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effects of social media on human behaviour
Charles Robert Darwin and his theory of evolution
effects of social media on people
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Charles Darwin’s theories on evolution state that all life on earth developed gradually through natural selection over millions of years. By tracing two organism’s branching biological lineage backwards, at some point the two organisms would have been related to each other in one way or another. William McNeill contends that at a basic level that all living things behave alike and that humans are actually “macroparasites.” Well, we all know old habits are hard to change and there should be no doubt that humans and other organisms act like one another in order to continue their lives and species.
Disease is something that affects all of us, but what actually is disease? Many things cause disease. Some diseases can be contracted through drinking tainted water, others while having unprotected sex, and sometimes the mutations that occur during conception. Disease is basically anything that impacts an organism in a way that puts that organism at a disadvantage in a certain environment. Mental health problems and alcoholism are both things referred to as disease because both things put the person suffering at a disadvantage in their community. Diseases can be seen through various signs and symptoms that occur as a result of having the disease. For example, someone addicted to Facebook will show symptoms such as putting off worldly responsibilities or sleep to chat with friends on the internet. So, diseases can come in all shapes and forms.
Epidemics began to first manifest themselves around the time man-made the switch from hunting and gathering to livestock and agriculture. The close relationship shared between humans and animals allowed for bacteria and viruses to be passed from the animals to the humans. In most cases...
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...o matter which way an organism spreads, the mechanism by which it operates is very similar. Biological success is measured through reproduction rather than the age to which something lives. Humans have used disease to their advantage in to create a better society for themselves. Biological success says that a successful individual will produce more children, who then produce more children creating a legacy. In this respect, humans are very successful parasites. According to Merrium-Websters online dictionary, a parasite is “something that resembles a biological parasite in dependence on something else for existence or support without making a useful or adequate return.” Humans have made a way of life enslaving and living off of other humans and organisms. In the end one thing is certain, humans and parasites are a lot more similar than we would like to admit.
1) Sickness is different from disease as sickness refers to a social or cultural concept of a disease/illness while disease is the biological definition of it. An example of an sickness is “Qaug dab peg” a Hmong sickness that occurs when the soul leaves the body resulting in seizures. An example of a disease is epilepsy a neurological condition that causes the body to have random seizures. Both examples are of the same disease, but one is how the culture views it while the other is how biology views it.
In 1347, Europe began to perceive what the Plague had in store. Terrible outcomes arose when the citizens caught the Plague from fleas. The transfer of fleas to humans caused the outbreak of the Black Death. Infections that rodents caught were passed on to fleas, which would find a host to bite, spreading the terrible disease (“Plague the Black Death” n.pag.). When Genoese ships arrived back to Europe from China, with dead sailors and...
Disease and parasitism play a pervasive role in all life. Many of these diseases start with microparasites, which are characterized by their ability to reproduce directly within an individual host. They are also characterized by their small size, short duration of infection, and the production of an immune response in infected and recovered individuals. Microparasites which damage hosts in the course of their association are recognized as pathogens. The level of the interaction and the extent of the resultant damage depends on both the virulence of the pathogen, as well as the host defenses. If the pathogen can overcome the host defenses, the host will be damaged and may not survive. If on the other hand the host defenses overcome the pathogen, the microparasite may fail to establish itself within the host and die.
In her book, Dorothy Crawford gives biographies of the history of microbes which have brought humans diseases on a large scale. These include epidemics like yellow fever, tuberculosis, smallpox, acute respiratory syndrome, bubonic plague, syphilis HIV, the Black Death, malaria and cholera. It is worth to point out that her work is up to date because most of these microbes are still with us in this era. Crawford uses the historical bibliography of humans experience with microbes to show a fact that microbes shaped our culture through infection, disease, and pandemic. At the same time, the ever changing human culture has also largely influenced the evolutionary nature of microbes.
Many of these diseases originate from animal populations. Humans’ interaction with the environment, and animals contribute to the rate and prevalence of disease. All three areas are interconnected. One Health is a concept that views human, animal, and environmental health as one area of health. The three entities, when separated can hinder each other and delay progress. The opposite is also true. When public health officials recognize the correlation between human, animal, and environmental health, advancements and innovation can occur. Other public health issues are present in relation to spread of infectious disease between humans and animals. People must know how to cook animal products in order to kill pathogens. Many diseases are also transferred when humans disrupt ecosystems. These are areas where public health has the opportunity to make progress. The issues that infectious diseases cause occur across the globe. In addition, One Health concepts can be applied to populations all over the
Parasites and their Virulence Why do some parasites kill the host they depend upon while others coexist with their host? Two prime factors determine parasitic virulence: the manner in which the parasite is transmitted, and the evolutionary history of the parasite and its host. Parasites which have colonized a new host species tend to be more virulent than parasites which have coevolved with their hosts. Parasites which are transmitted horizontally tend to be more virulent than those transmitted vertically. It has been assumed that parasite-host interactions inevitably evolve toward lower virulence.
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.
In the book The Illness Narratives, Kleinman begins the chapter by talking about how in his writing, the words illness and disease have different meanings. When he uses the word illness, he is referring to the innately human experience of symptoms and suffering. According to the book, illness problems are the principal difficulties that symptoms and disability create in our lives. An example is when we have a headache and it makes it hard to think, resulting in frustration when trying to get work done. Sometimes we feel angry when people can’t see our pain and think that we are overexagerrating. As a result, we feel the need to prove to them that we are in pain. When this happens, people can lose their hope in getting better and become depressed.
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.
Smallpox was caused by a virus that spread from person to person through the air. I...
Hoff, Brent, Carter Smith, and Charles H. Calisher. Mapping Epidemics: A Historical Atlas of Disease. New York: Franklin Watts, 2000. Print.
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 movie Outbreak is a wonderful portrayal of how the Chain of Infection works in an epidemic and pandemic outbreak of a disease. The shows how quickly the disease gained power and was responsible for sickness and death in a small community. Pathogens that invade the body have 5 requirements for a successful invasion on their host whether it is a human or animal. I will further review how the movie successfully reflects the reservoir/host, portal of exit, mode of transmission, portal of entry and susceptible host to provide the perfect Outbreak of the disease. The same model still used today in science.
The occurrence of infectious disease and epidemics has speckled the history of humanity since the first civilization established itself. Considering that a large population can help to foster infectious diseases, and humans share almost 300 communicable agents with animals, the outbreak of epidemics is inextricably intertwined with revol...
Medical anthropologists examine epidemic outbreaks through numerous approaches. According to Joralemon, “Epidemics offer particularly vivid demonstrations of the interconnections between biological, social, and cultural components in the human experience of disease” (2010:29). Many times these approaches cannot function on their own accord and rely on each other to solve the epidemic. It is the job of the medical anthropologist to put all the pieces of the disease puzzle together.