecular stuff, while demanding we understand right away clinical diagnosis and pathophysiology (by heart) of 'common' diseases.
for example: systemic lupus erythomatosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease with a presentation of butterfly rash on the face. ha! they wont ask about that. they would give you the other symptoms, then assuming you know that the diagnosis is SLE, would ask what the antibodies are greatest in this disease (ans: anti-dsDNA). that's for only one frigging question on one friggin subject! plus they expect us to retain all of these stuff til it's med board time!
how do we know which one's are important? you pray, and ask for divine intervention.
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i need to write. this will be my therapy.
Posted by manang at 09:16 PM on January 11, 2010.
im regaining my aral powers real slow this year.
i wonder why.
Posted by manang at 11:46 PM on December 21, 2009.
2nd year med skul is on hold for almost 5 days now.
my husband's here with us.
life is good.
Posted by manang at 11:23 PM on September 8, 2009.
i return.
its only now that im creating a facebook page.
peer pressure? i dont think i really have a 'peer' right now.
grr grrr. im on academic suicide. it's almost 12mn and i havent started anything yet on my clinical med history write-up.
i'll do it soon i promise.
now, before i totally become a loser, i'm goind to find out what the el this facebook fuss is all about.