Reflective essay: Epidemics

BIO 245X

7/19/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Reflective Essay

In this summer session course of epidemics, I have learned a lot about infectious diseases. Whether that was learning about the transmission of these diseases or even the symptoms. What I found through each assignment was the impact they had on society and the response us people have had to these crisis’. From the earliest epidemics of our world that we studied, these outbreaks always caused a change in how life was lived and how we approached our public health. The three main points that I will take away from this course is that we as humans always contribute to outbreaks of disease, epidemics can change society as a whole, and how important our role is in containing outbreaks of disease or infection.

When I say that I believe that humans have a role in the outbreaks of disease and infection, I mean that in every way. Not only do we contribute to creating a healthy environment for these diseases, like when European society harbored the plague (Artifact 2, The Plague), but our own ignorance in medicine often contributes to these outbreaks. When the plague broke out across the eastern hemisphere of the world, we as a society of humans had no idea how to cure this disease or how it was caused. The only thing we knew was that most, if not all, people who got the plague died a horrible death. Often people resorted to pointing fingers to social groups which were different from their own, causing more problems. Unfortunately, with the emergence of a more educated public on matters such as these, people still panic at events such as outbreaks of deadly disease. Just in the late 20thcentury, when the outbreak of AIDS occurred, our society looked at the gay community as the culprit for spreading the disease to all of society. Even though one of the biggest contributing factors with AIDS was in the drug community (Artifact 8, AIDS). This event reflects again on how our society is both ignorant, and often responsible for many of our struggles with epidemics.

For every outbreak in any society, there comes a degree of change that occurs because of the outbreak. One prime example of this is the potato blight in Ireland (Artifact 5, Irish potato blight). Before the disease that struck Ireland’s gold crop, it was a society which thrived in harvesting and trading the potato. Despite the fact that they were a rather poor country, they still were prosperous and since the potato was such a easy crop to grow, there were not many cases of starving across the country. Once the potato blight struck though, all of Ireland’s people were shocked at the degree in which their lives changed. From feast to famine, the Irish had to adjust their ways of life. Unfortunately, this change often involved migration to other countries such as the U.S. Another impact this had on their society was famine and death. Millions died from either famine or disease; disease was so prevalent because people were hungry and weak. Cholera is also a epidemic which changed how we live in society. Since cholera is carried in water and can kill within 24 hours of infection, people from all over the world had to be careful with the water that they used to cook, bathe with, and drink (Artifact 7, Cholera). With our knowledge of emerging or re-emerging diseases, we must too adjust our way of life to ensure that we will have a life to live.

We as a society also have a large role in the prevention of diseases from emerging or re-emerging. With our knowledge of the earliest appearances of plagues (Artifact 1, The appearance of plagues), we know what contributes to the emergence of these plagues. Most of the epidemic outbreaks that we have had in our society have been greatly helped by our own ignorance. When the black death was spread, our society was living, both literally and figuratively, in our own filth. Streets were littered with animal feces, along with human feces, and even sometimes dead animals. Fortunately, we have learned from these mistakes of our ancestors and we know where we can stop these kinds of outbreaks from ever happening again. But, we are not clear of all of the risk factors which put our past humans at risk. With the dependence on animal products and close proximity we have with these animals, there will always be a risk of humans getting zoonotic diseases (Artifact 4, Smallpox). We also as a society have to be weary of how much we push into nature. With the exploration of forests and jungles, comes the inevitable discovery of unknown bacteria and viruses. Since we have no knowledge on these viruses and how they work, we could potentially create a new plague that stems from our desire to have more land. Regardless of how much our knowledge had grown medically, we still have so much we need to learn about and cure before we can ever say another plague of some sort will not occur.

This course has been one of my favorite classes that I have taken so far at VMI. Not only does this course reflect on history that dates back thousands of years, but it also talks about how some epidemic events have still not been overcome after all these years. To me, that is both scary and interesting at the same time. We never know when the next epidemic will come around and try to wipe us out as a species which is also very interesting to me. But, in conclusion, this course taught me that we contribute a large impact on all our epidemics, epidemics can change how our society functions, and we have a large role in the prevention and cure of emerging and re-emerging diseases.

