My given topic for the paper is Prevalence of Plasmodium Falciparum in Nigeria. The instructions are attached. This is my final paper, it has to be written properly and plagiarism free.

Writing a paper about a disease or an infectious agent

Introduction:

Writing about diseases or infectious agents is part of the work carried out by microbiologists. All research involving infectious agents or the diseases that they cause must be covered according to the following headings:

General description of the agent or the disease. If you are writing about the bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, you will describe it as a Gram positive, coagulase positive cocci that appear in clusters and are golden yellow on Nutrient agar, etc. On the other hand, if you are writing about the disease gonorrhoea, you will describe it as a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae. It produces inflammation and infection of the lining of the genital tract, throat, and rectum, etc. The goal is to describe the agent or the disease in a way that those familiar with it can easily recognize it.

Significance: In this section, you need to discuss why this organism or disease is important and what makes it important. A disease or infectious agent may be important because it kills a lot of people, or affects a lot of people, or produces a lot of complications or costs a lot of money to treat or is difficult to diagnose, etc. When you discuss this area, you need to use data effectively in order to show that this disease or infectious agent is worthy of the discussion.

General Symptoms: In this section you will need to inform your reader how they can recognize this illness or infection caused by the agent. For example, how long does it take from the first contact with the agent to the time the symptoms manifest and what are those symptoms? Are symptoms different in males and females, adults and infants?

Pathogenesis: In this section, you will need to inform your reader about what is known about the mechanism of disease causation. Every infectious agent causes disease because it has something that enables it to overpower or evade the immune system. For example, the three major causative agents of bacterial meningitis – Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis and Haemophilus influenzae are all capsulated. The capsules enable them to evade phagocytosis.

Laboratory Diagnosis: In this section you are required to discuss the types of specimens required for diagnosis, how they should be collected, when they should be collected and what type of tests are required. You will also discuss the results that will confirm diagnosis.

Treatment: This usually involves the use of chemical agents to get rid of the infectious agent or disease symptoms. Duration of treatment should also be discussed.

Prevention: This entails discussing the usual personal strategies to avoid infection or the disease. This section may involve hygiene or avoiding infected persons, etc. It also involves the use of prophylactic agents like vaccines or chemicals.

Literature Cited/References

This section lists all articles or books cited in your report. Different journals require different formats for citing literature. For scientific writings, we use the Harvard and Vancouver styles of referencing. The following are examples of the Vancouver style of referencing, where the articles are number-cited as they appear.

Vancouver system examples:

Chikwem [1] has argued that………….
Studies have shown that HIV is transmissible through unprotected sex, [1] by sharing needles and syringes [3] and by an infected mother to her child during pregnancy, [4] childbirth [5] and breastfeeding.[6]

Citing a Journal article:

Name(s) of author(s).
Title of article.
Title of Journal.
Year of publication;
Volume number:
Page numbers.

Chikwem JO and Royer, D. Effect of euthanasia on mood of field frogs. J. Mol. Biol. 2008; 12 (5): 127 – 129.

Citing a book:
- Name(s) of authors.
- Title of publication;
- Edition.
- Place of publication:
- Publisher;
- Year of publication
- Page numbers if applicable.

Chikwem JO, Royer D, editors. The flying birds of Nigeria; 3rd Edition. Lagos (Nigeria): Citadel Press; 2006 (page number if necessary).

3. Citing a chapter or article in a book:

Author(s) of chapter.
Title of chapter.
In: Editor(s) name, editors.
Title of book.
Place of publication:
Publisher;
Year of publication.
Page numbers.

Chikwem JO and Bhat K. Viral mechanisms of pathogenicity. In: Royer D and Safford S, editors. Pathogenic viruses. Oxford: Citadel Press; 2006. p. 124 – 142.

4. Citation from World Wide Web:

Author(s).
Title (online).
Year (cited year, month and day).
Available: URL:

Swinton, DJ. Spectroscopic study of proteins (online). 2006 (cited 2006 May 9). Available from: URL: http://www.nih.gov/medline/news_1280.html