The Impact Of Dr. Ellis Cheever On Public Health

Since 1878, the US Public Health System has been collecting information on infectious conditions for the purpose of early identification and control of massive outbreaks, including, when necessary, instituting quarantines

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.

The pandemic struck the world and infected 1/3 of earth’s human population, killing over 50 million humans. The world’s top doctors have never witnessed anything of this killing magnitude besides the bubonic plague of 1348 but the transmissibility is of nothing they’ve ever seen in their lifetime or of recorded history. People abruptly became aware of the importance of health, and need of medicine and cleanliness.

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.

In a response to the polio outbreak of 1916, Dr. Haven Emerson, the Health Commissioner for New York City, stated: “we have learned little that is new about the disease, but much that is old about ourselves.” The meaning of this has to do with the ideology that no matter the era, people have a common response to the outbreak of contagious disease. Human nature supplies us as humans with a common reaction to dealing with disease, and it is one that can be seen during the Black Death, polio epidemics, and ebola epidemics, as well as many other epidemics. These responses can be both positive and negative, and often have to do with containment of the disease, preventative measures - which may or may not be effective; and scapegoating. Although there may be individualized responses for each of these diseases, the way in which the health-care officers and the public handle the outbreak of disease generally follows the same pattern overall.

Bibliography Medicine and Health in the 1930s: Overview. (np) History Gale. 2003. Web.

James McClurg was born near Hampton, Virginia in 1746. They know little of his parents or siblings. As he grew older he attended the college of William and Mary in 1762 and he also studied in Edinburgh, UK. James graduated college in 1770. Soon after his graduation he worked on medical studies in London and Paris, he posted studies on human bile and reflections on the biliary secretions in 1772. Not long after these Studies he became a surgeon for the state militia in 1773 during the Revolution.

It traveled across the United States in weeks, the globe in only a few months, and it could have a rapid course, progressing from early symptoms to death in a day. The epidemic had two other crucial characteristics. It did not respect the epidemiologic rules taught by influenza outbreaks ignoring risk factors such as age and localized outbreaks. Its symptoms were gruesome: Your face turns a dark brownish purple. You start to cough up blood. Your feet turn black. A blood-tinged saliva bubbles out of your mouth. You die--by drowning. It was a mystery with no known origin, no known etiology, and no treatment. From its extraordinary ability to reach into everyday life in every nation to the special trains to carry away the dead, the epidemic is a story of mythic proportions. Along with these colossal attributes, it is also given, in popular thought, the power of

The Public Health Lessons of Living with Polio Despite diseases contributing to overall life expectancy, diseases come in all different pathogens, strains, and accompanying symptoms, diseases have impacted how and where we decide to live, our economies, our values, and our daily rituals. Many of the lessons of public health can be attributed to historical events or even ordinary citizens living in society. This paper will identify the struggles and successes of Paul Alexander as well as identify the socio-economic factors that both benefited and hindered the success of Paul Alexander's life. When Paul Alexander first woke up in an iron lung at the age of six, he thought he was dead.

A typical day here includes large pickup trucks roaming around town picking up and dropping off infected corpses. The CDC (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has provided the indigenous people with treatment facilities, medication and staff to help diminish the severity of the outbreak. The townspeople have took it

In the infectious disease unit, the main focal point consisted of showing the audience how the spread of a major virus may occur in population. In this case, we were presented with two movies: Contagion and 28 Days Later. These movies both displayed an infectious disease, which is spread through animals causing harm to people. A scenario that presented in Contagion seemed to be realistic possibility because a simple transmission of disease from an animal can happen. If the virus is unknown and no vaccine is available, it could certainly cause a lot of harm to a large population of people. Likewise, another possibility was also presented in 28 Days Later, where the viewers see scientist talking about monkey being infected with a virus.

Public health strategies and interventions have changed drastically over time. Bloodletting is one of the most ancient forms of medical interventions. It originated in the ancient civilizations of Egypt and Greece, persisting through the Medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment periods (PBS). Doctors used the bloodletting method for every ailment imaginable; from pneumonia, bone fractures, and even wounds, bloodletting was as trusted and popular as aspirin is today.

Protecting the public’s health historically has been a state and local responsibility. However, the growing threat of bioterrorism has highlighted the importance of a strong public health infrastructure to the nation’s homeland security and has focused increased attention on the preparedness of the public health system (Frist, 2011). Since the 2001 anthrax attacks Congress has passed new legislation to increase the strength of the nation’s public health system thus the funding has also rapidly increased to meet the potential demand. There is an ongoing debate however, as to what level of contribution local, state, and federal agency’s feel is an appropriate level of ongoing public health investments.

Since the beginning, humanity has overcome diseases that could potentially wipe out the human race. From earliest forms diseases such as measles to modern day pandemics such as AIDS, mankind has survived throughout history. Though diseases have plagued society it was only after the outbreak of the HIV virus in 1981 that brought to attention the dangers of incurable diseases. Before this time, with World War I and II, and the Cold War, public fear was based on the potential chance of a nuclear destruction of the planet. Since the outbreak of the HIV in 1981, public anxiety has been displaced from nuclear winter to that of microbial plagues. The enemy was now no longer a visible foe but that of an unknown contagion with no knowable cure. Recently in 2009, with the outbreak of the Swine Flu (H1N1) Virus public alert of the dangers of contagions increased. Science Fiction films since the outbreak of HIV have reflected the public fear of the unknown and unbeatable contagions. Films such as Outbreak (1995), Contagion (2011) and the recent World War Z (2013) have shown audiences a creative window of possible outcomes of an epidemic and what man would do in order to stop the

In the spring of 1918, the first wave of one of the deadliest influenza pandemics began plaguing its victims (Peters, ix). Over the span of three lethal waves, the pandemic claimed approximately forty million victims, eradicating nearly twenty percent of the entire world’s population, or about one out of five individuals (Peters, ix). To make matters more dire, the ill-suited medical community was exceptionally unprepared for such a wide-scale pandemic: Doctors had very basic tools, knew little about diseases, and had no experience with vaccinations or prevention (Peters, 1-5; “The 1920s: Medicine and Health: Overview”, n.p.). People blindly faced the epidemic, relying on folk remedies such as consuming wine, drinking antiseptic, and