 

Help received: Artifacts from course

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 8:HIV/AIDS

BIO 245X

7/19/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 8: HIV/AIDS

One of the most known disease in the world is HIV, or AIDS. The reason this disease is so known is because for a long time, it has been a disease which we were not able to contain all around the world. In the U.S, a nation known for our medicine, we too had a problem with epidemic of AIDS. Between not knowing the transmission of the disease or how to cure it, there was a large panic around the disease altogether. Unfortunately, like with most epidemics, we had to find a scapegoat for how the disease was a problem in our society. Since some of the cases where AIDS was discovered was in the gay community, people in our society started shunning gays and their community as a whole. Another negative impact on contracting this disease for anyone was the social shunning. Since it was unknown how the disease was transmitted exactly, people would avoid those with AIDS at all costs. It was also hard for people with AIDS to get appropriate treatment because they would lose their sources of incomes. Like any medication, AIDS medication or treatments were extremely expensive. So, when people contacted the disease, they often lost all hope of ever having a normal life ever again. Another impact on the stigma of those with AIDS came in a presidential address about the disease. When asked if we should be pulling children from their classes to avoid children with AIDS, despite the fact that the president had been told transmission could not come from day-to-day contact, the president said that he understands why parents do that and that he would do the same thing. This of course made the problem worse.

Fortunately for citizens in the U.S. today, we have come a long way in both prevention of HIV and treatments of HIV. We now have in place treatments called PrEP, which have been proven to prevent the spread of HIV. This is a huge step for society considering that at one time in the world, AIDS was the number four cause of death. Since the outbreak of AIDS, our society has changed juristically. We stress in schools across the nation the importance of protected sex with any partner, male or female. This comes from the knowledge that the disease can be transmitted through sexual contact. Another way our society changed was the shared knowledge of why not to share needles and other devices that come in to contact with bodily fluids. When the outbreak of AIDS occurred, the drug community took a large hit because of the sharing of needles. We have since stressed the importance of sanitation of any device that will involve human fluids. Often nowadays, the same needle is never used more than once, whether that is in hospitals or tattoo parlors. HIV/AIDS was a elite disease in which I believe our society handled very well and we may someday find the cure to this disease, rather than the suppression of the symptoms which we have today.

 

Help Received: Film, PDF on canvas

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 7: Cholera

BIO 245X

7/18/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 7: Cholera

When it comes to infections, many of them can be cured easily and do not turn into serious struggles. With Cholera however, this couldn’t be further from the truth. When talking about a fast acting and lethal infection which can act very quickly, Cholera is a very good prospect of those factors. Some of the symptoms which Cholera has includes dehydration, and also leads to thinning out of the body. I know that becoming thin may not sound like a horrible symptom to get from a disease, but it does not get you skinny in the right way. Cholera is an infection which comes from the small intestines. When the bacteria enter your body, it sucks all the water to the small intestine and away from the rest of your body. This is why some of the people who get Cholera can die within 24 hours. Mistaking cholera for a simple sickness is often a grim mistake which holds the worst consequence possible; death.

With the spread of Cholera, it is a water/foodborne bacterium that flourishes mostly in poor regions of the world. Most often the bacteria enter the body through contaminated water or through food washed with contaminated water. This attributes to its pandemics throughout history. Many times, when cholera was spread in the past, it was along trade routes. While traveling, people do not have the time do decontaminate water, they must drink what they have access to. Although going thirsty would not be a fun experience, it would be a whole lot better than getting the Cholera infection. Although Cholera is very infectious and deadly, it is one infection that can be observed and assumed that it does not affect the rich as much as the poor. Since the infection is spread through water or food, it makes sense that the people who have less access to more sanitary food and water would be the group of people that gets affected the most by the disease. Because most of the population back when the Cholera outbreaks were occurring were poor, it caused a great panic between the people. Not knowing how to prevent from getting an infection that could kill you in a day put many of the people in fear. Doctor Jon Snow studied the transmission of the Cholera outbreak in his home town in the SoHo district. He found that Cholera was spread through contaminated water, helping people realize at least one of the preventative measures were.

While Cholera is such an old infection that has been around for hundreds of years, we have not been able to eradicate the infection. There are still cases around the world of Cholera; the most prominent number of cases occurring in India. India harbors a perfect habitat for Cholera to infect and kill millions. In India, there is an essential part of any Indian native’s life that they always interact with; the Ganges river. Unfortunately, this river is also an essential vector in the spread of Cholera. This river is where human waste, trash, and other unsanitary items are dumped. It is also where they get their drinking water, cooking water, bathing water, and even recreational water from as well. This is a huge factor as to why the Cholera outbreak has maintained itself in India for so long. Another region where Cholera has recently had an outbreak was in Haiti. Back when Haiti had the earthquake in 2010, their main water supply, the Artibonite river was contaminated with human feces. This is the exact same way that Cholera is so prominent in India today. The contamination of water is the perfect environment for the infection to spread, and since the Haitian people had just been through a devastating earthquake, they could not be picky about where they got their water from.

