Triage Activity

1
Triage Activity

• What are examples of vital signs? (blood
  pressure, temperature, heart rate (pulse rate),
  breathing rate
• Why are vital signs important? (they give a quick
  indication of what is going on inside a patients
  body and how much trouble they are in)
• What does triage mean? (it means taking patients
  vital signs and then ranking them or giving them
  a priority to try to save as many patients as
  possible)

2
Key ideas on test1) Specific defense vs.
nonspecific defense2) Antibodies, Antigens,
Antibiotics3) bacteria vs. virus4) Vaccines5)
Vital Signs and Triage6) HIV All vocab words
from the front of the packet are on the test
3
Primary vs. secondary response

• 1st exposure to disease- primary
• Takes time for body to make antibodies
• Sick for a longer period of time
• 2nd exposure to disease- secondary
• Body has already since disease and has the exact
  antibody
• Sick for shorter period of time (might not even
  feel sick at all!)

4
Review questions

• Why is it important for the body to distinguish
  material that is part of itself from nonself
  material?
• Provide 2 examples of immune systems nonspecific
  defense mechanisms.
• Why are viruses unaffected by antibiotics such as
  penicillin and tetracycline?
• Describe how vaccinations work

5
Answer to a)

• When immune system cannot distinguish between
  self and nonself, it attacks and may damage its
  own body tissues.
• Autoimmune diseases result of bodys failure to
  make this distinction.
• Examples rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and
  multiple sclerosis

6
Answer to b)

• Nonspecific defense mechanisms include skin,
  tears, macrophages
• They do not have to recognize the specific
  invader, they can defend against many types of
  invaders
• Specific defense specialized cells (B cells,
  helper killer T cells) that recognize and
  attack certain invaders only

7
Answer to c)

• Antibiotics kill invaders such as bacteria that
  are outside the cells
• Viruses live inside the cell and use these host
  cells as shields
• Antibiotics are not effective against viruses
• To kill viruses- a medication would have to kill
  the rest of the cell as well

8
Answer to d)

• Vaccines are weakened or killed pathogens and
  are used in very small doses
• Small doses are enough to bring on an immune
  response but not enough to cause disease symptoms
• Because of the immune response, immunity to the
  pathogen develops
• Any other future exposures to the disease,
  trigger a major immune reaction

9

• Antibiotics (like penicillin) only work on
  BACTERIA
• Vaccinations can work on BACTERIA and VIRUSES

10
Activity 1

• Get card with 4 test subjects
• All 4 people have been exposed to the influenza
  virus (FLU)
• Decide what their prognosis is. In other words
  will the person get better? About how long will
  it take? (do your best)
• And what effect would taking penicililn have?

11
What is a prognosis?

• A prediction about whether a person will become
  ill and if so, how soon he or she will recover

12
Person 1 (healthy) and flu

• In about 7 days, the healthy immune system should
  have fought off the virus infection.
• Antibiotic (pencillin) ineffective

13
Person 2 (immunosuppressed lack of sleep) and FLU

• Immune system is suppressed although not
  completely dysfunctional
• Exposure to flu would result in a moderately long
  illness, followed by recovery as the weakened
  immune system finally mounted an adequate
  response during the second week of illness
• Penicillin No effect

14
Person 3 (immunosuppressed smoker) and flu

• Immune system is suppressed although not
  completely dysfunctional
• Exposure to flu likely would result in moderately
  long illness, followed by recovery as the
  weakened immune system finally mounted an
  adequate response during the second week of
  illness
• Penicillin no effect

15
Person 4 (severely immunosuppressed AIDS) Flu

• Severely immunosuppressed so infection would
  linger
• Penicillin no effect against flu virus, but it
  might have helped fight any bacteria infections
  for this vulnerable individual

16
Activity 2

• We dont know the identity of the pathogen
• You do know the prognosis of your Test Subject
• Your job is to identify the unknown pathogen
• What is pathogen 1?
• What is pathogen 2?
• What is pathogen 3?

17
These are the 3 possibilities

• Streptococcus bacterium
• Common cold virus
• Rubella virus
• Which one is pathogen 1? Which is pathogen 2?
  Which is pathogen 3?

18
On back of paper

• Write each letter for each scenario
• Write down what each person could have
• For example. Lets do scenario A as a class

19
Scenario A

• Exposed to pathogen 1
• Became mildly ill, but recovered within 7 days
• Was vaccinated earlier for rubella
• Did not take penicillin
• What disease could this person have?
• What could it not be?

20

• The person was vaccinated for rubella, but got
  sick anyway. If this person had rubella, he/she
  wouldnt have gotten sick at all since they had
  the vaccine.
• So pathogen 1 cannot be rubella.
• But it could be strep bacteria or the cold virus
• Since the person did not take antibiotic we dont
  know if he/she has bacteria or virus infection

21
Scenario B

• Test subject 1 was exposed to pathogen 2
• No signs of illness occurred
• Was vaccinated earlier against rubella
• Did not take penicillin

22

• Might be rubella virus, cold virus or strep
  bacteria
• Could be rubella, but vaccination prevented
  illness
• Should have strong immune system, so may be able
  to prevent illness from any pathogen

23
Answers

• Pathogen 1 Common cold virus
• Pathogen 2 Rubella virus
• Pathogen 3 Streptococcus bacteria