What Is Mycoplasma Pneumonia?

Mycoplasma pneumonia (MP) is a contagious respiratory infection. The disease spreads easily through contact with respiratory fluids, and it causes regular epidemics.

The most common sign of infection is a dry cough. Untreated or severe cases can have symptoms affecting the heart and nervous system. In rare cases, MP can be fatal.

Diagnosis is difficult in the early stages of MP because there are few unusual symptoms. As the disease progresses, imaging and laboratory tests may be able to detect it. Doctors use antibiotics to treat MP. If antibiotics aren’t effective at treating MP, you may need intravenous medications.

Advertisement

Part 2 of 8: Causes

What Causes Mycoplasma Pneumonia?

A bacterium called Mycoplasma pneumonia causes MP. This is the most recognized of all human pathogens. There are over 200 different known species. Most patients with respiratory infection due to Mycoplasma pneumoniae don’t develop pneumonia. Once inside the body, the bacterium may attach itself to your lung tissue and multiply until a full infection develops. Most cases are mild.

Part 3 of 8: Risk Factors

Who Is at Risk for Developing Mycoplasma Pneumonia?

In many healthy adults, the immune system is capable of fighting off MP before it can grow into an infection. Those who are most at risk include:

· older adults

· people who have diseases that compromise their immune system, such as HIV

· people who have lung disease

· people who have sickle cell disease

· children younger than age 5

Part 4 of 8: Symptoms

What Are the Symptoms of Mycoplasma Pneumonia?

The symptoms of MP are the same as a common upper respiratory tract infection.

Common symptoms of MP include:

· persistent fever

· dry cough

· malaise

· fever

In rare cases, the infection may become dangerous and cause damage to the heart or central nervous system. Examples of these disorders include:

· arthritis, which is a disorder in which the joints become inflamed

· pericarditis, which is inflammation of the pericardium that surrounds the heart

· Guillain-Barré syndrome, which is a neurological disorder that can lead to paralysis and death

· encephalitis, which is an inflammation of the brain

Part 5 of 8: Diagnosis

How Is Mycoplasma Pneumonia Diagnosed?

The disease generally develops silently for the first one to three weeks after exposure. Diagnosis is difficult in the early stages because the body doesn’t instantly reveal an infection. Sometimes manifestations of infection may occur outside of your lung. If this happens, signs of infection may include the breakup of red blood cells, a skin rash, and joint involvement. The symptoms and signs can indicate infection of the gastrointestinal tract, central nervous system, and heart disease. Three to seven days after the first symptoms appear, medical testing can show evidence of an MP infection.

In order to make a diagnosis, your doctor will listen to your breathing with a stethoscope for any abnormal sounds. A chest X-ray and a CT scan may also help your doctor to make a diagnosis.

Part 6 of 8: Treatment

What Are the Treatment Options for Mycoplasma Pneumonia?

Antibiotics

The first line of treatment for MP is antibiotics. Children get different antibiotics than adults to avoid any potentially dangerous side effects.

Macrolides, the first choice of antibiotics for children, include:

· erythromycin

· clarithromycin

· roxithromycin

· azithromycin

Antibiotics prescribed for adults include:

· doxycycline

· tetracycline

· quinolones

Corticosteroids

Not all people respond to antibiotic treatment. Alternative treatments include the following corticosteroids:

· prednisolone

· methylprednisone

Immunomodulatory Therapy

If you have a severe case of MP, you may need antibiotics and a treatment called 
“immunomodulatory therapy.” This type of therapy can boost or decrease the effects of other medicines. Examples of immunomodulatory medications that are used with antibiotics include:

· corticosteroids

· intravenous Ig (IVIg)

Contact Wason biotech Inc for more information and the materials of diagnostic reagent. such as antibody,antigen. we also offer you the finished test kit, used for ELISA, RAPID TEST, CLIA

Diagnostic for Dengue Virus

Dengue Virus

Dengue is caused by Dengue virus (DENV), a mosquito-borne flavivirus. DENV is an single stranded RNA positive-strand virus of the family Flaviviridae, genus Flavivirus. This genus includes also the West Nile virus, Tick-borne Encephalitis Virus, Yellow Fever Virus, and several other viruses which may cause encephalitis. DENV causes a wide range of diseases in humans, from a self limited Dengue Fever (DF) to a life-threatening syndrome called Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) or Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS).

There are four antigenically different serotypes of the virus (although there is report of 2013 that a fifth serotype has been found): 

	DENV-1
	DENV-2
	DENV-3
	DENV-4

Here, a serotype is a group of viruses classified together based on their antigens on the surface of the virus. These four subtypes are different strains of dengue virus that have 60-80% homology between each other. The major difference for humans lies in subtle differences in the surface proteins of the different dengue subtypes. Infection induces long-life protection against the infecting serotype, but it gives only a short time cross protective immunity against the other types. The first infection cause mostly minor disease, but secondary infections has been reported to cause severe diseases (DHF or DSS) in both children and adults. This fenomenon is called Antibody-Dependent Enhancement.

