Asthma Research Paper

On Sunday August 28, 2005 the National Weather Service warned the storm would make southeast Louisiana “uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer” and also warned of “human suffering incredible by modern standards.” This same

On Sunday, August 28, 2005 the National Weather Service warned the storm would make southeast Louisiana “uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer” and also warned of “human suffering incredible by modern standards.” This same agency also warned in capital letters

More than 7 trillion gallons of water fell in Louisiana and Mississippi over the course of eight days (Sergent et al., 2016). There have been at least 13 deaths recorded and over 40,000 homes have been destroyed. Rainfall numbers in double digits from a storm can bring havoc to an area, thus triggering rivers to ascend swiftly, and exceed flood levels (Dolce, 2016).

Over the years the droughts in North America have become worse. In 2012 80% of America was affected by very dry months and this is only by mid July. Climate change also has an effect on our health as humans. In 2012, at least 74 Americans were killed from extreme heat. This is nothing compared to 2011. During 2011 there were at least 206 people died from extreme heat.

Heat waves are often overlooked as an important natural disaster because they do not have the immediate effects of other disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes. However, over the last fifteen years, more people have died from heat waves compared to all other weather-related disasters combined (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2005). Heat waves are more dangerous in cities like Chicago because the buildings and paved roads stores heat and it dissipate very slowly (Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, 2005). The Chicago heat wave resulted in temperatures of 106 degrees and the actual heat index was almost 126 degrees. As a result of these high temperatures and humidity, over 700 people were left dead in

In 1993, the Midwest experienced the worst flood in American history affecting ten states in the Upper Mississippi River basin. The flooding lasted from late spring to fall, killing fifty-two people and damaging a 100,000 homes and businesses. The cause of the flooding was a heavy winter with lots of snow and a spring season full of rain, which saturated the soil. Instead, of a hot summer, the rain kept coming and the Upper Mississippi River Basin received three and a half times its normal rain. Since it continuously rained, the water levels kept rising and many of the levees broke. The water levels stayed high for weeks destroying towns and agriculture all throughout the Midwest.

The good thing about asthma is that there are a lot of medications available to help treat asthma sufferers with acute onset of symptoms as well as help with the long term prognosis of patients. Asthma medications are classified into two groups, Controller and quick-relief. Controller medications are designed to help prevent asthma attacks. Their purpose is to try and reduce the chronic inflammation thus making the body less likely to react to triggers. Some of these include long-acting beta-agonists, Leukotriene modifiers, Mast cell stabilizers, Theophylline, and immunomodulators. Long-acting beta agonists are bronchodilators that assist in opening up your airways. These are normally aerolized medications. The bronchodilator causes the muscles

Climate change increases the possibility of extreme weather events which in turn makes disease transmission more frequent in poor, developing countries. The weather event known as El Nino has been determined to be one of the leading environmental factors that influences disease. El Nino is a band of warmer than average water, which

Asthma is a disease that affects over 25 million people in the United States, including 7 million children. Asthma affects the lower airways and is characterized by bronchial hyperresponsiviness and decreased airflow. People suffer from asthma attacks, which cause the lungs to become swollen and inflamed thus making it difficult to breath. These attacks range in severity from mild, moderate or severe. Symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain. These symptoms can affect people on a daily basis or on occasion (Zanni, 2013).

Global warming may increase the risk of some infectious diseases, like malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, and encephalitis. These diseases are spread by mosquitoes and other insects, and could become more common if a rise in temperature allows those insects to live farther north. Also, the increase in rainfall that is likely to occur with an increase in global temperature would serve to help increase the reproduction of the vectors. In February 1999, Britain's Institute of Animal Health linked outbreaks of the lethal horse fever virus in Africa to the El Nino phenomenon. The warming and increase in rainfall in Africa caused by El Nino led to many more horses being bitten by infected vectors. The scientists said their research shows this pattern is likely to happen with other vector-borne diseases when global warming occurs. Increased temperatures could also reduce the gestation periods of disease vectors, which could aid the breeding of strains resistant to pesticides. Scientists also hypothesize that algae

In 2012, Texas encountered the largest outbreak of the virus with 1868 cases reported. During that year, the mosquito population increased drastically. This was because there were higher temperatures and fluctuations between rainfall and drought which provided ideal conditions for mosquitoes to reproduce. The drought conditions reduced water flow and created stagnant water

These vectors can carry infective pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, which can be transferred from one host (carrier) to another. The seasonality, distribution, and prevalence of vector-borne diseases are influenced significantly by climate factors, primarily high and low temperature extremes and precipitation patterns. Climate change is likely to have both short- and long-term effects on vector-borne disease transmission and infection patterns, affecting both seasonal risk and broad geographic changes in disease occurrence over decades (see Figure ES6). While climate variability and climate change both alter the transmission of vector-borne diseases, they will likely interact with many other factors, including how pathogens adapt and change, the availability of hosts, changing ecosystems and land use, demographics, human behavior, and adaptive capacity. These complex interactions make it difficult to predict the effects of climate change on vector-borne

Recent hurricanes like Harvey that hit in Houston, Texas and Irma that touched down in Florida

In the introduction of Thomas Gale Moore’s essay, he states that “Threats of global warming are bringing on a plague… infestation we speak of is a plague of misinformation, infecting the public consciousness and blurring the issue of the effects of climate change on human health in a swarm of anxiety and confusion”. One of his sources states that “global warming is not the current problem. It is a collapse in public health measures, an increase in drug resistance in parasites, and an increase in pesticide resistance in vector

Storms that happen because of global warming are putting a lot of people at risk of being