There has recently been an outbreak of a new disease in South America known as Ashella schmiddy. Recent studies that have been released have shown that A. schmiddy is a highly infectious flesh eating bacterium. A. schmiddy is a Gram Negative(-) bacillus, and it’s preferred portal of entry is the skin. It has been proven that once the bacteria is introduced to even the smallest cut or abrasion on the skin, infection quickly follows. One thing that makes this new disease so worry-some is the number of invading microbes that it takes to infect 50% of the population, which is only 15-45 cells, which is an extremely low dosage. Once A. schmiddy is introduced to the cut, fimbriae on the surface of the cell membrane attaches to human tissue cells …show more content…
Inflammation is the main type of innate immunity our body uses against A. schmiddy. Inflammation begins by activating acute-phase proteins, and soon after vasodilation occurs, followed by redness, swelling, pain, and heat. Once vasodilation occurs, histamine and kinins are released and blood vessels permeability is increased, causing white blood cells to report to the infected area. One problem associated with inflammation is that the capsule of A. schmiddy is an important virulence factor, which helps the bacteria to resists phagocytosis. Because the phagocytes cannot destroy the bacteria cells, infection further continues and necrotic tissue forms. Once innate immunity has seemed to fail, adaptive immunity sets in. Adaptive immunity is the body’s defense against a specific pathogen. One protein that A. schmiddy has is known as the Opa protein which, in short, inhibits the T Helper cells. Opa proteins inhibits T Helper cells (CD4+ cells) so antigens presented on MCHII is not recognized so B cells are not activated and cytokines are not released. Therefore, TH1, TH2, and TH17 are not activated, resulting in macrophages, mast cells, eosinophils, basophils, and neutrophils not being recruited. Since Helper T cells are one of the most important cells in our body’s immune response, without them our body cannot defend itself against many pathogens (Alberts