H5N1 Breakout Summary

In two years between 1918 and 1919, A pandemic of influenza swept mercilessly over the planet, killing millions which stood in its path. Miraculously, the exact origin of the pandemic is unclear. What is exceedingly clear, however, is that often the actions of man aided in the spread of the virus, whether due to inadvertent endangerment, close quarters, religious principles, or failure to recognize the true threat that influenza posed.

If the government had taken these precautions, it wouldn’t guarantee the disease being controlled. But what it would do is lower the chances for the virus to spread more.

The Centers for Disease Control uses multiple techniques to try to get the word out about stopping flu from spreading around. No one wants the flu going around and getting everyone sick and staying home in bed when you can do something else that is exciting or fun. The Centers for Disease Control does not want to have a flu epidemic when they could have prevented the flu from spreading by campaigning it and advertising to get flue vaccinations.

Medical facilities should not mandate flu vaccines without studies to prove decreases in transmission of the influenza virus. Facilities should continue to promote safe practices to prevent infections of all contagious illnesses.

In the book, The Demon in the Freezer, there were numerous characters that participated in the given research for smallpox. Throughout the plot, I found Lisa Hensley to be the best character in connection with public health. Lisa Hensley was young, intelligent, and determined in her career. During her educational years, Lisa successfully gained two master’s degrees in public health and a Ph.D. in epidemiology and microbiology (Preston, 2002). Lisa comes from an educational background and everything she aimed to achieve within public health, epidemiology, and microbiology constantly amazed her. Upon completing graduate school and accepting the position with USAMRIID; her official title was a civilian scientist with phenomenal knowledge in areas that USAMRIID could benefit from (Preston, 2008). Lisa had a passion for being in the lab at all hours and working on her given scientific research. It is what made her feel good and allows her to feel accomplished after all the years of hard work put into her public health background. One of Lisa’s first assignments at USAMRIID was conducting “research on SHF, a level 3 virus that is harmless to humans but is devastating to monkeys” (Preston, 2008, p. 113). Scientists and researchers tend to experiment on animals similar to humans; such as, monkeys and mice. This typically helps scientists evaluate what procedures, screenings, and treatment would be available if there was to be an outbreak at any given time.

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.

Health care governments have endorsed an assortment of vaccination policies and mediations to safeguard against the known dangers of influenza communication, with longer patient stays, absenteeism, intermissions in health care, and death. Studies assessing the consequence of health care workers vaccination found that health care workers influenza vaccination was linked with a decrease in patient death (Murana, 2014). Assessing the results of health care worker influenza vaccination on patient results anticipated that if all health care workers were vaccinated, patient influenza infections could be stopped.

The problem can be better quantified by gaining understanding of the importance of receiving the flu vaccination. The manager of any health care facility should ensure that staff and patients, specifically those with a higher risk of contracting the flu, receives the yearly influenza vaccination. Health care staff that does not comply with yearly influenza vaccinations should be transferred to a unit with limited patient contact. High-risk patients who are not compliant with receiving the vaccine are to receive further education of the deadly effects associated with developing the influenza virus. In all patients it is imperative to provide proper patient

Organisms can easily be spread from patients to HCW, and then back to other patients with whom they may have contact. Vaccinations can reduce or eliminate the risk of contracting targeted diseases, and can reduce the risk of these diseases to unvaccinated persons, such as polio and smallpox, but this does not necessarily hold true for influenza. The concept of mandatory HCW influenza vaccination remains under debate as to whether HCWs are ethically obligated to be vaccinated, risking not only their employment status, but their own health and personal principles, in pursuit of “the greater good”.

I recently read an article written in The NEWYORKER called The Deadliest Virus by Michael Specter. The article talked about the Avian Flu virus, also known as “bird flu”. In the article, Specter interviewed many people, but the most important person, in my opinion, is a virologist who conducted research on the Avian Flu, Ron Fouchier. This article raised many ethical questions. The questions are as followed: Should research be conducted on this virus? Does Fouchier’s research pose a threat? Does the risk of the work outweigh the benefits of the research?

A public safety issue that is this huge has many interested parties but the main three are parents, medical professionals and the federal government. Parents have a strong interest in this issue because of their natural concern for the safety of their children. It’s a parent’s responsibility to make the best decisions they can with the information they have, in regards to the health of their children. Medical professionals also have a strong connection to this issue for several reasons. First, the growth of the anti-vaccination movement can be pinpointed to

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this narrative review is to discuss what influenza is? And what the ethical and morality of flu vaccinations. This discussion is grounded whether or not flu vaccinations are necessary for individuals.

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.

In the film industry, many false accusations are made regarding science based facts in order to create a more dramatic plot to the story for the sole purpose of the viewer’s entertainment. These accusations essentially lead to the misinterpretations people have regarding real world scientific issues we are faced with on a daily basis. Although the majority of science fiction film producers like to play it fast and loose, producer Steven Soderbergh decided to take a more honest approach to his movie Contagion, in order to make our society more knowledgeable toward the destruction of pandemic-like viruses that have the ability to destroy about one percent of humanity. Viewers are exposed to the incredibly harsh and severe consequences of a pandemic

Paternalistic policies can be effective in preventing injuries and deaths in the population (Gostin, 2008). Paternalism exists throughout Contagion. In order to keep the masses safe from contracting the MEV-1 virus, public health agencies initiated safety guidelines for the general public to follow. From a public health aspect, individual interests must yield to those of the wider community to facilitate the public’s health, safety, and well-being. The public health tradition values prevention and views its successes or failures based on the benefits and burdens that accrue to populations rather than to individuals. This