Monkey Importation CEO

M&Ms Monkey Importation Corp. (the MMI)
     This monkey importation business takes their importing regulating very seriously. We make sure all regulations are followed and strictly influenced amount our staff. Nothing but these regulations are followed if so, fierce actions will be taken. We ensure no filovirus breakouts with these regulations. The CDC is always close by with a sharp eye, which is always good in our minds.
*Record inspection- importers must make monkey records available for inspection by the CDC during scheduled visits or within 1 hour of unscheduled visits.
*Special permits- importer registration will be simplified by eliminating the need for an importer that must request special permits for rare monkeys that might have a filovirus.
*Becoming a registered importer for the CDC- everyone that works for the monkeys must be registered with the CDC. They can do that by submitting a application to the CDC.
*Employee illness reporting- an importer must contact the CDC immediately to report any suspected illnesses among the employees.
*Worker protection plans- employers must have a written worker protection plan for anyone who may be exposed to a virus while at work. This protection plan is designed to ensure that individuals who work with or around these viruses are well educated on the risks and are protected from exposure to zoonotic diseases, which are diseases that can spread from animals to humans. Also, an importer must contact the CDC immediately by telephone to report any suspected communicable illness in an employee and must develop procedures for contacting the CDC in its worker protection plan.
*Ports of entry into the United States- entry of monkeys into the US is restricted to those ports of entry where CDC Quarantine stations are located, except in limited circumstances approved in advance by the CDC.
*TB testing- tuberculin skin testing is required for all imported monkeys to decrease the risk of TB, which is Tuberculosis testing.
*31 day quarantine- importers must quarantine all monkeys for at least 31 days after arrival at the US quarantine facility. 31 days is usually plenty of time to see if they are infected.
*Design and operation of animal holding facilities- Animal-holding facilities must meet specific requirements for airflow and disinfection.
*Crating and caging and transporting- importers must meet specific requirements for crating, caging, and transporting monkeys. It is the importers responsibility to ensure that all infection control measures are in place throughout transportation, not just after the monkeys reach a licensed quarantine facility in the US.
*Ground transportation vehicles- an importer must establish, implement, maintain and follow standard operating procedures for vehicles transporting the monkeys.
*Illness reporting requirements for monkeys- an importer must report to the CDC any instances of severe illness or death in the monkeys or if more than 5% of monkeys in a shipment die during a quarantine period.
*Shipment penotification- an importer must notify the the CDC in at least 7 days before an importing a shipment of monkeys.

How I Feel About Animal Testing

     How I feel about animal testing? I'm not really sure myself. I mean yes we need animal testing to see if medication actually works to save more animal and human lives. But it's also sad to know that they might die. Nobody likes to hear that an animal has died. It's just sad to hear, animal lover or not. They are innocent creatures, they don't wake up everyday knowing what they are going to encounter in the testing room. When animals are used in medical tests they are likely to suffer pain, illness, and quite often death. I know if I was an animal I would be scared out of my mind.
     Animals suffer from it immensely, plus with modern tecniques it is completely unnecessary. Animal testing is not just giving a mouse a pill and see what it does, it is so much more than that. They break their legs, burn them, cut them open while they’re still alive without any form of anesthesia, poison them, remove half their brains, spray stuff in their eyes and so on. And it’s not just mice and rats that have to suffer from the tests. Most people don’t know that cats, dogs, horses, pigs, guinnea pigs, rabbits and even monkeys are used for animal testing.
     Besides the cruelty that comes along with it, there are more reasons why animal testing is a bad thing. For example: it is useless because we are not rabbits. An animal has a totally different DNA than a human and therefore you can’t rely on the results. Bypass surgery is completely “safe” on humans, but they never succeeded in performing bypass surgery on dogs. Paracetamol is a very common and safe medicine to fight a headache, but it would kill a cat, goat or horse.
     A lot of people believe that modern alternatives are much more expensive than animal testing because that’s what the pharmaceutical industry keeps telling them. It indeed costs quite an amount of money to switch from old techniques to new ones, but eventually it will be worth it. It is a one time investment, while with animal testing, you have to keep paying for it. Animals need to be bred, they need food, shelter and of course let’s not forget the transportation costs. So despite what the industry claims, animal testing is more expensive than the use of modern techniques!
     I understand that medicine needs to be tested somehow before it can be used on humans, but with modern tecniques it is useless to use animals for that. They now can sort of clone an organ and safely test on that. That way, no one gets hurt, plus eventually, it doesn’t cost as much as animal testing. But I believe you can find better ways for finding cures by using medicines on something else besides animals.

