A Deadly Bacteria Has Been Infecting Children for More than 1,400 Years

 

Ariana Cutler

Mr. Ippolito

Chemistry 9

2/7/2022

 

Dance, Amber. “A Deadly Bacteria Has Been Infecting Children for More than 1,400 Years.” 

Science News, Society for Science & the Public, 2 Feb. 2022, www.sciencenews.org/article/deadly-bacteria-infection-medieval-child-haemophilus-influenzae-type-b.

 

I read and reviewed “A deadly bacteria has been infecting children for more than 1,400 years,” an article by Amber Dance. It begins with giving historical context on its topic, pathogen Haemophilus influenzae type b. (or Hib - a bacterial illness that can lead to possibly fatal brain infection in young children), and discusses what this bacteria causes, stating that “Hib can cause other serious illnesses such as pneumonia and meningitis” (Dance). This follows with how Hib can be fought against, saying that “a vaccine against Hib has largely sidelined the pathogen” (Dance) since the late 1980s. In order to elaborate on the causes and preventions, the article links other science websites such as ScienceNews. It then begins to talk about the main point, which is a 1,472-year-old corpse of a 6-year-old boy. DNA found in his tooth shows that “Hib was infecting people at the same time as the first historically documented pandemic due to plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis” (Dance). Y. pestis, or Plague, was also found on the boy’s tooth, unsurprisingly. The final paragraph of the article discusses the significance of this research and how it can help open “a window into how pathogens evolve to start pandemics or die out over thousands to millions of years” (Dance).

 

Currently, society is in a pandemic. Covid-19 has taken millions of lives and it still hasn’t ended. However, as Dance said, with research like this, the world will know more about how historical pandemics began and how they ended. Knowing the answers to those questions can help solve the answers on how to end our current pandemic and how to prevent future ones. 

 

In this article, the author hooked the reader in by using pathos, saying “The tragic death of a 6-year-old boy” (Dance) while also using logos by immediately stating a scientific fact. With the use of these rhetorical appeals, I felt both obligated and interested in reading the article. The article was short and simple, making it an easy and straightforward read. However, I felt that the article may have been too short and somewhat unfinished. In order to improve this, rather than simply linking other websites for the reader to further inform themself, the author could have discussed what is written in those linked articles more in-depth. Despite its unfinished feel, I found the article to be interesting and effective in getting its information across.