Getting off the plane I can already feel the dry, humid heaves of the environment pressing against my body. My colleagues and I have traveled to West Africa, Liberia to conduct field studies in a nearby hot zone for an Ebola outbreak. We will stay in a nearby town named Monrovia, Liberia just off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It is a small, crowded and noisy town. Much like a majority of the country it is of very low human living standards. A typical day here includes large pickup trucks roaming around town picking up and dropping off infected corpses. The CDC (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has provided the indigenous people with treatment facilities, medication and staff to help diminish the severity of the outbreak. The townspeople have took it …show more content…
It was no coincidence that this had been an ongoing issue for quite some time now. Some families have had deaths of family members from over fifteen years ago. Sadly, not much could be done for these families but to treat the infectious people by all means necessary. In fact, there have been rumors that a doctor in a neighboring town has started a treatment via blood transfusion. Many people disagree others do not, but when an epidemic reaches this level of severity it often leads to people taking desperate measures. It truly becomes frightening and worrisome. When first arriving I knew this was an outbreak that would and has shocked the world. However, the up close experience is a true eye opener and wake up call for an issue that could potentially impact the entire globe. My experience has been stressful and has been tragic. With such a high infectious and fatality rate it is as if you never see the same face twice. Furthermore, I hope the work my team and I have done has a significant impact on the people. I would definitely come back given we are the only hope these people may
This is an example of being proactive to a situation where cooperation among the government, police and its people through the media and programs implemented were able to reduce such a devastating disease that along claiming human life, is also expensive to treat in the long run causing a economic impact.
In 1983, a disease known as CNSB-1 was spotted in South America. By 1985 the disease has traveled to north america by airplane. When 1990 came around, every major city has been affected. Quarantine zones were established in the poorest parts or town. The disease was cured in 1995 but it still claimed the lives of 49,920,000 people in america. Progress had slowed down to a crawl and the economy was left in shambles after the U.S government put all of it’s resources in destroying CNSB-1 before it destroyed their nation. 1998 comes along and the quarantine zones are still around, only now filled with a new type or sickness.Terrorist gangs inhabit them and live by randomly raiding surrounding communities. For those who live in such areas, the only
Because of the uncertainties and evolving nature of infectious diseases, outbreaks can cause substantial fear in communities and in the general public. Such is the case with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003. It was the first serious infectious disease of the twenty first century and questions about its origin and treatment greatly outnumbered the answers.
The average fatality rate of patients infected with Ebola is around 50% according to the World Health Organization. The nonfiction book titled The Hot Zone by Richard Preston takes readers through true events pertaining to an outbreak of Ebola in the late 1980’s at a monkey testing facility in Reston, Virginia. The author heavily emphasizes the danger surrounding ignorance and uncertainty in regard to the viral and morbid Ebola at the conclusion of the book. While Preston makes this point evident countless times, three particular quotes give a clear example of Preston’s intention.
He is going to die. How is he going to tell his boss? How is he going to tell his mom? Patty is already halfway there, they got tested together after he got sick; he gave the virus to Joe, but he has been sick for years and never known. All their friends are in a frenzy, gay men were never safe from other people, but now they aren't safe from their partners, lovers, and themselves. You might think that in this day and age we could fight a disease, we have vaccines, but this is different, if you get the virus, you are doomed to die, to wither away like a flower coming into winter.
