Around the World: Polio in Syria

In the United States, we have been fortunate enough to have a quite peaceful nation, free from many detrimental diseases. In Syria, the aren't as fortunate. Polio, an eradicated disease in many areas, like the United States, has resurfaced. The ongoing civil war is a major contributing factor in the resurfacing of the disease. Another factor is the prevalence of the disease among border countries, like Afghanistan. Officials believe twenty- two individuals have contracted Polio, a majority of these cases involve young children. To combat this suspected Polio outbreak, the World Health Organization is implementing a six month emergency vaccination program to hopefully prevent others from contracting Polio as well. Officials believe the only way to rid Syria of Polio is to "start over" with a new vaccination program. This new program would benefit all of the people of Syria, especially children. Children born after the beginning of the civil war have not had the opportunity to become vaccinated, thus leading to an increased likelihood of contracting Polio. Hopefully, the people of Syria can receive the vaccines and the prevention efforts will help to decrease Polio. THe ultimate goal is to eradicate the disease from the area, altogether.
In Epidemiology, I learned diseases don’t contain themselves within borders, they can spread amongst many countries and be detrimental to a vast majority of individuals. The study of Epidemiology can help to understand the spread of the disease throughout various populations, but also addresses ideas for prevention, like the implementation of the Polio vaccination program. They want to help prevent those who are not ill from becoming ill and limiting the amount of people that are sick. Throughout the class and writing these blogs I am learning so much about how Epidemiology can take many different shapes and help combat various issues all over the world.


Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/polio-outbreak-prompts-vaccine-operation-syria/story?id=20704872

The Gambia

On Monday, we were fortunate enough to have a guest speaker present via Skype. The guest speaker was Mr. Ed Sanyang from the University of The Gambia. He discussed with us the development of a study on traffic injuries within The Gambia. He was very passionate and had much knowledge about this developing study and I found it interesting how traffic injuries were such a big problem in the area. After class, I found a blog posting from last year addressing the number of crashes in The Gambia. The blog highlighted The Gambia has over 750 road traffic crashes a year and 95% can be prevented. The police reports suggest a major component is careless and irresponsible individuals. A point addressed by Mr. Sanyang that I thought was very surprising was the fact that alcohol and drinking under the influence is not a common problem associated with these traffic injuries, unlike crashes in the United States. The United States differs from The Gambia in this respect because in recent news many crashes in the U.S. involve distracted or drunk, irresponsible drivers. Mr. Sanyang agreed with the class that more road signs may help decrease traffic injuries, but with the geographical location of The Gambia many people travel through the area to get to other places, like Senegal. Having a guest speaker, like Mr. Sanyang increases my knowledge and awareness of other parts of the world. It is easy and common to enclose yourself in a bubble and never have the ability to gain knowledge outside of your own country. Listening to Mr. Sanyang speak about The Gambia makes me more aware of the problems and research going on in the area and also realize how diverse epidemiology can be.

Source: http://gambianewsonline.blogspot.com/2012/08/more-than-750-road-traffic-accidents.html

Return of TB

Epidemiology is the glue of public health. It helps tremendously in uncovering the diseases within the populations all over the world. The study of epidemiology has helped the United States eradicate many, once fatal, diseases. Recent ABC news, from October 9, 2013, discusses a disease that has been at its lowest levels in the United States over the years has actually begun popping back up and claiming lives. Tuberculosis has been at record low findings among the United States populating for years, which is why doctors and other healthcare workers are having trouble recognizing the signs and symptoms. It is hard to understand a disease that has not been seen in our population for a long time. In Nevada, a mother of twins had a fatal encounter with the illness and so did her babies. After her death, an autopsy was performed, determining the cause was Tuberculosis. It is unclear whether the mother was tested for Tuberculosis, but only one of the twin babies was tested. In the hospital, screening took place among the workers there and 26 people tested positive for Tuberculosis. A major concern was the babies in the NICU. Special consideration must be taken with these babies because of their sensitive, underdeveloped immune systems. The attorney of the deceased woman is searching for answers and questioning the hospital staff in what tests where given and which ones were not. If the hospital failed to perform a Tuberculosis test then a lawsuit could happen. As we learned in class, mortality is always a tragedy, but the information gained from a death and the autopsy can hold valuable information for public health and epidemiology. Reading this article made me realize the realistic value of epidemiology and how the study of epidemiology applies to events like these in our own U.S. population.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nev-expert-mom-baby-deaths-put-tb-back-20523946

The Future?

With every class lecture, more insight is gained about the subject of epidemiology. I look forward to the next guest speaker, as well as the facebook group invitation. The field of epidemiology is dynamic and I am fascinated by all the different outlets. Being a senior and graduating in the spring of next year, I have begun to look into potential career options. While online, I came across a posting with regards to an epidemiologist. I know without graduate school I would certainly not qualify for the position, but decided to look into the description and qualifications. It wasn't one of those job postings with set criteria to accomplish and a black and white frame. The description seemed a bit "gray". There were so many different, exciting responsibilities and opportunities, it seemed you would never have a dull moment! Within the posting were multiple available spaces for epidemiologists for various locations and even opportunities to travel the world! One of my biggest goals in life is to be able to travel the world and help underdeveloped areas in their health practices. I want to be able to make a positive impact on others and help educate others with the knowledge I have learned. Underdeveloped countries need the most help, but our nation has its own set of problems. The United States needs improvements to its current health care system and visual depictions have highlighted this issue. When looking at the powerpoint slides this past monday, on age adjustment, countries with the best health and decreased mortality rates were those with universal health care systems, like parts of Europe. I would like to help be a part of advocating for change in our nation and hopefully in the future we can have a better health care system for all.
Thinking about all the opportunities, graduate school may be an option I consider, after all. Guess I should start studying not only for the midterm but the GRE! Wish me luck :)

Mortality

On Monday we discussed, in class, mortality. After the lecture, I began to think about all the people in the world that die and even though we have good data collection from death certificates and such there are still many people that die without being known. The world has become so desensitized to death and horrible things happen in the world every day. Many healthy people start and continue bad habits even after seeing harmful effects. Smoking is known to be bad, there is tiny writing on each pack of cigarettes from the Surgeon General stating it’s bad and a plethora of statistics, but people continue to smoke until they become one of the statistics.
It's so interesting to see the statistics on the causes of death, but what was surprising to me was the fact that doctors and medical examiners can alter the specific causes like suicide to something more broad like unintentional injuries upon the request from loved ones. The numbers seem so hard to wrap your head around when talking about national mortality statistics, but when they are put into a population sample of 100,000, as seen in class, it is an easier number to wrap your brain around. It also puts into perceptive how fatal several diseases can be, like pancreatic cancer. Fortunately, pancreatic cancer is not see too often in our population, but unfortunately it is extremely deadly.
I would enjoy studying more about morality in epidemiology because I feel like we could understand so much from the deaths of individuals in our own nation and around the world. More research in this area may help us find cures to diseases we did not think we ever could!