Epidemics throughout history have changed the outcomes of many revolutionary events. Specifically throughout the semester I have learned about the many infectious diseases that have evolved to the epidemic and even pandemic level. Within each artifact I have learned the specifics of how each disease has changed culture and society. Within this paper I will reflect on how my understanding of infectious diseases around the world has changed by referencing the research that I have done throughout the semester. I will explain how the outcomes of wars, science and medicine were influenced by society and how modern society is working to fight the past and re-emerging infectious diseases.
When looking at how specific diseases have changed history the best examples come from the plague, cholera, and small pox. The plague has three types of disease and is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. The plague was able to influence all three of the worldly categories. First off the plague changed the outcome of wars because of how many people were being killed. Within the time of the black death (1347-1351) the plague was able to kill 50% of the population in Europe. The massive amount of deaths in Europe led scientist of the time to begin researching to the best of the their ability. Although the plague broke out many more times each time the severity dropped due to advances in science and medicine. The first advancement was finding out that the disease was spread by the rats and poor sanitation. The second advancement for the plague was finding out that the disease was caused by a bacteria, rather than polluted fog or blaming the Jews. The plague was extremely deadly, killing over 25 million people in Europe, but it gave scientist a push to look into the infectious disease which has led to only 10-17 cases in the U.S. annually in the present-day.[1]
Cholera is the next disease that has effected and continues to effect the worlds population. Cholera is a disease that is spread through contaminated water and has been around since nearly 1000AD. Cholera just like the plague is caused by a bacteria, Vibrio cholerae. Cholera, unlike the plague causes the worst diarrhea that results in rice stool. The idea that the bacteria was effecting people was first found in a small water fountain in England. A scientist by the name of Dr. John Snow isolated the cause of the rice stool and found it to be contaminated water. It wasn’t until later that year that a scientist by the name of Filippo Pacini found out that the contamination in the water was the bacteria V. cholerae. Cholera has caused death in just about every war up to present day. Although the biggest case of cholera in the 21stcentury was in Haiti, after the earthquake. Yemen is also currently being effected by a Cholera outbreak and in both cases of Haiti and Yemen the infrastructure of the countries are what prevented the treatment. The countries are too poor and are not able to produce funds to create clean water supplies, sewage treatment and proper sanitation procedures.[2]
The final infectious disease that I think has effected society and culture in a worldly fashion is small pox. Small pox is caused by a virus unlike the previous two diseases. Small pox devastated the human population and might have also been the best worse case scenario. I say this because small pox is the reason that in society today we have vaccines. A scientist by the name of Edward Jenner was able to prove all the pseudo-treatments wrong by creating a vaccine from cow pox.[3]This was a huge step for science and medicine because it proved that diseases that are caused by viruses, even if we are unsure of the virus have the ability to be treated if exposed to small doses and the body can create an immunity.[4]Modern society has taken these impacts on society and learned, for the majority of people all three of these diseases have an extremely low risk of infection.
The lessons learned about the three previous disease that are now being applied in modern society are that clean water is necessary to prevent infectious diseases, vaccines work, and work best by herd immunity and finally that sanitation and close living quarters are the breeding ground for disease. Today in all cities in the United States there are water treatment plants. These plants not only filter dirty water they also handle the treatment of sewage. This type of infrastructure is required in order to prevent diseases like mentioned above, Cholera.[5]The second lesson is that vaccines work! If you look in the news today there are plenty of articles that talk about how mumps and measles are being to show up again. This is because of the people who are ignorant enough to believe a fake research program that stated vaccines give kids autism. These cases though are not as much of a risk as they sound. Herd immunity, meaning that as long as the majority of the people in a population are vaccinated, the majority should be safe from the disease. Then finally I believe that the plague played a huge role in influencing modern society because it created a standard of care that hadn’t been looked at before. Because of how many people died due to the plague scientist and medicine had to advance and prevent it from ever happening to that extent again.
The three diseases that I mentioned above are of the most influential infectious disease in history in my opinion. First the, plague, which allowed scientist to understand basic disease treatment and gave them the most basic understanding of how to set up standards and procedure for those who have an infectious disease. Second, Cholera, was important to history because it allowed scientist to understand that the diseases can be caused by more than human to human contact or respiration. Cholera showed that water and food can be contaminated and began the rush for clean water. Third and finally smallpox was important because it was the first disease to have a vaccine treatment. Dr. Jenner was able to take the cow pox from cow maidens and introduce the abrasions which allowed for the body to build immunity to the small pox disease. Each and everyone one of these diseases have left the world changed. We have learned so much about each of these diseases that the few cases that are left not including disasters are due to improper sanitation or people who don’t believe in vaccines. In my mind for these three disease to leave this large of an impact on society I think it has changed the culture around infectious diseases in the 21stcentury.
[1]Artifact 3: The Plague-Past, Present, and Future
[2]Artifact 8: Historical and Modern Outbreaks of Cholera
[3]Artifact 4: Smallpox- The Significance and Effects on History
[4]Artifact 4: Smallpox- The significance and Effects on History
[5]Artifact: Historical and Modern Outbreaks of Cholera