Vanquishing the TJ Plague

Joanna Cheng, Grace Huang, Junho Lee, Jennifer Liu, Anvi Padiyar and Sanne Wu
Edited by Teknos 2019-2020 Staff

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is no stranger to the influenza virus. If you’re a Jefferson student, you’ve probably been a carrier or victim of the flu at some point. We complain about the "TJ plague”, the rapid transmission of viruses facilitated by sick students attending school, but we seldom think about its source or what we can do to minimize its impact. So what’s up with the TJ plague?

While flu season may be an annual occurrence in most places, multiple rounds of influenza strike Jefferson every school year. In their quest to juggle academics, extracurriculars, and social lives, students often neglect nutrition, sleep, and exercise. With a weakened immune system, these teenagers are especially susceptible to the virus. But what happens when we get sick? Students face a tough choice: recuperate at home and let the work pile up, or go to school and risk infecting your classmates? However, sick students mingling in a crowded school only amplifies the presence of the virus and effectively causes the phenomenon known as the "TJ Plague". 

The ramifications of attending school while sick go far beyond simply spreading the virus to others. Many symptoms of the flu include a runny nose, scratchy throat, aching muscles, and others. Your brain can’t focus on a lesson while your eyes are fixated on the tissue box in the corner. Even if you manage to get your eyes to focus on the powerpoint in front of you, researchers say you still might not be able to get your brain to focus on any information. That’s not to mention that your body exerts most of its energy fighting the millions of germs attacking your immune system, and this lack of energy significantly reduces your ability to process and retain information [1]. Additionally, going to school while sick may diminish the snowball effect of missing homework assignments and lectures, but if you’re not going to retain information, you might as well stay at home and focus on recuperating. It’s clear that the flu impairs our learning ability, but how exactly does this virus work?

Influenza is a spherical virus that infects the body’s respiratory system, leading to symptoms of cough, sore throat, fever, and more. Virologists classify the influenza virus in a family of RNA viruses labeled Orthomyxoviridae. This group has four common types of influenza: A, B, C, and D. Type A, also called swine flu, and Type B are the causes of most nationwide flu epidemics, while Type C is much milder in its symptoms, and Type D mostly affects farm animals [5]. Within Type A, there are two strains that are differentiated by the proteins hemagglutinin and neuraminidase, which are found on the virus’s surface. The hemagglutinin protein allows the virus to attach to a host cell, enter it, and copy itself, while the neuraminidase protein enables the copied viruses to exit the host cell and spread the infection [8]. Inside the virus, there are eight strands of RNA that contain the instructions for replication [5].

The influenza virus is continuously changing through antigenic shift and antigenic drift. Antigenic shift is an abrupt change to the genes of influenza A, which occurs when various species of animals introduce novel types of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase into the human population. The genome of the influenza A undergoes reassortment. In an animal infected with both avian and human strain of influenza, reassortment can lead to novel combinations of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. Then, contact with this animal will introduce the novel virus into humans, causing antigenic shift and potentially triggering a pandemic [7]. Although antigenic shifts are rapid processes, antigenic drift occurs gradually through mutations in the virus as it replicates. The mutations may be significant enough that antibodies no longer recognize the virus, and the person can be infected again [5]. These changes explain the necessity to create new vaccines year after year, as previous T-lymphocyte antibodies do not recognize the antigens of the newer viruses.

The best way to prevent the flu virus is to get vaccinated. The first time the body encounters a pathogen, it can take several days to create and deploy unique antibodies with sufficient specificity to the pathogen’s epitope. After this initial response to the pathogen, the acquired immunity system creates immunological memories, in the form of T-lymphocytes that produce antibodies, that facilitate a rapid response in subsequent encounters with that disease. Vaccines introduce weakened antigens, or signal molecules from the virus, into your body. This triggers the acquired immunity system and T-lymphocytes, but the weakened nature of the antigens means that the pathogen will not spread or cause sicknesses. Thus, when the real virus invades your body, your immune system will quickly identify and attack the familiar antigens, minimizing the virus’s toll on your health. That being said, yearly vaccinations are critical to warding off sickness, due to the constantly evolving viruses and the immune system’s fading memory over time. However, as it takes approximately two weeks for the vaccination to trigger the acquired immune system, the earlier you get vaccinated, the better [2, 3, 6].

Ultimately, the TJ plague is another symptom of the hyper-stressful academic culture here at Jefferson. Forcing ourselves to come to school while sick may demonstrate strong academic commitment, but it will only prolong the illness and spread it to others. The best response to a flu diagnosis is simply to stay at home until you can come back well-rested and prepared for learning. However, proactive prevention is the best solution, and it is critical that students get annual vaccinations. The cooperation of the student body in keeping our school healthy will ultimately lead to a better working and learning environment in the Jefferson community.

References

[1] Can physical health affect your ability to learn? (2012, May 31). Retrieved October 19, 2019, from UCSB ScienceLine website: http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=3332 

[2] How the flu virus can change: “drift” and “shift”. (2019, October 15). Retrieved October 19, 2019, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website: https://www.cdc.gov/ flu/about/viruses/change.htm

[3] How vaccines work. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2019, from PublicHealth website https://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/understanding-vaccines/vaccines-work/   #targetText=A%20vaccine%20works%20by%20training,on%20all%20viruses%20and% 20bacteria 

[4] Influenza virus. [Photograph]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest. https://quest.eb.com/search/influenza-virus/1/300_346625/Influenza-virus

[5] Influenza virus (flu). (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2019, from Baylor College of Medicine  website: https://www.bcm.edu/departments/molecular-virology-and-microbiology/emerging-infections-and-biodefense/influenza-virus-flu 

[6] Key facts about seasonal flu vaccine. (2019, October 16). Retrieved October 19, 2019, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/prevent/keyfacts.htm?CDC%20_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fflu%2Fprotec%2Fkeyfacts.htm 

[7] Treanor, J. (2004). Influenza vaccine - outmaneuvering antigenic shift and drift. The New England Journal of Medicine, (350). https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp038238

[8] Types of influenza viruses. (2017, September 27). Retrieved October 19, 2019, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/types.htm