Throughout this semester, the assignments involving the research and discussion of infectious diseases has taught me a great deal regarding the impact of disease on society and the environment. The process has involved not just the study of the medical disease itself, but also the history of how long the disease has been around, ways people tried to combat against the disease too, and how it affected the society throughout the time the disease has been prevalent. The biggest impact on my perspective on these diseases was how they pushed people to create new medicines or new sanitation technology. What might have been one of the most revolutionary inventions was the creation of the vaccine. In artifact #4- The First Vaccination, I looked at how Edward Jenner first created a vaccine, in 1796, that combat smallpox, a disease that had been around since as early as the 3rd century. This was a huge feat that paved the way for future medicine, and how many vaccines are made today. In 1979, the last of the disease was officially eradicated. This was only achieved with through the efforts of the World Health Organization, with assistance from other smaller groups. Techniques of surveillance and reporting cases of the disease were established, which helped the scientists track down people who contracted the disease. These techniques are still used today, such as in the spread of Ebola in 2014 and with the Covid-19 virus which is happening currently.
The disease that has had the biggest impact on human history and completely changed society, was the Bubonic plague. With three known pandemics, the Black Death in the mid-1300s was the most severe, killing millions of people across Europe and Asia, in just a couple of years. I looked at this disease more in depth in artifact #3- Yersinia Pestis. This disease showed people that diseases can be spread from person-to-person contact, as was seen at the siege of Caffa. People who had died from the plague, were catapulted over the walls, to try and infect the people on the other side. Whether it was the bodies themselves, or the flies or rats that came in contact with the bodies, this first example of biological warfare changed history. People realized that they could use biological warfare as a means to get an enemy to concede defeat. In addition, society in most places handled their response to the plague poorly and often brought out the worst in humanity. The royals and landholders left the cities to take refuge in the country, away from where the disease could spread to them. Half a city could die in a day, so people who lived in remote villages would come to help bury and burn the bodies. Looters and robbers would take from the sick and dying. A group of radical Christians, who called themselves the Flagellants, proclaimed that they had a cure for the disease. They would flog and harm themselves just like what had happened to Jesus, in order to purge themselves in sin. They also attacked Jews, who were scapegoated and blamed for the disease. One actual positive outcome from the disease was that it did allow for people who were previously poor to obtain land and have better paying jobs. In my Guinea Worm Essay- Afflictions with Little Dragons, I examined how societies from countries who had means to help, come to together to try and get eliminate a nasty disease that is located only in Africa. By implementing new technology, sanitation techniques, and building health centers to combat the parasite that is plaguing the rural and poor parts of Africa, great success was seen from their efforts.
As seen today with the Coronavirus and Ebola, we are not always well-equipped to handle emerging diseases, or even fight an established disease, such as tuberculosis that has developed resistance against traditional antibiotics. Our technology and medicine are far superior today and only continue to get better, but at the same time, people often fail to follow basic personal and group hygiene precautions, which allows for rapid transmission of pathogens. Many people just do not wish to follow the rules that would prevent the spread of diseases, which would benefit not just themselves, but everyone around them. There is also not enough medicine to be distributed to everyone if there is a pandemic that requires a specific novel treatment or vaccine. Many countries in Africa are examples of societies that have had difficulty controlling the spread diseases such as guinea worm, and HIV. Many countries are too poor to spend for the resources to protect and educate people on the diseases. In turn, out of ignorance and need, they resort to drinking dirty water containing cholera or eat bushmeat and get Ebola. Many Asian countries have wet markets, which have live animals, with many different species, stacked on top of each other, which allows the transmission of diseases through their defecation and urination. In turn, the sellers and consumers of these livestock are risking development of the infection in humans. Many of these animals can carry zoonotic diseases, which are infectious diseases that animals can transmit to humans. The cause of the coronavirus is thought to come from wet markets, which were shut down temporarily, but are now reopened. These diseases can be reduced to eradicated only when people decide to get serious and follow the guidelines on reducing the risk for contracting infectious diseases.
In summary, the lessons learned from this class are critical for understanding the foundations of public health and infectious disease. Furthermore, this class was invaluable in helping me prepare for the current global pandemic.