Is Guinea Worm Disease?

The WHO Global Malaria Programme is responsible for evidence-based policy and strategy formulation, technical assistance, capacity building, malaria surveillance, monitoring and evaluation, and coordination of global efforts to fight malaria. WHO is also a co-founder and hosts the Roll Back Malaria partnership, which is the global framework to implement coordinated action against malaria (The World Health Organization Staff, 2010). The CDC participates actively in global malaria efforts through work with the WHO, Roll Back Malaria Partners, UNICEF, and more in the fight to keep the epidemic at bay (Global Health - Division of Parasitic Diseases , 2010).

This chapter focuses on Malaria. When Quammen began writing this, he was told to not include Malaria because it was not zoonotic but vector- borne. However, Quammen found that the human version of Malaria come from a mosquito biting an infected gorilla, and then biting a human. Since the disease was delivered to a new host, malaria has now become zoonotic and a spillover. I personally find this chapter of the book to be rather intriguing because compared to some of the other diseases in this book such as Hendra or SARS; I would have liked to think that I was rather knowledgeable about Malaria, but that was not the case. I have never heard of Malaria being a Spillover and I found it compelling to read about in this book. The next chapter of this book, “Dinner at the Rat Farm”, is centered on SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). In 2003, SARS made its presence known as it rapidly spread globally to places like Canada and the Philippines. SARS’ origin belongs to southern province of China called Guangdong. The SARS outbreak in China was quick and not to be messed with. It ran ravage through communities and

Katherine Dettwyler’s work in the field while she was in West Africa was exciting, filled with humor and even terrifying at times. She dealt with seeing various life-threatening diseases that affected the lives of children her daughter’s age, as well as adults. Dettwyler found that almost all of the people she came in contact with were completely oblivious and uninformed of the ways to prevent diseases such as malaria, Schistosomiasis, malnutrition and other infectious diseases unique to their region of the world. In her book, Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa (1994), Dettwyler discusses tons of the health problems she comes across, in

We live in a country where all children go to school to gain an education and 25% of them will go onto receive some type of college degree. Compare this to low-income countries, in which children are 16 times as likely to die prior to their fifth birthday (Nickitas, Middaugh & Aries, 2016). Beyond the lens of our smartphones, Facebook friends and Nike sneakers is a world full of desperate people wishing to have enough food to eat for today. Many parts of the world lack sanitation, safe housing, sparse medical care and no medication. The global health issue are everyone’s problems not only for the sake of altruism but, with the increase in global travel for routine business and pleasure, dangerous pathogen are no longer confine by boarders. The Ebola outbreak four years ago, proved the necessity of a global solution to global health issues. The collaborative practice of several world health agencies and economically developed countries along with the use of volunteers, statistical updates, the latest literature and practices kept this outbreak mostly contained to its region of origin and the death toll to approximately 11,000 people (mainly in West Africa) (WHO,

Historically Ebola has had a serious impact on human health and hygiene and still does due to the fact of no vaccine or treatment being discovered, but thanks to improvements in scientific and medical knowledge the virus itself is now controllable.

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.

water diseases alone account for more than three million deaths each year. We help Africa by

In addition, diseases such as Hookworm and Malaria–brought to Latin America through colonisation and slavery–cause economic problems to this day. According to Hausmann (2009): “countries at a high risk of malaria grow 0.6 per cent slower than countries free from malaria”. Exports can be affected such as during the Cholera outbreak in Peru in 1991 which cost the fishing industry $800 million (Hausmann, 2009). It also increases healthcare costs and reduces worker productivity (Hausmann, 2009). Presently, resistance means that cheap medications for treatment of and protection from malaria are becoming less effective (Gallup et al., 2003, p.135). As

In Chapter 11, Diamond talks about how infections from diseases carried by animals where the “killers of humanity”. Diseases would start in animals and then get transferred to humans where it would mutate and spread across human populations killing almost anyone it touches. When Europe went to conquer the New World, disease such as smallpox, measles, and the flu, killed up to 95% of the population of Native Americans. Syphilis, however, may have been brought back to Europe from the New World, even though no one knows how.

The journal benefits from a diverse, multidisciplinary, experienced and unusually international editorial board that will facilitate the publication of articles and perspectives reflecting a global view of public health medicine and epidemiology. The journal is published twice in a year. Current discussed topics are Malaria, Maternal Health, Neglected Tropical Diseases, Non-Communicable Diseases/Injuries

Diseases can cause a devastating effect on both the human body, and also the human population. Throughout several time periods of the present and past, diseases have caused a humongous impact in several society's in different countries around the world. Several large pandemics and epidemics have killed off the population of many species including humans and primates. Wether the time period is in the present or as far back as the Middle Ages, each and every one of these diseases, have had a life threatening outbreak, across several developing countries. Three known diseases have all created a huge conflict on different civilizations, causing different, unanswered questions to arise. A lot of research has gone into each individual disease, to

In this thrilling novel, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston tells the story of a virus so notorious for its mysterious attacks that it is deemed a Bio-safety Level 4 virus. Richard Preston acquired his inspiration and insight first from his curiosity in his visit to Africa to study epidemiology and second from certain contacts, Dr. C.J. Peters and Nancy Jaax, whom have helped to further Preston’s knowledge of Bio-safety Level 4 agents. Preston incorporates historical facts, interview encounters, and scientific evidence in this nonfiction story of a virus known as Ebola infecting many people and displaying grotesque symptoms such as vomiting blood and pale blue skin. I recommend this book to young readers, epidemiologists, and those interested

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.”

About 3.3 billion people, that is about half of the world’s population are at risk of contracting malaria (figure 1). Every year there are 250 million cases of malaria, and nearly 1 million deaths. That amounts to 2,732 deaths per day. Out of those million people that die every year, 800,000 of them are African children under the age of 5. To control malaria three actions need to be taken: insecticides need to be used to decrease the vector population, people have to be educated as to how to prevent the vector from reproducing, and anti-malarial drugs need to be distributed. To understand the vector and what the vector is, scientists had to first discover what the parasite was and how it worked. It was not until the year 1880 that French Physician Charles Laveran discovered that Malaria was caused by a protozoan in the genus Plasmodium (Malaria, 2013)