The 2009 H1N1 Pandemic

H1N1 was first detected in the United States in 2009. The virus was a combination of influenza virus genes never before seen in animals or people. Infection with this new virus was first detected in a 10-year-old patient in California on April 15, 2009, who was tested for influenza as a clinical study. Two days later CDC laboratory testing confirmed a second infection with this virus in an 8-year-old living in California about 130 miles away from the first infected person. By this time the CDC had found that the thing these cases had in common was either being in contact with, or being near pigs. Cases then started pouring in. During this time the CDC was working to create a vaccine that would take care of this outbreak, but everything that they had, the virus seemed to be immune to.  As 2009 H1N1 cases continued to occur through the spring and summer, the more difficult it was to count the growing number of cases. The 2009 H1N1 summer activity was at its peak in the United Sates during May and June and declined during July and early August. However, the levels of influenza activity would remain above normal throughout the summer months. I think that the CDC did what they could with the information that they had and handled the situation well during this time. The final estimates of the CDC were that from April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010 approximately 60.8 million cases were reported, 274,304 hospitalizations, and 12,469 deaths occurred in the United States due to H1N1.


The 2009 H1N1 Pandemic: Summary Highlights, April 2009-April 2010."Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/cdcresponse.htm

Cholera Epidemic In The Coastal Slums Of West Africa

A little over two years ago in West Africa, Cholera was sweeping through the coastal slums. During the summer of 2012, heavy rains came and flooded the shantytowns in the capitals of Sierra Leone and neighboring Guinea. In these countries, around two-thirds of the population lacked toilets. Without toilets, the people were forced to use the restroom in rivers, and other surrounding areas that contaminated their drinking water. Cholera is spread through contact of contaminated feces, and with people drinking and children swimming in this water, the number of people infected continued to grow. At this time 13,000 people were already suffering from this disease, many had been admitted to hospitals, and 250 to 300 people had died. The government declared it a national emergency, while aid workers in Guinea said it was unlikely to have reached its peak. Along with the Cholera outbreak getting worse, both countries had endured years of civil and political unrest, with Sierra Leone recovering from a decade of bloody civil war which drove thousands of people from rural areas into the city's slums, and with Guinea emerging from a half-century of brutal dictatorship. I think that these hardship affected the Cholera outbreak tremendously. Maybe if Guinea had not have had a dictatorship and Sierra Leone had not just come out of war, the money might have been there to put in sewage systems, and get their people clean drinking water. So I am asking you, as a reader, what you think could have been done to prevent the number of infections and deaths.

Nossiter, Adam. "Cholera Epidemic Envelops Coastal Slums in West Africa."The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 02 Nov. 2014. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/world/africa/cholera-epidemic-envelops-coastal-slums-in-west-africa.html?_r=0

Are We Being Too Careful With The Ebola Virus?

 The healthcare workers caring for Ebola patients were supposed to take their own temperatures and report anything if they were to start feeling sick. Recently, Amber Vinson, a healthcare worker that had been caring for Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, was allowed to fly on a commercial airline with a mild fever. After Vinson was allowed to fly from Ohio to Dallas, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said that she should not have flown on a commercial flight. Before Duncan was officially diagnosed with Ebola, he had come in contact with his family. When Duncan was officially diagnosed, his family then became confined to their homes under armed guard. To me, it does not make sense that Duncan's family was confined to their homes, but the nurses that gave Duncan his shots, IV's, and handled his bodily fluids are allowed to fly commercially. The AJC says that 125 friends, family, doctors, technicians, ambulance drivers and others may have been exposed to the virus before Duncan died on October 8.  

Works Cited:  Ebola Monitoring Inconsistent as Virus Spread." AJC.com: Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.

http://www.ajc.com/ap/ap/top-news/ebola-monitoring-inconsistent-as-virus-spread/nhmfY/#cmComments

AIDS Among Orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa

AIDS has slammed Sub-Saharan Africa with sickness. It is said that more than 34 million orphans in this region have this disease. For kids that do not have families, street life is their only alternative. The streets make these poor kids more prone to trauma, distress, abuse and AIDS. Most of these children are born with AIDS because their mother had it. With the lack of a good healthcare system and a ravaging government, these children and other people do not receive the treatment that they need. With no cure being provided to these people, the number of people with this disease will only continue to grow. These kids have not only been robbed of their parents from this disease, but their childhood as well.



Works Cited:   AIDS Orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Looming Threat to Future Generations." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2014.
http://www.un.org/events/tenstories/06/story.asp?storyID=400