Michael invites his college roommate, Steven, to spend Spring Break…

Question Answered step-by-step Michael invites his college roommate, Steven, to spend Spring Break… Michael invites his college roommate, Steven, to spend Spring Break with him at his family’s hunting cabin in the hills of Pennsylvania. One night, Steven is awakened by something crawling on his right shoulder. It feels furry as he brushes it onto the floor, but doesn’t get up to inspect it. In the morning, Michael finds a bat clinging to the inside of one of the cabin walls. It makes strange noises and flies about the room, but appears unable to fly very well and repeatedly lands on the floor. Michael forces the bat out of the cabin door with a broom, and it flies several feet into the woods before it lands on the ground.             Back at college a month later, Steven wakes one morning with a headache and low back pain. He attends morning classes, but as the day progresses, his neck and shoulder begin to ache, he feels weak, and he begins to develop a sore throat. Instead of going to lunch, he heads back to his dormitory, takes 2 Tylenol, and lies down for a nap. When Michael comes in, Steven wakes up and tries to speak, but his voice is very hoarse. Michael notes that Steven seems a little confused and disoriented, and takes him to the campus infirmary.             At the infirmary, Steven is given more Tylenol, and antibiotic, and an anesthetic throat spray and told to check back if his condition worsens. The next day, Steven has a high fever (104 F) and chills, combined with nausea and vomiting. The pain in his neck a shoulder is intense, and his speech is now slurred. Increasingly concerned for his friend, Michael takes Steven to the emergency room of the county hospital.             Upon admittance, a laryngeal examination shows paralysis of the left vocal cords. Steven is hyper salivating and cannot swallow without intense pain. After a few hours, he begins to exhibit clonus of the right arm, progressing to clonus of the trunk and other limbs. Over the following day, the doctors begin to suspect tetanus because Steven has a work-study job in the biology department greenhouse. The give him tetanus immune globulin and continue antibiotic treatment. They also consider herpes simplex encephalitis and spongiform encephalopathy to be possibilities. Steven now begins to have double vision, see odd flashes of colored light, and other hallucinations.             Samples of blood serum, saliva, CSF, and a nuchal skin biopsy are sent to the Centers for Disease Control for diagnostic examination. While doctors await the results, Steven goes into respiratory arrest and is put on a mechanical ventilator. Eight days after the onset of symptoms, Steven’s pupils are unreactive, and he shoes no corneal reflex. At 12 days, he shows no cranial nerve reflexes at all, and lapses into a coma. On day 14, Steven’s parents consent to withdraw respiratory support, and Steven passes away.             While waiting for Steven’s test results from the CDC, the hospital begins post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) of the people who were or may have been exposed to Steven’s saliva. This includes Michael, Steven’s girlfriend, his parents, and 42 doctors, nurses and other staff of the campus infirmary and the county hospital.  1. Outline how rabies virus travels from the site of the bite to the autonomic nervous system, and ultimately how this facilitates transmission to a new host. (1 point) 2. Name the stage of the disease that Steven is in on the day he first goes to the campus infirmary. Could his death have been prevented if that disease had been correctly diagnosed on that day? Explain why or why not.  Biology Science Physiology BIO MISC Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)