Huntavirus Pulmonary Syndrome Outbreak Analysis

David Jones realizes their immune systems were weak, and he presents the question why: is it possibly because they were malnourished, exhausted, and stressed out due to Europeans? He speaks in detail about Indians being defenseless to pathogens, through homogeneity, and how their fates depended on their entire environment. Combined with their vulnerability, “it could well be [assessed] that the epidemics among American Indians, despite their unusual severity, were caused by the same forces of poverty, social stress, and environmental vulnerability that cause epidemics in all other times and

An investigation was necessary to find the cause of the outbreak, and how to stop it from continuing to spread. The campus clinic was interested in testing the following nine patients: Sue, Jill, Anthony, Wanda, Maggie, Maria, Arnie, Marco, and Alvin. All of the students have similar symptoms and agreed to being tested except for Alvin.

Native Americans never came in contact with diseases that developed in the Old World because they were separated from Asia, Africa, and Europe when ocean levels rose following the end of the last Ice Age. Diseases like smallpox, measles, pneumonia, influenza, and malaria were unknown to

Different kinds of cancer, diabetes, infectious diseases as well as chronic diseases that was once unknown to the indigenous people has been on the rise within the

An excerpt from the above book states: ‘... an epidemic broke out, a sickness of pustules. It began in Tepeilhuitl. Large bumps spread on people; some were entirely covered. . . .[The victims] could no longer walk about, but lay in their dwellings and sleeping places, . . . And when they made a motion, they called out loudly. The pustules that covered people caused great desolation; very many people died of them, and many just starved to death; starvation reigned, and no one took care of others any longer.’ This shows the severity of the natives contracting disease from the whites, especially since the immune system of the Indigenous North Americans was not so much to be called ‘weak’, however, it was vulnerable.

The Cherokee nation of Oklahoma is one of the many native Indian tribes that place a great emphasis on health care. There are noticeable efforts in improving the health system in the Cherokee nation as well as the health of its individuals. For a long time, the Cherokee nation has engaged in successful health care experiences such as building health centers, launching health programs or even individually engaging in the health field to improve the overall healthcare in the nation.

Since the arrival of Columbus in 1492, American Indians have been in a continuous struggle with diseases. It may not be small pox anymore, but illnesses are still haunting the native population. According to statistics, Native Americans have much higher rates of disease than the overall population. This includes a higher death rate from alcoholism, tuberculosis, and diabetes than any other racial or ethnic group. Recent studies by Indian health experts show that diabetes among Indian youth ages 15-19 has increased 54% since 1996 and 40% of Indian children are overweight. Even though diabetes rates vary considerably among the Native American population, deaths caused from diabetes are 230 percent greater

Though American Indians are enjoying an independent public health system with above $3 billion funds provided by Congress annually for delivering healthcare services to them, still figure and facts on health status of American Indians reveal that they are facing many difficulties and have to suffer from diverse type of illness and disease at a misappropriate level. Since long it was identified by medical communities that there are wide spread diseases diabetes, alcoholism, tuberculosis, suicide, unintentional injuries, and other health conditions among American Indian and they are dying of these diseases at shocking rates (American Heart Association [AHA], 2010). Through this essay I want to discuss the healthcare status of American Indians in the perspective of their culture as how it impacted and lead to develop mistrust between amongst the medical community and American Indians.

In the early 1900’s medicine was making some steps closer into some great improvements for health and better understanding of the human body. Doctors with sufficient knowledge of the human body and cures for diseases and viruses were scarce. People were much more concerned with government and politics, than health and medicine, until one of the greatest and most grotesque lethal pandemics that’s struck the earth in human history. This pandemic the “Spanish Flu” spread so rapidly and had an extremely high mortality rate. This was caused by the close contact of humans and poor cleanliness and sanitation, and the host (virus) and the body taking harsh action

The history of the United States began with Virginia and Massachusetts; their histories begin with epidemics of unidentified diseases. Smallpox was the worst and the most amusing diseases that were out. Smallpox were just killing down all the Native Americans, they didn’t know what to do with it all. The epidemic destroyed half of the Cherokee in 1738, in 1759 almost half of the Catawba’s, in the first years of the next century two-thirds of the Omaha’s and perhaps half of the population between the Missouri River and New Mexico.

Hundreds of thousands of natives during the Conquest period died from epidemics because of a lack of medical knowledge, not because colonists decided to use disease to kill natives. Native responses to disease, such as sweat lodges, worsened disease mortality rates. Spanish physicians first arrived in the New World during Columbus’ second voyage. However, inadequate opportunities for formal medical instruction and the lack of medical knowledge at the time meant that physicians were unable to help prevent the spread of disease in native communities. Although colonists benefited from epidemics, they did not intentionally spread disease to kill natives and destroy native

Since the native Americans have lack of experiences with diseases, it’s hard for the Americans to handle and treat them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more commonly known as the CDC, is a major governmental department serving the country in healthcare. Per their official mission statement, The CDC “serves as the national focus for developing and applying disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion and health education activities designed to improve the health of the people of the United States” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Most citizens may think of the CDC in situations not unlike the Ebola or Zika outbreaks, or even in the outlandish ideas of a virus bringing people back from the dead. These Centers across the United States survey disease outbreak,

Native reservations have some health issues because they don’t have access to clean running water. According to Becky Norton, “We have a very high rate of strep throat, bad colds and other illnesses that come with the poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water” (Risen). For Natives getting water is highly important to ensure them that themselves and kids are healthy and in good shape. Health problems are not the only issues Native Americans

At first I met Leslie Hernandez, the Health Planner, who directed me to Shoua Shinde, the epidemiologist and "department detective", whose areas of expertise were biology, microbiology, biostatistics, and knowledge of communicable diseases ("Outbreak at Watersedge," 2004). She informed me that there were many people in the hospital with severe diarrhea and other symptoms and asked for my help in order to understand what is going on. She introduced me to Terry Tower, the public health nurse, who offered me to analyze and map the results of the interview for the first five patients. After mapping the results of five interviews I pinpointed a place to start, which was the Thompson Park, because all five people aside from the other activities and places went there on the same day to participate in Thompson Park cleanup. Then Shoua asked me to go to the park, to explore and take notes of what I think could be important. Meanwhile the number of reported cases increased to 20. In the park I met Mai, the Environmental Health Specialist, whose areas of expertise was toxicology, biology, chemistry, water