Analysis Of The Article ' Microbes On The Move '

About 1,500 cases of malaria are diagnosed in the United States annually, mostly in returned travelers” (Global Health - Division of Parasitic Diseases , 2010). Malaria risk is not distributed homogeneously throughout all countries. Some destinations have malaria transmission occurring throughout the whole country, while in others it occurs in defined pockets so the traveler should be weary of areas whose climate is conducive to mosquitoes.

Viruses, Plagues, and History, written by Michael Oldstone, is an insightful and highly educational book that details the history of, that’s right, viruses and plagues. Through typically dry, yet engaging prose, Oldstone recounts what seems like all of it while simultaneously bringing to light the contributions of those brave scientists who asked themselves, “why.” He focuses his attention on some of the most notable viruses such as smallpox, yellow fever, measles, polio, and later he focuses on more contemporary battles against disease.

In the film, Foul Water, Fiery Serpent, former president, Jimmy Carter shows his process of eradicating Guinea Worm disease. With the help of Director Gary Strieker, Carter educates viewers on how the disease forms, how it has spread throughout countries, and how it will soon be defeated. When Guinea worm first surfaced, there were 3.5 million cases in 20 countries worldwide. With the help of Jimmy Carter, his campaign members, and many more, they have managed to drop these cases down to 3,190 by the year 2009. With some statistical facts at the end of the documentary, Guinea worm is likely to be the next disease in the history of mankind to be eradicated from the earth, right after smallpox. It was also the first parasitic disease to be eradicated, and the first disease to be eradicated without the use of vaccines or medicines. With this campaign, reported cases went from 4,136 in 2007, to 242 cases by 2009 in Ghana alone. None of this would have been possible if it were not for the awareness in global health, and the mission to make the world a healthier, safer place to live.

Infectious epidemics and pandemics have happened all through mankind's history. “They remain the prime cause of death worldwide and will not be conquered during our lifetimes.” The flu of 1918 was one of the deadliest epidemics in history. “It infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims. More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic.” No one knew how the virus spread, there were no antibiotics to fight it, and no flu shots to prevent it. In the final year of World War I, it struck terror in the hearts of people all across Europe and left more death in its wake than the combined military actions of the combatants. “It killed more Americans in a few months than World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the

In his book, The Hot Zone, Richard Preston focuses on an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Reston, Virginia and in multiple places in Africa. To show how dangerous an outbreak can be, Preston examines, in great detail, various other viral outbreaks, including Marburg. Preston begins by talking about a fifty-six year old Frenchman named Charles Monet who ends up breaking out with a treacherous disease called Marburg. This wasn’t known until his doctor, Dr. Shem Musoke, ended up testing positive for Marburg after Monet`s infected blood went all over Doctor Musoke as Monet was dying. Musoke survived his outbreak with Marburg.

Throughout history the human race has been faced with one key factor that no one civilization has even been able to beat, not the might of the Roman-Byzantine Empire, nor the combined efforts of the entirety of Europe and their scholars could defeat this recurring foe. Pandemics, from the Greek ‘pan’ meaning all, and ‘demos’ meaning people (Harper Etymonline.com), are these indiscriminate killers whom care not for your social standing be it wealth, fame, or glory. Humans have contested with disease ever since the infantile stages of the species, but the ability of it to spread was severely inhibited by the fact that humans stayed in small groups of 10-30 people at most, giving the virus or disease severely hampered virulence. It was not till humans began gathering in larger, more permanent settlements such as the early Classical cities of Athens, Ramses, and Rome, that the issue of sanitation and disease came into effect. This has not to say that our issues with sanitation and disease prevention have stopped, rather have they been brought forward into the limelight, many nations around the world today have issues with age old diseases and give rise to extremely deadly new viruses of their own. To fully understand the effect of pandemics in history, then one must consider three major plagues of our recorded history, the first pandemic ‘Plague of Athens’, the pivotal ‘Plague of Justinian’, and the infamous ‘Black Death’

BSP, S. (2010). How is EM different from light microscopy? Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://bsp.med.harvard.edu/node/222