 
Figure 1. Dengue virus particle and microscopic picture of dengue viruses

DENV is a 50-nm virus enveloped with a lipid membrane (see figure 1). There are 180 identical copies of the envelope (E) protein attached to the surface of the viral membrane by a short transmembrane segment. The virus has a genome of about 11000 bases that encodes a single large polyprotein that is subsequently cleaved into several structural and non-structural mature peptides. The polyprotein is divided into three structural proteins, C, prM, E; seven nonstructural proteins, NS1, NS2a, NS2b, NS3, NS4a, NS4b, NS5; and short non-coding regions on both the 5' and 3' ends (see figure 2). The structural proteins are the capsid (C) protein, the envelope (E) glycoprotein and the membrane (M) protein, itself derived by furine-mediated cleavage from a prM precursor. The E glycoprotein is responsible for virion attachment to receptor and fusion of the virus envelope with the target cell membrane and bears the virus neutralization epitopes. In addition to the E glycoprotein, only one other viral protein, NS1, has been associated with a role in protective immunity. NS3 is a protease and a helicase, whereas NS5 is the RNA polymerase in charge of viral RNA replication.

Figure 2. Dengue virus genome structure with the structural and nonstructural genes

The life cycle of dengue involves endocytosis via a cell surface receptor (see video 1 and figure 3). The virus uncoats intracellularly via a specific process. In the infectious form of the virus, the envelope protein lays flat on the surface of the virus, forming a smooth coat with icosahedral symmetry. However, when the virus is carried into the cell and into lysozomes, the acidic environment causes the protein to snap into a different shape, assembling into trimeric spike. Several hydrophobic amino acids at the tip of this spike insert into the lysozomal membrane and cause the virus membrane to fuse with lysozome. This releases the RNA into the cell and infection starts.

Wason Biotech can offer you the materials for diagnostic reagent, such as antibody, antigen , also can offer finished test kit used for ELISA, CLIA and RAPID TEST. Welcome inquiry me.

What You Should Know About Zika Virus

Concerns are growing over the mosquito-borne illness known as Zika virus, which has been spreading through Central and South America and is believed to be linked to a surge in serious birth defects in Brazil.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel advisory urging pregnant women to avoid travel to more than 30 countries and territories, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, where Zika virus is present. Because of the possible link to birth defects, pregnant women who must travel to affected areas should talk to their doctor or other health care provider first and strictly follow steps to avoid mosquito bites during the trip, the CDC said.

The virus reached Mexico in November and Puerto Rico in December, and the CDC has confirmed more than 50 cases of Zika in the U.S., all but one in travelers who recently returned from trips to Latin America. In one case, a person who caught it abroad transmitted it to their partner through sex.

Here's a primer about what you should know about the disease.

What is Zika virus?

Zika virus is an illness transmitted to people through bites from mosquitoes of the Aedes species -- the same mosquitoes that spread dengue and chikungunya viruses. It not communicable from person to person but can be transmitted when a mosquito bites someone who's infected and then bites someone else.

The virus was first discovered in Uganda in 1947 and named after the forest in which it was found.

Officials say the current Zika outbreak in Brazil began last May. Authorities there estimate that since then, between 440,000 and 1.3 million people have caught it. Zika has spread to other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras and Mexico. Puerto Rico reported its first case of locally transmitted Zika virus in December.

What are the symptoms?

According to the CDC, the most common symptoms of Zika virus are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis. Other symptoms can include muscle pain, headache, pain behind the eyes, and vomiting.

Symptoms are usually mild, lasting from a few days to a week. Many people infected with the virus experience no symptoms at all. In rare cases, symptoms can become severe and require hospitalization.

A number of Zika patients in Brazil have also gone on to develop a rare autoimmune condition called Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause at leasttemporary paralysis. Health officials are investigating the possible connection.

Is there a vaccine or cure?

There is no vaccine to prevent Zika virus. The U.S. National Institutes of Health is ramping up efforts to develop one, but the process will take time.

"It is important to understand we will not have a widely available safe and effectiveZika vaccine this year and probably not in the next few years," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

There is no specific treatment for Zika except to try to ease the symptoms.

What do we know about its possible link to birth defects?

Health officials in Brazil say they've found strong evidence that Zika has been linked to a sudden rise in the number of babies being born with abnormally small heads, a condition called microcephaly, which often results in mental retardation.

Brazil's government reports more than 4,000 babies have been born with microcephaly since the Zika outbreak began there, up from fewer than 150 in 2014.

Wason Biotech Inc,  we can offer you the antibody, antigen and test kit for Zika virus. welcome inquire me.