Epidemics and Society | snearls17's blog

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Reflective Essay – Epidemics and Society

Throughout this course on Epidemics and Society, I have learned an incredible amount about human sickness throughout history. There is much to be said about the way epidemics have shaped human history. From the infamous to the mysterious, the Black Plague to Smallpox, we have studied them all in BI-245X. The VMI ePortfolio system has…

Emerging & Re-Emerging Disease Flyer

Yellow Fever-uvtj6a

Ebola – Emerging Disease

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. The average EVD case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in…

HIV/AIDS Response

HIV/AIDS is an issue that is near and dear to my own heart. I was fortunate enough to be able to serve around Kenya, and Zimbabwe, Africa last year, and I saw what AIDS does to a body. It is simply devastating. The number of suffering people grows daily. Like many other diseases, it can be…

King Cholera – Artifact 7

Cholera “Cholera”, from the Greek, meaning literally “gutter of a roof”. This disease is aptly named because of the dysentery-like symptoms associated with it. Victims experience muscles cramps with diarrhea and vomiting of incredibly severity. Without treatment, the victim dies of dehydration within 24 hours. The loss of water and electrolytes, but retention of protein…

The Peoples Plague – Artifact 6

Tuberculosis “TB” is an infection caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It generally affects the lungs, but can also attack the kidneys, bones (Pott’s disease), lymph nodes, and even the brain. The modern strains of M. tuberculosis seem to have originated from a common ancestor about 15-20,000 years ago. It was also documented in Egypt more than 5,000…

Troubles in Ireland – Artifact 5

The Irish Potato Blight Potatoes are just another luxury that the modern world could feasibly do without. But the world has not always been so. We did not always have access to every imaginable crop grown in every imaginable place. Around the 1850s, the Irish persisted also solely on potatoes as their food source. When…

Smallpox and Vaccines – Artifact 4

The Old World Smallpox has been called one of the most devastating diseases known to humanity, but in the modern world it doesn’t even exist. Living in the old world, almost everyone would be subject to a smallpox infection. Initial systems begin 7 to 17 days after exposure and begin with high fever, body aches,…

Ethics and Infectious Diseases – Artifact 3

In 1967, William Stewart, the Surgeon General of the United States of America said: “The time has come to close the book on infectious diseases. We have basically wiped out infection in the United States.” No doubt, the good Dr. Stewart wanted to be the guy that eradicated disease. Unfortunately, he could not have been…

Plague: Yesterday and Today – Artifact 2

Historical Aspects: By some accounts, the Black Death has claimed more lives than World War one and two combined. That represents a number that is very nearly incomprehensible. As rational human beings, we want to know why. Why was the bubonic plague so incredibly deadly at that stage in history? What could we have done better?…