It was a challenge for researchers to find a cure because of how new these strands were, and there was also pressure to find these cures soon due to how fast this virus could have, and in some cases did, move through populations. Shortly after his expedition to Kitum Cave, Gene Johnson says this quote from Louis Pasteur, a 19th century microbiologist, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” This quotation applied to the situation because those who knew how to handle this virus ended up being far more successful than those with no experience. Therefore, the author aims to point out that those who treated the virus with ignorance had created danger by approaching their situations with carelessness, which ultimately leads to

The Hot Zone, written by Richard Preston is the true and dramatic story of the outbreaks of the frightening, unknown and incurable filoviruses; Marburg, Ebola Zaire, Ebola Sudan and Ebola Reston. This book covers the first documented outbreak of the virus and continues to cover more outbreaks over the course of 23 years. These sisters viruses are highly infective and destroyed entire communities throughout Africa with the deaths of 50- 90% of their victims. The effects are similar and horrifying with the viruses penetrating every tissue and organ in the body of a person, primate or other animal. This book takes place in the late 1980s and is based on an outbreak of Ebola in a monkey house in the quaint town of Reston, Virginia. Richard Preston incorporates tales of several outbreaks that occurred in Africa years before to describe the potential destruction that the filoviruses could

In the video “Guns, Germs and Steel: Episode 3.” The overall summary of the episode is how Europe dominated Africa, how they fought through diseases and land wars with local tribes. During this adventure major diseases spread across Africa, affecting Europeans and Africans, causing thousands to die. The main two diseases were smallpox and Malaria, for example in the video it stated that, “It was believed Smallpox originated in the tropical region of Africa, Africans were certainly similar with the disease, they had even developed methods of immunity for life.” This was the advantage they had over the europeans, they were able to protect themselves from Smallpox; avoiding such a dramatic incline their population. Not only did they develop immunization to Smallpox, they tried to fight off Malaria. For example in the video it says, “Native Africans had also developed antibodies against one of the most virulent diseases on the earth, Malaria.” This was because they settled and live in high or dry locations, away from wet and humid areas, which is where mosquitos are generally found, hence why thousands of Europeans died to this disease due to living by rivers and swamps. However, Malaria isn’t the most common disease in Africa now, the most common disease is “Pneumonia and Other Lower Respiratory Tract Infections….Pneumonia alone is responsible for 90% of all lower respiratory tract infections and is one of the most deadly diseases in

Diseases can be preventable and curable but many still manage to devastate on international scales, whether it was during the Middle Ages or today. These illnesses are sometimes underrated in their effects on the human race where symptoms can range from minimal to down-right devastating and painful. No matter where it started, they can bring devastating effects to the surrounding area. When someone wants to know about a disease, they want to know where it came from, it's symptoms, and how it affected the community in which it appeared. The Black Death, Ebola, and the Zika virus are examples of large-scale illnesses that vary in all three of these topics but still managed to threaten humans on a bigger scale than expected. Diseases like the

In the book The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, John Barry depicts an epidemic disease greater than anything the world has ever known. The story takes place during World War I, after a deadly virus breaks out during the war. The disease gradually increases as people carried it from country to country, spreading it to those who were not immune to it. With its speed, it ending up killing over one hundred million people across the globe in the span of a year. It killed more people in twenty-four months than the Black Death killed in a century. In this chronical, Barry illustrates the story of medicial men and their search to try and fight this epic disease.

After many performed test such as the API 20E test strip, motility test, inoculated plates, gram stain, an identification flow chart which began with the results from an indole, MR, VP, and citrate test. This amongst many other test. These results brought the conclusion of my unknown culture to be Escherichia coli, my unknown number was 11.

Globalization aided in impacting human health by population mobility. The source of epidemics throughout history can be traced back to human migration (Saker). The effects of these epidemics have changed whole societies. International efforts to prevent the spreading of infections from one country to another have been focused on. Early diseases that spread between Asia and Europe included the bubonic plague, influenzas of various types, and other similar contagious diseases. The world is more interdependent and connected than ever in the era of globalization. This is because inexpensive and efficient transportation allows access to almost everywhere and the increase of global trade of agricultural products brought an increasing number of people into contact with animal disease. Trade routes had long been established between Europe and Asia along which diseases were unintentionally transmitted. The management of malaria is a global role (Carter). Global institutions support the

“Only yesterday mankind lived in fear of the scourges of smallpox, cholera, and plague………….. Today we are concerned with a different kind of hazard that lurks in our environment—a hazard we ourselves have introduced into our world as our modern way of life has evolved.”