Discussion 3

The Devastating Effects of Infectious Diseases in the 20^th Century

In this twentieth century catching a disease, even something as simple as a cold can be deadly to us humans. From the effects of global warming, to the raping of our densely packed rain forests, creating new infectious “hot spots” anywhere and everywhere is the norm. Deadly disease and pathogens are spreading like wildfire, and not only are earth changes to blame but people too.

Environmental changes have made a huge impact on spreading diseases now and for the future of humans with the weather patterns changing world wide, problems with the spread of diseases like West Nile virus and the AIDS epidemic are just a couple of hundreds of diseases that have occurred over the past decades. We now have whole eco-systems disrupted and places that were dry are now wetter and vices versa.  For example with the bats in Australia, that were use to cohabitating in the forests that were since cut down move closer into the backyards of suburbia, “…where four people and dozens of horses have died of Hendra.” Do we get the idea here?

As quoted on the Baylor College of Medicine website, “Since the 1970’s, about 40 infectious diseases have been discovered, including SARS, Ebola, avian flu and swine flu.” Experts are quoted at saying, “The human population is currently doubling every seventy years, is set to reach nine billion by 2050.” Could you imagine alone, what this statistic, would mean for the spread of disease through air travel and more densely packed third world countries where there is already serious problems with deadly diseases like malaria? And what about ill-habited human behavior? With over-population, comes more people and more drug use--needle sharing and transferring more blood borne pathogens is on the rise.

The solution here is complex and would take various academics, professionals, scientists and specialized worldwide organizations alike to come together and come up with a serious plan to slow the spread of the infectious diseases running rapid on this planet, maybe though hard research and statistics, and with the help of local groups, villages and governmental agencies all over world they could figure out some solutions. I believe the situation is dire and the best answer for us is to be aware of our surroundings, practice good hygiene, diet and healthy lifestyle practices at home and away. Hopefully with being more mindful and aware in our own lives, we can at least slowdown the spread of disease to future mankind.

Sources

Baylor College of Medicine

http://www.bcm.edu/molvir/eid#Introduction. Retrieved on 4/23/2013

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-ecology-of-disease.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Retrieved on 4/23/2013,

The Naked Scientists

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HTML/articles/article/pandemic-where-do-new-viral-infections-come-from/. Retrieved on 4/23/2013