Case Study 11

The hot zone project notes
Case study 11
      Infectious diseases are the terrorists of the natural world. Most of them, though, quite frankly, aren't very good at inspiring terror. The common cold? An annoyance, but not a terror. The chicken pox? Itchy, but not terrifying. Even a nasty flu is rarely more than acute unpleasantness. But then there are the few that really stand out, the diseases that make us all a little more appreciative of our health and a little more respectful of the microbial world.
Today we are going to talk about botulism. Botulism is the handiwork of the common soil bacteria Clostridium botulinum. The bacteria can be spread through food contaminated with the bacteria or its spores, or through an open wound.
      Once in the body, the bacteria start producing the toxin and things get messy. Within a day or two, neurological symptoms appear, including slurred speech, blurred vision and trouble breathing. Muscles get weaker, reflexes stop working, limbs get paralyzed. Eventually, the diaphragm and other breathing muscles stop working, causing death. Antitoxin and antibiotics can halt the disease's progress, if administered in time, but it can take months to fully recover from the paralysis.
      Mary Goodright was a mom of two strong healthy boys that were real active in football and mostly all sports. She is 32 and has a wonderful husband. They lived in Fort Collins, Colorado. One night, Mary's husband took her out to dinner for their anniversary. They went to this fancy restaurant, Mary's favorite place. They go there every year for their anniversary and Mary didn't love anything better than to go eat sea food for their anniversary.
      Mary ordered an entree of caviar and her husband ordered crab legs. Next they shared a triple chocolate chocolate cake. Mary had a wonderful time, it couldn't have been any better. The very next day was busy for Mary, it was a Monday. Mary drop of the kids at school, pick up a coffee at Starbucks, and headed for work. She work for a realtor company, she was the secretary and she loved everything about work. When she showed up for work she went to the bathroom to freshen up a bit. When she walked in she felt really nauseous, she thought she was seeing double, and it was really blurry.
      Her boss notice something was wrong, Mary thought it was just food poisoning. Mary's boss asked if she was ok, but Mary couldn't stop vomiting. Something was really wrong thought Mary's boss, so she called Mary's husband. When he showed up Mary was still in the bathroom just laying on the floor. She was pale and looked really weak. Mary said to called the ambulance, but all her husband herd was gibberish. But he could make out call, so that's exactly what he did.
When they got to the hospital the doctor had no idea what to say. Mary looked even worse than what she did at the company. When the doctor looked at Mary he thought that she had Myasthenia Gravis which also causes weakness and eyelid drooping. The doctor decided that she might have a really bad case of Myasthenia Gravis, so he decided to test for just Myasthenia Gravis. As he was about to leave the room Mary started making a lot of noise moving around on the bed. She was having a stroke, which is one of the signs of botulism. As the nurses we're taking care of Mary as best as they could, he told her husband that it would be best to run some test for both.
      They decided to do a brain test, spinal fluid examination, nerve conduction test, and a tensilon test for Myasthenia Gravis. After the tests came back, it was positive that she had a serious case of Botulism and they needed to get her on some antibiotics quick. They put her on a antitoxin that blocks the action of neurotoxin circulating in the blood. The CDC was the only place that offered the treatment so the flew Mary there and started her treatment in a quarantine station. They did the treatment for many weeks but nothing was getting better. She had no side effects to the treatment, its just the disease kept her so nauseous that she couldn't keep the medicine down.
      Mary's family had a decision to make, either stop the treatment or let their mom live in quarantine for the rest of her life with the medication. Mary was paralyzed from the waste down, she could barely write but that's the only way she could communicate. She left it up to her trusting husband for what to do. Mary started reflecting back on her wonderful life she remembers the births of her two boys, her marriage, her childhood, and everything that was important to her. Her husband told the nurses to shut everything down and let her die in peace, and that she would like that.
      He told her what he was doing and that he was sorry, but when he looked at Mary with his tear felt eyes she was shaking her head no. Like she understood like it was her time to go, that the disease and the medicine fighting against each other was to much for her body. After saying his goodbye, her husband went home to his boys. The next day he got a phone call, Mary has passed. The botulism eventually went and paralyzed her whole body through the night. It was on the move, nothing they could have done would have helped. Mary now rests in peace.
      The investigation on Mary was difficult but the figured out it was in the caviar she ate the big before. One of the most common ways to get botulism is in canned food that's not canned properly. They tested Mary's husband but he was negative. Other serious cases came up from the same restaurant, but it was different foods the people ate. No serious defense was taken against the restaurant from the Goodright family.

Hot Zone Collage