Forum 4:- Epidemic vs. Pandemic
Ten epidemic diseases with pandemic potentials are:-
- SARS
- Gonorrhea
- Dengue
- Yellow fever
- HIV/AIDS
- Measles
- Smallpox
- Herpes
- Cholera
- Avian Flu
(Morgan, 2004).
HIV/AIDS is a communicable disease, which is transmitted through sexual intercourse or contact with infected blood. It has already reached epidemic proportions and swiftly moving towards pandemic due to the sexually transmitted nature of the disease and there is no way to tell physically if a person is infected with the virus. Epidemiological figures in 2010 revealed that 34 million of the world’s population was already infected with the virus. Women accounted for 16.8 million. People less than 15 years old were approximately 3.4 million (Kallings, 2008).
As such, in my opinion quarantine may be effective in controlling the spread of the disease because it separates as well as restrict the movement persons exposed who the virus to see if they will become ill. For example, Cuba present HIV adult prevalence is estimated to be out 0.07 %, which is the lowest in the world and region. The Cuban health department did not only quarantine persons exposed to the virus, but isolated those who were infected from the community to the criticism of human right activists internationally. Despite these criticisms Cuba remains the country with a consistently very low AIDS rate. It might be worthwhile for nations to collaborate in a venture proactively devise more realistic measures to control infectious diseases (Cohen, 2006).
References
Cohen, J. (2006). HIV/AIDS: Latin America & Caribbean. Overview: the overlooked epidemic.
Science New York; 313(5786), 468-469.
Kallings, L. (2008). The first postmodern pandemic: 25 years of HIV/AIDS. J Intern Med 263
(3): 218–43.
Morgan, O (2004). Infectious disease risks from dead bodies following natural disasters. Rev
Panam Salud Publica. 15:307–11.
Reply Forum
Forum 5 Case Study - Influenza
- It was considered a disaster because the disease affected 500 million people internationally and 50-100 million died accounting for 3-5% of the world’s population. To date it remains one of the worst human natural disasters (Johnson, & Mueller, 2002).
- This flu case was different from most flu cases because it was spreading rapidly and the virus was not responding to any treatment. At first the organism could not have been isolated. Also flu epidemics usually effected juveniles, elderly and people who were already ill, but this type infected and killed healthy adults (Johnson, & Mueller, 2002).
- The public health departments ordered wearing of masks for workers as well as the public. An influenza ward was established at the Walter Reid hospital. At the same time researchers from St Bartholomew hospital began investigating the origins as well as course of the flu. Many theories emerged tracing the origin to Austria (Barry, 2004).
- The main control measures used during the influenza pandemic of 1918 were aimed at isolating patients and preventing spread of the virus through wearing of masks
Part 2: Assess the potential of H5N1 avian influenza to become a pandemic strain in humans.
1. The disease originated from birds in the South East Asia region.
2. Avian influenza is caused by A (H5N1) or H5N1, a subtype of the influenza A virus that can cause illnesses in humans and many other animal species (Garcia-Sosa et.al, 2008).
3. Can the virus infect humans? Yes it can
4. What can public health officials do to minimize exposure? Surveillance can be initiated and infected people isolated
References
Barry, J. (2004). The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Greatest Plague in History. Viking
Penguin
Garcia-Sosa, A. Sild, S., & Maran, U. (2008). Design of Multi-Binding-Site Inhibitors, Ligand
Efficiency, and Consensus Screening of Avian Influenza H5N1 Wild-Type
Neuraminidase and of the Oseltamivir-Resistant H274Y Variant. J. Chem. Inf.
Model. 48 (10): 2074–2080.
Johnson, N., & Mueller, J. (2002). Updating the accounts: global mortality of the 1918–1920
"Spanish" influenza pandemic. Bull Hist Med 76 (1): 105–15.
Reply Forum
Forum 6 Case Study Critique: SARS
- What are the symptoms of SARS?
Initially, SARS manifests with flu-like symptoms inclusive of fever, cough, myalgia, sore throat, lethargy symptoms. Depending on the physical health constitution of the individual there may be a number of other symptoms, which can be considered, generalized. Fever above 38 °C (100 °F) is the only indicator common in all cases of SARS. Some patients may show shortness of breath later in the course of the disease. However it begin like a cold and manifests like influenza (Sihoe et.al, 2004).