Help Received: PowerPoint slides

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 6: Tuberculosis

BIO 245X

7/16/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact6: Tuberculosis

With infectious diseases being such a prominent topic of discussion in this class, I have seen many diseases that can be very infectious, yet in a sense harmless to humans. When it comes to tuberculosis, that is not the case. Although it is indeed very infectious, it also was very deadly in its arrival into mankind. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that is caused by bacteria called Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. This disease affects patients in many different ways. The most prominent way it affects people is through the lungs. However, there have also been many cases where patients have tuberculosis in their kidneys, bones, lymph nodes, and brain. Since this disease can affect so many parts of the body, it is part of the reason this disease was so deadly in the early 19thcentury. Like mentioned before in this paper, TB is a bacterial infection which means it can be transmitted from person to person. The most common way for this disease to be passed on is through the respiratory system. When a infected person exhales or sneezes into the air and an un-infected person inhales these droplets, they now have contracted the horrible infection of tuberculosis.

During the immigration to the U.S. in the 19thcentury, TB found itself infecting many people. Although the infection was most prominent in poor regions, it also affected the rich sometimes because it was an airborne infection. The reason that the poor were the main economic group that was affected by this infection was the same reason the poor is always most affected; poor living standards and poor health-care access. From the slums and ghettos brought a habitat that was hospitable to the bacteria which caused TB, creating an epidemic which became very deadly. Tuberculosis was eventually called the white death, as opposed to the black death which harbored the largest death toll to any disease known to man. Although Tb came to the knowledge of the American public in the 19thcentury, TB has records as far back as ancient Egypt over 5000 years ago. This lets us know one thing about this disease, it has been adapting and overcoming for thousands of years to remain a problem to all human beings.

Today, it is found that people who have HIV or AIDS have a higher chance of contracting TB. This is due to the fact that both of those diseases weaken a person’s immune system which is part of the fighting force that kicks the infection from the body. Even in the society that we live in today however, TB is not an infection that a person should try to “tough it out” and fight it without proper treatment. Untreated or undiagnosed TB can lead to serious ailments and even death. When it comes to treating TB, there is a series of drugs which patients must follow in order to be clear of the infection. Since TB is a bacterial infection, it is a living organism. Having said that, if a patient takes the medicine and is not paying attention to the procedure of how to take the medicine, or even chooses to stop too soon, they may make the bacteria that still survive to become resistant. Any disease that is resistant to drugs is more dangerous because then it truly up to that person’s immune system, and sheer luck to overcome the disease.

Help Received: PowerPoint slides

Noah Delaney-Manuel

 

Artifact 5: Irish potato blight

BIO 245X

7/16/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 5: Potato Blight

When any society becomes solely reliant on a single crop it can hold many benefits as well as many problems. If a country can rely on one crop and specialize in growing that crop, then that society can prosper. Before the potato blight in Ireland, the population lived happy and healthy lives, receiving all essential nutrients from almost exclusively the potato. As society grew in Ireland, so grew the need for more food. Since the potato was an easy crop to grow and there had not been a famine in a long time. Unfortunately, this time period of success was halted by famine, disease and misfortune all because of the potato blight. Because of this same dependence which yielded success for the Irish, was the downfall of their successful times. From 1845 to 1852, the potato crop was ravaged by blight.

When potato blight struck in Ireland, it had a very heavy impact on the entire society. Although the blight itself was very devastating, there were many factors that went into the impact of the blight. One of those factors was the growth in population from 3.5 million to 8 million between 1700 to 1840. Like anytime a population grows, so does the demand for living quarters and agriculture. Since the potato blight occurred around the time of the population growth, famine and disease struck. Part of the reason that disease and famine struck was because Ireland was a poor and underdeveloped country; making it easier for disease to spread. Even though the crop went through the blight, its recovery was also harder to gain unlike other crops. Seeded potatoes also had become scarce, making the recovery of the crop to be slow. In result of the potato blight, the nation experienced famine, disease, and emigration. At least 1 million people died from either famine or disease caused from the potato blight.

