The Emergence and Re-emergence of Diseases: Are We Ready for More?
Emerging diseases are obviously significant because the human population has never been exposed to them, and therefore has no knowledge on how to counter them. However, re-emerging diseases are equally as threatening because they come back in adjusted strains that are more powerful against our body’s immune system. Since we are able to create vaccines to fight against them, the strains adjust in a way to trick our body’s and spread more effectively. For example, Ebola was first discovered in 1976 but kept under control in remote areas. However, in the 21stcentury it re-emerged as an adjusted strain that tricked the human body into letting the virus in and making billions of copies of itself. As for zoonotic sources, these are dangerous because it is more difficult for us to pinpoint exactly which animal is carrying the disease. It is also more difficult to contain the disease when its carried in a zoonotic source, or animal, rather than a human. An example of zoonotic source is mosquitos carrying Zika.
One huge cultural problem associated with major outbreaks is containing it when it is found. As we saw in the film about Zika, Ebola, and Nipah; a lot of the places where these diseases originate are impoverish and culturally different than our Western Civilization. In one instance, Ebola was being spread because people would take care of their diseased love one and catch it. This is because medical centers and sanitation isn’t a huge part of their culture. Furthermore, these cultures often eat food with their hands which can also spread the diseases more easily than in our culture where we use utensils.
As for human responses to epidemics, humans seem to be a bit delayed. When a disease first emerges or re-emerges, people do not take it seriously. This concept is known as “outbreak culture.” They take everything for granted and go about their daily life. An example of this is the man who contracted Ebola and was told he was very sick and needed to stay in the hospital where he was visiting. He did not take the nurses serious and then flew by plane to another area in Africa, potentially spreading it to all passengers on his plane. Then he was finally hospitalized and kept attempting to remove himself from the hospital. He would unplug himself and constantly try to leave but the hospital staff fought hard against him. In the end he died and spread the disease to numerous members of the hospital staff.
Personally, I do not believe we are truly prepared for the next pandemic. I honestly think outbreak culture will continue to be a think and hinder our ability to control whatever disease begins to spread. Also, we were informed by Dr.Hinks, that from the beginning of an outbreak, it typically takes about 6 months to develop a vaccine to control the disease. Knowing this and the fact that people will not take the initial spread of the disease serious, I am worried for whatever comes next. If we want to be effective as a society against the next pandemic, I believe people need to be actively educated on just how dangerous it could be. Leading up to that time I think everyone should have a general knowledge about past pandemics and their severity, just as we are in this class. By knowing how fatal and severe they are, can actually scare people in to caring and reporting symptoms sooner than they would normally would.
Help Received: Film and handouts