- How is SARS spread? The spread has been identified as through direct contact with an infected person. This could be sexual or when tattoos are inscribed on skin surfaces. The disease is also spread when travelling to country designated by World health Organization as high risks ports. They include Canada, China, Hong Kong and Singapore (Lau et.al, 2005).
- Was quarantine an effective control measure during the SARS outbreak in 2003? If so, why? If not, why not?
According to Richard Schabas (2004) responding to Severe acute respiratory syndrome: Did quarantine help argued that while initial efforts were successful, but other reports pertaining to Toronto public health efforts to control revealed that they were expected to quarantine 100 patients. The doctor contended that quarantine failed in Toronto because people likely to be incubating the infection were not efficiently and effectively identified. They had to comply with quarantine conditions; and the infectious disease must be transmissible in its pre symptomatic or early symptomatic stages. All of these criteria were not met during the quarantine process in Canada (Schabas, 2004).
References
Lau, S. Woo, P., & Li K. (2005). Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-like virus in Chinese horseshoe bats. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102 (39); 14040–5.
Schabas, R. (2004). Severe acute respiratory syndrome: Did quarantine help? Can J Infect Dis
Med Microbiol; 15(4): 204.
Sihoe. A., Wong, R. Lee, A. (2004). Severe acute respiratory syndrome complicated by
spontaneous pneumothorax. Chest 125 (6): 2345–51.
Reply Forum
Forum 7 Emerging Diseases
Q2 Five emerging infections/diseases I feel have the greatest Pandemic potential are SARS, AIDS, influenza, West Nile virus and Lyme disease. The reason for selecting these emerging infections is their potential to develop new strains of the initial organism. For example, SARS virus has the ability to cross the xenographic barrier from palm civet to humans. This is a dangerous development. While the AIDs virus has not yet been identified to have crossed the xenographic barrier new strains are developing daily. New strains of the West Nile virus are also emerging. Influenza viruses have mutated over centuries because the ones which killed sailors are no longer effective today (Singer et.al, 2006).
When an infectious disease demonstrates pandemic potential it crosses the epidemic level spreading across human populations regionally; continents and nationally. If a disease is endemic, but stable its pandemic proportion has been thwarted. Therefore, my reason for selecting these five diseases is due to the potential for the organisms to mutate and form different strains. For example, when the AIDS was discovered there was but a few strains. Today there are several strains across the globe. Africa has one strain; the Caribbean another and a different on is found in ther United States of America (Lee, 2003).
References
Lee, K (2003) Health impacts of globalization: towards global governance. Palgrave Macmillan
Singer, M. Erickson, P. Badiane, L. Diaz, R. Ortiz, D. Abraham, T. Nicolaysen, A. (2006).
Syndemics, sex and the city: understanding sexually transmitted diseases in social and
cultural context. Social Science & Medicine 63 (8): 2010–2021
Reply Forum
Forum 8 Bioterrorism
Part 1: Assess the value of quarantine and isolation in controlling disease due to biological terrorism. Biological terrorism since it is planned and subtle invasion of organism while quarantine may be valuable it may be difficult to conduct. For example, three major criteria must be active for quarantine people must be not efficiently and effectively identified as well as comply with quarantine conditions; and the infectious disease must be transmissible in its pre symptomatic or early symptomatic stages. As such quarantine may not be the best way of controlling spread. Isolation might be more effective at this stage (Togyer, 2006).
Part 2: Significant features emergency managers and public health planners must consider when planning quarantine or isolation are the potency of the organism; rate at which it is spreading, number of people already infected; number of deaths which have occurred; culture of people mostly affected and possible health promotion intervention ( Public law 107–188, 2002)
Hence, a community needs assessment ought to be conducted pertaining to how much of the population has been consumed by the effects of the organism. This would help, in determining how much resources ought to be made available for the project, which includes buildings, people and equipment to keep persons quarantined.
References
Public Law 107–188. (2002). Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and
Response Act of 2002. Retrieved on August 2nd, 2012 from
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-107publ188/pdf/PLAW-107publ188.pdf
Togyer, J. (2006). Pitt Magazine: Airborne Defense, University of Pittsburg