From moments like this in our worlds past, farmers and scientists have started working on the same thing; a better crop. Today, we have started making genetically modified organisms (or modified foods) that are less susceptible to disease and last longer before rotting. There are many benefits to modifying our food because it will help us eliminate famine and it will let us be able to take the harmful elements from any plant out to benefit people. Although there are positive effects of modifying plants, there is also negative effects. Since we do not have the research on these modifications and their effects on our body, we won’t truly know the effects of these modifications. One thing we do know for sure is that incidents such as the Irish potato blight could soon be a bad memory from the past that will never resurface.

 

Help received: PowerPoint slides, YouTube video of potato blight

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 4: Smallpox

BIO 245X

7/12/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 4: Smallpox

In the world of disease, smallpox ranks as one of the most unique diseases that humans have ever come across in our time here on earth. Not only is this a very contagious virus, but it also can be a very deadly one. In the 20thcentury alone, smallpox killed 300 million people worldwide. Despite the factor of wealth that accommodates many of the diseases we as people face, smallpox had no boundaries as to who could become infected with the disease. Its range was unlimited and included people like peasants and even kings.

With the exploration of the world, came the exchange of many goods with trade with different regions of the world. In the case of the Native Americans, they did not receive such a good return for their trade of the goods. When Columbus arrived in the America’s, he saw an opportunity to spread his nation into the new and prosperous lands which were then only occupied by the natives. In the colonizers eyes, the natives would be an easy culture to take over because they did not have the firepower to hold back the waves of troops with guns that would soon befall them. But the biggest ally for the colonizers was not guns, instead it was disease. Since many of the diseases that the Europeans brought from Europe had never been in the Americas, many natives were killed by these diseases. The colonizers used this to their advantage and gave the Natives blankets infested with smallpox which would help reduce their numbers. This exchange is one of the first known documentations of biological warfare.

This also contributed to the slave trade of the Africans in the Americas. Since many of the Native population had either been killed off or died from smallpox, there was now a new demand for workers. Not only were the Africans in greater number and considered to be stronger than the Natives, but they had an edge over the Natives that they would never have; immunity to European disease. None of the Europeans would buy slaves who would soon die off because of a disease which they are already immune to. So, they found a new supply of slaves in the African population, making the Africans a top commodity in the trade world. Even in our own Revolutionary war, people immune to smallpox were needed and desired. During the war, Washington suspected that the British might attempt to uses smallpox as a weapon against his troops. He then proceeded to inoculate his troops for the smallpox virus so that it could not be used as a weapon against them.

 

Help Received: Power point slides, film

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 3: Syphilis

BI 245X

7/9/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 3:Syphilis

In the medical field, one of the sole purposes of seeing patients is to help treat their illness. But what if you diagnose a patient and do not treat them for their illness? Unfortunately, as bad as that sounds, this sometimes has happened to people in our society. Whether it is justified as “a medical study” which is going to better the rest of society, at what cost should we go to in order to save the rest of the people. Ethically, we should always have to inform anyone of their current state when coming to the doctors because they are coming to a doctor for help for their symptoms, not a study to help others. The only way that it would be acceptable for a doctor to not treat a patient for their illness in order to do a study would be if they asked for their permission first.

In one particular study in Tuskegee Alabama, doctors chose 400 black males infected with syphilis for a medical study that was “justified” by the point of the future health for the race. Doctors would not treat these men for their syphilis and give them medicine that was only a placebo to see what the illness did to their bodies. During the study, at least 40 men died from their illness before the media found out about the study. Like I said before in the introduction, in order for any study to be deemed as ethical, the patient must be asked and informed of their illness and what the doctors want to do about that study. If the doctors in the Tuskegee experiment had been told about the study and then went along with it, then it would not have gotten the negative media that it received.

With the exposure of unethical studies such as the Tuskegee experiment, comes the consequence of the loss of trust between certain doctors and patients. Since this study was only focused towards blacks, this raised racial tensions and cause many blacks to not trust their doctors who were white because they were in fear that a similar thing would happen to them. This has lead to the black community to not go to doctors as much to be treated because the generation that was alive during the Tuskegee experiment have now passed on to their children that doctors are not to be trusted unless they are the same race. this has most likely contributed to the black community’s poor health and high death rates involving health issues.

