Description
Infectious diseases have killed more people than any other single cause and have remained the primary source of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Infectious diseases are disorders caused by microorganisms — such as bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites. Many of these organisms are part of our bodies’ microflora, and are generally beneficial, but under certain circumstances they may lead to disease. Furthermore, other infectious diseases can be transmitted directly or indirectly: from one person to another, from insects or animals, or can be acquired by ingestion of contaminated foods and water, as well as by environmental exposure. Accordingly, our ever-growing world population is facing new challenges such as emerging and re-emerging infectious disease associated with globalization and increased populations of immunocompromised individuals. Therefore, the prescription and/or administration of an antimicrobial and the potential emergence of resistance among pathogenic microbial isolates requires a working knowledge of the diversity of infectious agents, testing and profiling techniques used to identify them, treatment modalities and preventative actions. Accordingly, the objective of the following term paper is to acquaint students with performing original literature research pertaining their chosen infectious agent. This paper will be in a review paper format, ranging from its history and discovery to morphology and growth characteristics, mechanisms of pathogenicity and treatment or preventative options, and lastly public health related management strategies or policies.
Each student will select an infectious agent of their interest (bacteria, virus, fungi, protozoan, prion) at the beginning of the quarter and research their chosen microbe outside of class using web resources (NIH, CDC, FDA, PubMed), and peer-reviewed primary literature. You will be expected to prepare a 10 page written paper covering the various topics listed below.
Taxonomic classification
History and interesting facts
Notable outbreaks
Morphological and growth characteristics
Disease geography
Rout of transmission
Mechanisms of pathogenesis
Diagnosis / symptoms
Treatment modalities / availability of vaccine
Public health initiatives / preventative actions
References
The final, submitted, paper must include the above-mentioned topics organized into sections with headings. Please double-space all your text. Use 1” margins all round. Use 11 pt font. The minimum number of pages should not be less than 9 pages and maximum length should not exceed 11 pages (references not included). A minimum of 8 peer-reviewed primary literature citations should be used. These do not include websites. Articles must be cited in APA format. Your chosen infectious agent must be named using taxonomic nomenclature.
Taxonomic nomenclature employs the names of the two lower-level taxa, genus, and species. Conventions when using taxonomic nomenclature include genus comes before species and is always capitalized. Species name is never capitalized. Both names are always italicized. For example, Escherichia coli. If the name appears in several places in throughout the text, you can abbreviate the genus name after it has been written in full length for the first time. For example, the abbreviation of Escherichia coli is E. coli. When specifying a particular strain, the genus name comes first, species name is second and strain name is last, followed by the serovar. The prefix subsp. is generally used to signify the strain. Everything should be italicized except the prefix subsp. and the serovar – Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Dublin. If the species is not fully identified, than the abbreviation “sp.” in the singular or “spp.” in the plural is used (e.g., Salmonella spp.). In this case, the name of the genus is written in italic, and sp. and spp. are written in normal font.
If figures are included, number them consecutively and give each a caption, as well as refer to them in your text by their number. Do not use more than 3 figures. Make sure that you include all the information necessary to interpret your figures. If figures are taken from other works, make sure you cite their original source.
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