17 Case Study #1 – Human Health
Case study #1 – The Farmer’s Flu
Disclaimer: This is a fictitious scenario created for the purposes of microbiome, health, disease, and environmental education. Any names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Part I – Background and Problem
During one week at the end of January of 2019, a high number of flu-like cases have appeared in the small city of Bogart, Iowa which has a population of approximately 50,000 people. 157 individuals were hospitalized over a two-week period, and large proportion included children under the age of 5 years old. Many common symptoms were initially observed in the majority of the patients, however, other less common symptoms manifested in some ill patients after about a week and earlier in those who were immunocompromised and with co-morbidities.
-Common symptoms included:
- fever
- headache
- muscle pain or body aches
- shortness of breath
- vomiting
- diarrhea
- cough
- congestion or runny nose
- fatigue
-Less common symptoms included:
- stiff neck
- lethargy
- chest pain
- swelling of the throat
- severe joint pain
- green, yellow, or bloody mucus production
- facial redness and swelling
Article 1: Respiratory Viral Infection-Induced Microbiome Alterations and Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia
Initial epidemiological data showed that diseased individuals all were at or were in contact with someone who visited the farmer’s market the previous weekend. The market was established more than 20 years ago, and each weekend merchants open their stalls selling everything from pottery, jewelry, and linens to produce, homemade jams, and even livestock. The market is considered to be the staple of town commerce and entertainment, giving Bogart its cozy home-town feel, and even many consumers and merchants come in from the smaller surrounding towns to benefit from the commerce.
Questions:
- What specific pathogens could be responsible for the observed symptoms and why would there be differences in the observed effects in different individuals?
- Which microbiomes may be implicated in this disease and why?
- Do you think this situation is a major public concern? Why or why not?
Attributions:
- Video 1 – Raising temperatures: the immunology of influenza by British Society for Immunology under a Creative Commons Attribution License (reuse allowed)
- Article 1: Respiratory Viral Infection-Induced Microbiome Alterations and Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia by Hanada et al., 2018 under CC BY 4.0 license
- Article 2 – Allergic inflammation alters the lung microbiome and hinders synergistic co-infection with H1N1 influenza virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae in C57BL/6 mice by LeMessurier et al., 2019 under CC BY 4.0 license
- Figure 1 – Antigenic Shift of the Flu Virus by NIAID licensed under CC BY 2.0 license
Case study #1 – The Farmer’s Flu