Epidemic disease is part of the human experience. Even after 2009's H1N1 Flu pandemic, infectious epidemic disease is still the subject of frequent news articles. The purpose of this class blog is to encourage online communication and conversations around epidemic disease related stories in the news so as to make connections between current issues and class topics.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Promise You Wont Tell
Cholera Spreads to the Dominican Republic
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Typhoid Fever
A few months ago there was an outbreak of typhoid fever in the western United States. The food company Goya of Seacaucus, N. J. sent out contaminated mamey fruit pulp. The pulp was contaminated with the bacteria Salmonella typhi, the bacteria that causes typhoid fever and it can be cured with antibiotics. Typhoid fever can be extremely dangerous. In the United States it is uncommon, with less than 400 cases a year. The CDC says that most of the cases that appear in the United States are in people who travel abroad. The symptoms of typhoid fever are similar to the flu, with a fever of about 104 degrees, stomach aches, headaches, and weakness and potentially a flat pinkish red rash. The bacteria is in the digestive system so it is spread through feces. Typhoid fever is spread through water that is contaminated with the feces of another sick person. What happened with Goya was that the mamey fruit pulp was sold to people who made smoothies with them and they became ill. There were seven people infected from ages 4 to 31.
One connection to epidemic disease is that it is a disease that is not prevalent in the United States but it is still a problem in other parts of the world, especially in places without access to clean water or sanitation systems. Typhoid fever is similar to cholera in that way because they are both spread through contaminated water and they are prevalent in similar places. I thought that the article was informative and it gave a lot of information in an organized way. The article allowed me to learn about a new epidemic disease that we have not studied in class.
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2010/08/13/typhoid_outbreak_blamed_on_fruit/
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
A Disease Controlled By Politics
Malaria: A Disease Close To Eradication Grows, Aided by Political Tumult in Sri Lanka by Donald G. McNeil Jr. from the New York Times is an article on how the People of Sri Lanka hoped to Eradicate Malaria from the country. Malaria is a mosquito spread disease from a parasite that causes severe fever and flu-like symptoms that can be fatal if left untreated. Sri Lanka is located on an island, which would make the eradication possible. They have come close to it in the past, but, when DDT, an insecticide, was no longer used, the number of Malaria cases shot back up because the mosquitoes were not being killed. “By 1969, there were more than 500,000 cases.” The increase was very dramatic going from 18 to 500,000. Since then, the country has gone through a civil war, all through which Malaria persisted. However by 2005 the country was at less than 2,000 cases. In 2009, last year, political issued resolved and there is hope for Eradication when more clinics are opened, as said by a ministry official.
The article can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/health/28global.html?ref=health
Although it is great that people are trying to Eradicate Malaria its sad how, as the article points out, “politics affects the disease more than climate or public health measures do.” Malaria in Sri Lanka has been from being at one million annual cases, down to 18 cases, all the way back up to 500,000 cases. The change in cases of Malaria is being controlled by the political situation of Sri Lanka. This case is unlike most we have dealt with in this class because usually it is the climate or the public health that controls the outbreak rate of a disease. This case deals with politics. It’s not right that the politicians control the spread of the disease. When Malaria was almost eradicated with 18 cases remaining, the government stopped spreading insecticides such as DDT, which caused the cases to rise dramatically. The conflicts or wars are keeping treatment from happening. Hopefully now that the political situation in Sri Lanka is sound, the Malaria cases can be decreased and eradicated.
Swine flu makes a comeback in a ‘children’s epidemic’
Britain is struggling to fight swine flu and with the holidays ending and school returning the number of infected patients are predicted to peak. Even after the epidemic last year, it was predicted to hit hard again this year. The NHS was prepared with vaccine but it came quickly this fall. Now Britain “has done to little too late to tackle the flu.” With school returning the breading grounds of the virus are reopen causing doctors to predict the spike in numbers. Half of the intensive care beds are currently occupied by swine flu patients and “international evidence suggests that up to 15 per cent of those treated for swine flu in intensive care die.” This evidence supports the theory that 100 out of the 738 swine flu patients in Britain hospitals could die. The virus is being found more likely in children under four years of age, and as “ the figures rise to 184 cases per 100,000” it is suspected to rise to 200 cases per 100,000 people which is classified as an epidemic. The news of the outbreak was found in Fiona Macrae’s article “Schools put on swine flu alert: As Christmas holidays end, doctors warn of a ‘children’s epidemic’” posted on January 2, 2011 on Google news. Macrae’s article can also be accessed on: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343544/Schools-swine-flu-alert-As-Christmas-holidays-end-doctors-warn-childrens-epidemic.html
Britain’s outbreak of swine flu may come to many people in the US as a surprise. The US was part of the epidemic last year, but locally there have not been many recent cases of swine flu here. Most people who received the seasonal flu vaccine were lucky enough to have the swine flu vaccine in it. Britain was not so lucky in that way because they did not get their supply of vaccine out in time for the outbreak. Britain’s vaccination advertising company stopped promoting the swine flu vaccine in the fall in order to save money. It is sad how Britain did not take the epidemic serious last year and now they will be going through it again and seeing many more fatalities due to the lack of work offered in vaccinating the public.
This swine flu outbreak in Britain can be compared to smallpox in the way of distribution of vaccination causing an epidemic to continue. The history of smallpox epidemic is much different in that there were much more of a vast spread of population infected with smallpox, compared to the lack of effort of Britain. This does prove though that a virus will continue to spread until it has been brought to attention and addressed in ways of public vaccination.
All Britain can do now is educate the children going back to school about the predicted ‘children’s epidemic’ and to teach them about good hygiene to prevent the spread of germs in order to decrease the number of cases. If parents suspect their child to be ill they should keep them out of school to prevent the spread of the virus.
Hopefully Britain and the rest of the world can learn their mistake on never underestimating an epidemic.