The TED talk addressed the issue of infectious disease and the ways in which disease is spread using the examples of cholera and malaria. The speaker Paul Ewald discussed the ways in which humans may have the ability to reduce their exposure and spread of infectious disease through applying the theory of evolution by natural selection. This spread of disease poses a threat to humans as the bacteria that cause the disease evolves with humans and become resistant to the medical interventions. The speaker addressed some key issues and posed some important solutions towards the betterment of human lives. The field of biological science studies when it comes to human’s works towards understanding the evolution of humans and the threats to the survival of our species. Understanding the evolution of disease is important in creating ways to protect humans against these diseases and properly treating those infected. The 21st century has been seen some successful cases in which science has been successful in the irradiated disease through the use of research and development of antibiotics but there are still diseases that plague countries especially in the developing world. Lack of information in regards to diseases and the effects of disease on humans can be critical to human survival if diseases evolve beyond our control which can lead to a pandemic.
The issue presented in the topic is finding the right way to tackle the spread and threat of disease, one side handles the issue through looking at the human point of view while the other looks at the issue from the point of view of the organism. Paul Ewald tackles the issue from the side that is taking the organism’s point of view and developing ways to fight the organisms. In the talk ...
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.... Just like with the case of AIDs reduction happens after those exposed are provided with information of reducing their exposure. Reducing transmission is as easy as teaching children to wash their hands and where to use the bathroom which cost way less than an antibiotic treatment (Esrey et al. 1985) . The end goal of research on infectious disease is to find a way to protect humans against the harmful effects so providing people with ways to reduce their exposure is crucial. One of the challenges for humans in the 21st century is fighting infectious diseases as our knowledge of medical treatments increase there is an increase in drug resistant diseases evolving. Research in the department of biological sciences involving germ domestication may be one solution on control the evolution of germs to our advantage improving the lives and survival of the human race.
An emerging diseases class must also anticipate what the potential issues are that may halt the eradication process. An example of a problem is when Foege had to figure out what to do when faced with a low supply of the vaccine. There were two main choices, try and target the places where the outbreak occurred, or dilute the vaccine and give it to everyone. Each had their own downside however. If Foege and his team targeted the wrong places then the virus would still spread and inevitably infect everyone in the area and wreak havoc on the region since all of the vaccine would be gone. The other option had an equally catastrophic down side. If the vaccine was too diluted and did not take then the virus could become active and those inoculated would most likely become infected with vaccine-borne smallpox. To make a long story short, the first option was chosen and actually lead to the “Surveillance and Containment” method. This method entailed surveying the population for anyone who could have the outbreak and then making sure to contain any potential outbreak from occurring. This idea of identifying the problems that are being faced and weighing the options against each other is an important concept to understand in an emerging diseases class. In an eradication effort Foege lets us know
Thomas disccuseed thr “paranoid delusions on a societal scale,” that we have against human diseases or our “enemies.” The book contiuniuously uses anaphora by saying that diseases result from “inconclusive negoitions for symbiosis” and misinterpretation of biology” The fact that bacteria can only be harmful from practiacally harming themselves is an interesting point to point out. That shows the reader that the only way they could be harmed from bacteria, wouls be if the bacteria had gotten itself “sick” first. Thomas talks about certain microorganisms that have “advantages in their ability to affect himan beinhg, but that there is nothing to be gained, in an evolutionary sense, by the capacity to caue illness or death.” Another reassuraing statement for readers is when he says, pathogenicy is a disadvantage for most microbes because they are carrying
The medical field is a vast land of beauty but with great beauty comes immense horror. There are many deadly viruses and diseases found in the medical field. In the novel, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, the author discusses the many deadly viruses found in the field. The viruses are widespread due to the errors that occur when the viruses are in the presence of human beings. The effects of the errors performed by the human race include a decrease in population and wildlife. The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes.
3.Stevenson, J. (2004, Sept.). Impact of Infectious Diseases on Development of Human Societies. MBI. July 18, 2005:
McNeil suggests, there are still epidemics out there which have not developed human to human status yet. For example, AIDS is identified in 1981, which is after the publication of Plagues and Peoples. Because of AIDS relevancy to this book, McNeil writes a Preface in 1997 including his thoughts on the epidemic. Humans only thought that scientific medicine "had finally won decisive victory over disease germs" (9). With the discovery of the AIDS virus a social change occurred in American and similar societies.