I chose to read The Lassa Ward: One Man’s Fight Against One of the World’s Deadliest Diseases for the AP Human Geography summer assignment. The Lassa Ward is authored by Ross I. Donaldson, who holds doctor of medicine and master of public health degrees from the University of California Los Angeles. The novel was published by St. Martin’s Press in New York, NY in 2009. Dr. Donaldson’s memoir focuses on how he treated Lassa cases in Sierra Leone, in the midst of an outbreak of the virus during the summer months of 2003. Through explanations of his surroundings and the ward where he treated his patients, the book addresses the medical need of the region by describing the primitive condition of medicine occurring in the third-world country that
Imagine a scene as you might find in hell, but in the context of medieval times. Rotting, disfigured bodies line the muddy trenches on the outskirts of town accompanied by numerous wheelbarrows. Under the veil of darkness, fuzzy tiny creatures scurry between the wheelbarrows and trenches. At another section of the town, the ground seems like a blanket-- as if it is covering something large beneath it and with shovels to decorate it. A few feet from the unleveled ground, was the residential area where houses lined the streets. Some of those houses were covered with boards while others seemed to be vacant. Overhead, a smell of death lingers in the air with the scent of smoke from the blazing fires around town. As crowds of people walk by, they bend their heads down to take whiffs of their plain white handkerchiefs and
Ah Jane! Sorry to hear you had this virus too. It's very strong,normally I didn't get sick easily... Hope you are both doing better now. Thank you, for your advice, I'll take lemon. I do not have gigner but I'm using Chia seed- it's great. I have to buy ginger, never thought of it before. Thank you. I'm looking forward to meeting you tomorrow. Wish you have a good day!
In a response to the polio outbreak of 1916, Dr. Haven Emerson, the Health Commissioner for New York City, stated: “we have learned little that is new about the disease, but much that is old about ourselves.” The meaning of this has to do with the ideology that no matter the era, people have a common response to the outbreak of contagious disease. Human nature supplies us as humans with a common reaction to dealing with disease, and it is one that can be seen during the Black Death, polio epidemics, and ebola epidemics, as well as many other epidemics. These responses can be both positive and negative, and often have to do with containment of the disease, preventative measures - which may or may not be effective; and scapegoating. Although there may be individualized responses for each of these diseases, the way in which the health-care officers and the public handle the outbreak of disease generally follows the same pattern overall.
Bubonic Plague... “God in Heaven have mercy upon me! What have I done to deserve this corruption? God my soul belongs to thee but why now? Why here?”.
While the journey hear was rough, we have arrived in one piece. However, the voyage to New America wasn't nearly as harsh as our settlement in this newfound land. Many of us have fallen ill, with little to no resources left, we are unable to properly treat the sickness. The afflictions that have overcome the group are most viscous, leaving many of their victims dead. These diseases are merciless and threaten the entirety of our small civilization. While, the few that have been left untouched by these cruel illnesses are few and far between, they may be our only hope for survival. Within a short couple of months, nearly half of us have been wiped out by these invisible monstrosities. Worst of all, there are times where two or three will die
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more commonly known as the CDC, is a major governmental department serving the country in healthcare. Per their official mission statement, The CDC “serves as the national focus for developing and applying disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion and health education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Most citizens may think of the CDC in situations not unlike the Ebola or Zika outbreaks, or even in the outlandish ideas of a virus bringing people back from the dead. These Centers across the United States survey disease outbreak,
The main character of the story Typhoid Fever is a boy named Francis, otherwise known as Frank or Frankie. Frankie is a child that is sick with Typhoid. Patricia is another child staying the hospital that he is at. They enjoy holding conversations together, though they aren’t supposed to be talking to each other at all. Both of them enjoy reading, and have a few books by their bedsides which they occasionally share with each other.
It is the year 2018. The future that once looked bright is now filled with devastation. Two years ago a small pox epidemic swept through the United States in the worst act of terrorism we have ever seen. Due to the belief small pox was gone for good, children were no longer vaccinated. If only we knew the enemy was manufacturing this virus as a lethal weapon to be unleashed in the United States. I do not think even the enemy had any idea of the magnitude of death and destruction such a simple virus could cause. The first wave killed 40% of the eastern coast. As it swept across our nation, the main toll was children’s lives. Many who survived were
A water vessel packed full of refugees unwell with yellow fever, sluggish as a snail, sail over to Philadelphia in 1793. A sly fox, one lone mosquito bites one refugee and flies off to infect someone else and spread the illness... We have an epidemic! Now, the older, respected Philadelphia doctors fought with the newcomer French doctors from Haiti over which was the genuine treatment to cure a patient infected with yellow fever. Their ideas were all very disparate, but both had a few little similar characteristics. Still, with all their efforts, by the time the fever died, 2,000 to 5,000 people had become deceased.