Help Received: Powerpoint slides, Tuskegee film

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 2: The Plague

BI 245X

7/7/18

Noah Delaney-Manuel

The Plague

When society was at it’s turning point in the century, Europe was flourishing. Between the economy being so strong and trade slowly beginning to increase, it was a good time to be a European. Unfortunately this all came to an end with the migration of a demon from the west; the Mongols. With the Mongol horde came an unseen danger which would eventually become the most deadly disease to ever be spread. With the habits of the mongols, nothing went to waste after a battle. Clothing and furs from dead enemies were stripped from bodies to be traded to the western world. The Mongols also provided a route for eastern people to migrate to the European realm. Because of this societal increase of contact with new people from trade and migration, the plague was easily spread and at an alarming rate.

One of the main reasons that the plague was easily spread was the horrific living conditions that people were in. With the domestication of animals, came the living in unison with bacteria, rats, and other pest like creatures. Because of this, people’s infection rates skyrocketed and the plague spread like wildfire. With the spread of the disease so visible and the symptoms horrifically  effecting so many people in society, many people did not know what to do or who to blame. One way that people turned was to the jews. In this society, it was seen that jews were unpleasing to god and their tolerance of the jews was the reason that the plague had befallen on them. Another theory was that the jews poisoned water supplies and infected all the population. Despite the jews also being affected by plague like everyone else, they were still blamed for the outbreak. Another response to the plague was turning to the flagellants in their society. The flagellants were people who beat themselves in resemblance to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was believed that this was pleasing in God’s eyes and that they gained certain powers from their beatings. Unfortunately, the turning to this group brought this group power which they eventually abused.

In todays society, the plague is by no means where it was during the original outbreak in Europe. It mostly affects poor and rural countries like Madagascar. Because of the living with animals and poor medical resources, the plague can still run armpit if it is not contained properly. Despite the long span of time which the plague has been around, we have not been able to develop a vaccine which would eradicate the virus from the earth forever. One of the presumed vectors for the virus today is the bat.

Help Received: Powerpoint slides, Plague film

Noah Delaney-Manuel

Artifact 1: The Appearance of Plagues

BIO-245X

Noah Delaney-Manuel

7/5/18

Artifact 1: Appearance of plagues

In history, sicknesses were spread the best in crowds of people. But what happens when people settle to one area more permanently? With the dependence of animals and other goods that aren’t always from that region, people needed to have connections with people from other regions of the world. Along with the bringing in of unknown animals and goods, another scary good traveled wherever people went, disease. Unlike when people were in hunter-gatherer societies, people who lived in the cities around the time The Black Death was around were exposed to filth from animals and even human waste. Although hunter-gatherer societies had their share of infections like intestinal worms, lice, and other sicknesses, there was never truly a group sickness. When people domesticated animals, the animals tended to live in the homes of people and shared water supply with the people. Not only did this allow bacteria flow between people and their animals, but this also attracted rats, mosquitos, ticks, and fleas. A big factor on disease being so strong in these times was because there was no system of waste disposal. With all this waste sitting around, it opened the door for pathogens to make their homes closer to people, and eventually in people. Many of the diseases that became deadly to humans originated from animal diseases: TB, Malaria, plague, Smallpox, Measles, Influenza. Farmlands also created suitable homes for insects to make nests, also exposing humans more to parasites and bacteria.

Today, our scientists and health officials have a new approach on infectious diseases called “One Health”. One Health focuses on linkages between humans, animals, and our environmental health. One major reason for the study of the linkage of people and animals today is because 60% of all human diseases currently and 75% of all emerging diseases come from or through animals. Some of these diseases which are transmitted to humans are extremely deadly. One of those deadly diseases recently broke out in the continent of Africa, stemming from bats and spreading like wild fire through western Africa in 2004, an approximated 28,652 cases arose. Out of those cases, 11,325 deaths happened. Now, one might say how is it possible for that many people to die from a disease in the time we are in medically. Part of the issue of finding cures for diseases in today’s society has to do with funding for research for these cures. Most of the regions where these diseases spread so easily are very poor and rural regions, where “Bush meat” is a staple in diets of all of their people. Bush meat is a dangerous thing to eat because these animals live in the wild and are exposed to more than domesticated animals are when it comes to diet. When these people consume this meat, bacteria are much more present than it is with domesticated animals. Although domesticated animals are much safer to eat, it is not risk free. Depending on how these meats are cooked, can sometimes spread diseases at the same rate as bush meat. E. Coli is spread through beef and has affected many people in the U.S. Another sickness that arises from incorrect cooking of meats, salmonella affects people from the undercooking of chicken. Despite the technology we have today, there is still many risks for anyone at any time to become infected with a multitude of diseases.

 

Help Received: Power point slides

Noah Delaney-Manuel