Modern medicine has proved that the best way to prevent the contraction of a disease for humans is to inject a tolerable amount of the virus into the host and let the individual's immune system build a defense capable of withstanding future invasions of the same strand. The small pox vaccination, for example, has eliminated the disease from almost every nation on Earth.
...n Health and Disease: The Hidden Epidemic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 19 Feb 2012.
Throughout history there have been very dangerous diseases that have been able to single handedly wipe out entire civilizations because there was nothing that we could do about it. Most of the time was because we did not quite understand what was actually happening. But thanks to all of the scientific advancements humans are able to live many more times than previous years. But that doesn’t meant that every human is healthy enough. This means that although we are less prone to die from some infectious diseases, we now have other risk for example not keeping up with a healthy diet is one of the many reasons why there are so many premature deaths. Now if you don’t get treated right away it can get worst the longer you get and sometimes it can also be fatal. One of those is Meningitis which is something very serious that if it doesn’t get treated it can lead to very serious complications in the long run or even death depending on the case. The reason why I chose this one was because when I was in high school I suffered from some...
Secretory Diarrhea (Cholera) Abstract: Cholera is an acute, bacterial infection of the small intestine caused by the Vibrio cholerae bacteria. The Vibrio cholerae bacterium, after attacking the human intestine, is responsible for devastating diarrhea resulting in severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. The key cause of this is the ADP ribosylation of the human signaling protein Gsα, catalyzed by the cholera toxin, which produces a biochemical cascade.
For centuries, well before the basic notions of infectious diseases were understood, humans have realized that climate changes effect epidemic diseases (Patz et al.). The Roman aristocracy retreated to the hills each summer to avoid malaria and the South Asians learned that early in the summer, heavily curried foods were less likely to cause diarrheal diseases (Patz et al.). Patz et al. stated that there have been three distinct transition periods that changed the human to microbe relationship. Those three transition periods are: 1) Early human settlements enabling enzootic infective species to enter the human population, 2) Early Eurasion civilizations swapped dominant infections by military and commercial contact, and lastly, 3) European expansionism over the past five centuries caused the spread of often lethal infectious diseases. They also state that we could be in the fourth transition, with climate change having a wide range of impacts on the occurrence of infectious diseases in human populations.
The human population has a high susceptibility to the contraction of new diseases and outbreaks of these diseases are of high risk. Diseases in recent times that have broken out into the human population are the H7N9 flu strain and SARS. Despite the risk, outbreaks like H7N9 and SARS have been controlled due to epidemiology and other disease control methods. Outbreaks of disease are not uncommon to the human population as they move to new areas around the world with foreign diseases that the native residents would have developed a resistance to.
Ebola, a major threat to today's society, is threatening all parts of today's culture. In this paper one will be presented with six major points of analyses. The first an outbreak timeline, the next three are a basic overview of the deadly virus. In the fifth, one will be presented with what things are being blamed for these violent outbreaks. And in the sixth and final point one will be shown what is being done to better the situation.
In the 1960s, doctors in the United States predicted that infectious diseases were in decline. US surgeon Dr. William H. Stewart told the nation that it had already seen most of the frontiers in the field of contagious disease. Epidemiology seemed destined to become a scientific backwater (Karlen 1995, 3). Although people thought that this particular field was gradually dying, it wasn’t. A lot more of it was destined to come. By the late 1980s, it became clear that people’s initial belief of infectious diseases declining needed to be qualified, as a host of new diseases emerged to infect human beings (Smallman & Brown, 2011).With the current trends, the epidemics and pandemics we have faced have created a very chaotic and unreliable future for mankind. As of today, it has really been difficult to prevent global epidemics and pandemics. Although the cases may be different from one state to another, the challenges we all face are all interconnected in this globalized world.
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it,” Albert Einstein spoke these incredibly true words years ago. Epidemiologists combat illnesses that the majority of the population readily ignore. The treatment of people afflicted with life-threatening diseases has gradually evolved because of the dutiful research of epidemiologists.
The scientific field will be defined here as all the components within the practise of biological control as well as the sub-disciplines that may affect the practise although these sub-disciplines (eg. Legislation) will not be focused on to the same degree. Components of the scientific discipline such as general differences, successes and failures, biological techniques and innovations, agent selection, host specificity testing,...