Polio's Possible Comeback as an Epidemic

While searching through the National Geographic Magazine's website, I came across an article about Polio. Polio is a disease that is contagious and has devastated vast numbers of people all through history. The recommended vaccination is called an IPV, but an earlier version was invented by Albert Sabin in 1964, and is called an OPV (oral polio vaccination). Moreover, Jonas Salk invented an even earlier version in 1955. Polio is most commonly seen in children under five years old and the most severe forms may cause muscles to weaken and therefore leave an individual paralyzed or dead. Although polio has not been seen in the Western Hemisphere since 1991, and UN campaigns for vaccination are 99% successful, cases are suddenly becoming increasingly common in many countries in Africa and Asia. Countries such as Nigeria and India are seeing a gigantic leap in the number of people affected from 2005 to 2006. For example, the number of people with polio reported in India in 2005 was 35, but in 2006, it was 249. Due to staggering numbers such as those in India, scientist and researchers believe that polio may be making a comeback as an international epidemic.


Many may be wondering why this disease has made such a comeback recently, and scientist, although unsure, have a few guesses. For instance, with the number of international travelers on the rise constantly, the diseases could be transferring from country to country with great ease. In addition, contaminated water and over population in countries with poor sanitary conditions may be a cause. People in less informed areas of these countries also seem to be receiving inaccurate information about vaccination, such as the medicine is laced with a drug which causes HIV or infertility. Large Muslim populations in Middle Eastern countries seem to be receiving the most incorrect information, and therefore more and more people are too scared to be treated for their disease. Besides the UN, which has been taking strides to stop polio since early in history, most countries are taking it upon themselves to help their people as well. Hopefully, with all the work being put towards keeping polio at bay, the disease will not spread much farther, and will not become what many expect it to be: an epidemic.

Melissa Martin's Post

***Although this post has been posted under my name, it was written and researched by my partner Melissa Martin. Tonight she called me because she was unable to locate her invitation to the blog. I have posted her post under my name so that it would make it onto the site by 8:00 A.M. Monday morning.***


Pandemics and epidemics have gradually become somewhat easier to treatand control over the past 20th century due to advances in public healthand technology . At the turn of the 20th century, the 6th cholera pandemichit, but in places such as Europe, the effect was not so great because oftheir advances in public health. However in countries such as Russia whichwas not so technologically or industrially advanced, the cholera pandemicfrom 1899-1923 hit very hard. Russia was once again hit very hard by thispandemic as it had in been in 1852-1860 when the third pandemic hit Russiacausing over a million deaths.

Towards the end of the 20th century, however, with a pandemic such as AIDS, one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history, there hasbeen a surge of epidemiologists who have made incredible advancements inthe awareness of epidemics and pandemics.

Accompanying these advances, there has been a greater study of the ethicssurrounding such pandemics as AIDS as epidemiologists have learned to morecarefully consider the privacy rights of individual victims. With thiscloser look at ethics, victims of pandemics such as AIDS have become lessvulnerable to the stigma of the disease itself. They have less fear ofpublic reprisal than victims of pandemics have been in past times duringepidemics such as the black plague.

http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/22/1/169.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS

Influenza

An epidemic is defined as “An outbreak of a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and widely.” (Dictionary.com) A pandemic is defined as “Epidemic over a wide geographic area and affecting a large proportion of the population.” (Dictionary.com) Some of the worst epidemics and pandemics faced by the world in recent past were the Spanish Flu, Cholera, and AIDS; however, there are many more I hope we can cover.

Influenza is the virus that is commonly known as the flu. As you may already know, serious cases of the flu can lead to pneumonia, which can be fatal in small children and the elderly. It is most commonly transmitted through coughing and sneezing. The virus has caused numerous pandemics, but I have chosen to concentrate on the pandemic of 1918.

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic (also known as the Spanish Flu due to the amount of press it received in Spain) was the most destructive outbreak of the disease that has ever occurred. A surprising fact that I found is that the number of deaths that occurred as a result of the violence of World War I is less than the number of deaths due to influenza. Because of the close quarters and the constant movement of the troops, the disease spread particularly fast. Influenza spread also along trade routes and shipping lines. Influenza swept the world between 1918 and 1919. It even reached the arctic. Hardly any countries were left untouched by the deadly disease, but a few were able to keep people from dying from it. The websites I mainly used for my research were the Wikipedia pages for “Spanish Flu” and its page for “Influenza”.

E. Coli

This week I focused my efforts on searching information about E. Coli (Escherichia coli). I learned that E. Coli is a group of bacteria that live in the intestinal tract of most people; however, on rare occasions they may cause infection. The role of E. Coli is to absorb certain vitamins, but when something goes array the bacteria can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, an extremely serious condition. This syndrome damages the kidney and can eventually cause kidney failure or death. However, at times the E. coli infection may be less extreme and clear in five to ten days, nevertheless it can still cause damage. A person may contract an E. Coli infection through contaminated water, person-to-person contact, or most commonly through contaminated food, especially undercooked meat.

Interesting article that changed my way of thinking

When searching on a list of several epidemics on Wikipedia, I came across an article on SARS. I found something interesting in it stating that "There is some evidence that some of the more serious damage in SARS is due to the body's own immune system overreacting to the virus....Research is continuing in this area. "
I found this very interesting when I initially thought that epidemics were merely diseases that were easily spread and that killed people. I never thought that it could be a possibility that as humans, we have created the epidemic that kills so many of us.
Also in this article, I learned that SARS initially can be mistaken as the flu as its initial symptoms are reminiscent of the flu.
Though there was only one major outbreak to date, it killed 774 people out of the 8,096 identified cases (according to Wikipedia). Though on a world scale this isn't an outrageous number, it was quite appealing and it interested me.
The website was 'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SARS' if anyone wants to take a look.

I also looked up some information on SARS on WebMD so that I could get a possible medical look at it. The website defined SARS as "a recently identified respiratory illness that first infected people in parts of Asia, North America, and Europe in late 2002 and early 2003. " I learned that the outbreaks can be seasonal and are caused by the coronavirus that causes it to be mistaken as the common cold. One of the weirdest things that I learned from this was that it is believed by some that it originated in "civets" which are "cat-like wild animals" and other animals that people have eaten. This went against the possibility that the virus originates in humans and I found this interesting. The website for this article was 'http://www.webmd.com/hw/infection/uf6068.asp'. My Diigo wasn't working for me to tag this but I plan to tag it when I can.

At this point, I have taken a particular interest in SARS because it has been absent lately from the news and I have yet to hear very much about it. It doesn't seem to compare to AIDS and Bird Flu in our modern day society, but I feel that it is very important and I hope to learn more about it.
~Jenelle

Welcome

This is a first post to start the blog for the World History Pandemics.