Exotic Diseases Essay Research Paper Exotic diseases

Exotic Diseases Essay, Research Paper

Exotic diseases are the greatest threat to humanity. In a world where so many things are overlooked, diseases and epidemics are clearly overlooked and underestimated far more than any threat of nuclear war, global warming, or any comet headed for earth. Throughout history epidemics have plagued the earth several times resulting in a devastating number of deaths. As we approach the new millennium, many new and old diseases await humanity. What the world doesn’t comprehend is that an epidemic can be easily spawn off by many other problems humanity faces today. Some of those problems are high population density, newly inhabited areas, increased travel, new generation without immunity, mutation in microbes, over use of antibiotics, poverty/poor sanitation, and change in human activities. Diseases come into existence, change, and vanish, but some have always been with us. An epidemic attacks a population, it and runs its course, and then dies out, claiming hundreds to thousands of lives. There are ways of preventing some epidemics from starting, but not everyone agrees with the terms. Thus, these prevention plans for some diseases fail. Humanity is faced with many dangers of a doomsday in the next millennium, but the one that seems the most likely to happen is a world epidemic. Pg. 2 Human activities and behavior often help increases the risk of a world epidemic. In such activities like increased travel, shipments of resources and wild animals increase the possibility of catching a deadly virus and starting to spread an epidemic. Human behavior such as neglect can determine the fate of a world epidemic. Most people believe that Ebola or any other exotic disease would spawn off and epidemic only in third world countries, but that´s not true. In 1989 Ebola made it´s way to the United States. The virus hit Virginia, but luckily only in some Monkey´s. The monkeys were shipped in from West Africa, for experiments. What most people didn´t realize right away was that some of the monkeys were infected with Ebola. When the monkey´s arrived, the World Health Organization had found some dead, and diagnosed them with Ebola. The military had to quarantine and then kill all 400 monkey´s before the virus could start an epidemic in the United States. They were lucky they found some of the monkey´s dead and quickly knew from the way they died what from, if the monkey´s were still in the early stages of the virus, they most likely wouldn´t have stopped the virus in time from spreading. (Witness, 1995) In 1991 El Tor hit the coast of Peru. A crate of infected algae in water was shipped in from China and dumped in the Callao harbor. EL Tor came right into people´s homes through their faucets, the population was literally feasting on the deadly virus. El Tor started to spread all over Latin America. (Garrett, P.565) During the 80´s and early 90´s, Yellow Fever epidemics had occurred in Nigeria and Kenya, whipping out hundreds of their people. Mosquitoes are the natural hosts for the disease. Many researchers and scientists have stated that they have seen how easy it can be to spawn off and Yellow Pg. 3 Fever outbreak. The simple action of leaving the stumps of trees in place, after cutting them down, can start an outbreak in the disease. This is caused by the larvae collected in the water of the stumps, left by the mosquitoes. (Anderson, p.56, 1987) Yellow Fever is just one of the deadly viruses that are carried by insects. One of the key reasons epidemics spread is by the increase of travel. People can limit themselves to which places they travel, but what about insects. The American “Screw worm fly”, which transmitted deadly maggots that kill livestock, turned up in Lybia in 1988. It quickly spread through North Africa and its natural habitat was the USA. (Garrett, P.576, 1995) “In temperate ecologies, keeping wild insects at bay was quite easy, provided abatement and control systems remained intact and vigilant. Even a year of slacking in such an effort could, permit a sudden surge in insect vector populations, with resultant disease.” (Garrett, P.576, 1995) The fact that an outbreak could easily occur, if there was just a little neglect towards the control systems, is devastating. The result of such an action could be a world epidemic in a very short period of time, with a variety of different viruses. There were several outbreaks in mosquito borne diseases between 1985 and 1992 in specific areas in the USA, St. Louis, Florida, and Texas. At the time of this outbreak there was widespread panic, forcing cancellations of outdoor activities at night. (Garrett,P.619-20, 1995) AIDS is a very well known disease. Human neglect can be measured on a wide status, but one can be the neglect and ignorance of not using protection, while participating in sexual acts, and sharing needles. AIDS is spread by the exchange of body fluids, and the neglect of people not taking proper precautions, is only increasing the spread of the deadly virus. Pg. 4 (Karlen, P.207, 1995) It is also estimated that AIDS is going to spread faster and wider by the year 2000, “The WHO estimates as many as 30 million cases of AIDS by the year 2000.” (Molyneux, P.137, 1994) Diphtheria is a disease, which effects the heart and kidneys; it´s spread by coughing or sneezing. Anyone who comes in contact with a person with diphtheria can e