Cholera Epidemic Forces The Dominican Republic to Close borders with Haiti

Emily Ferland
November 27th 2010
Soc 202-01
7:37 PM


The Dominican Republic decided to close borders With Haiti this past week, it will be a good amount of time until it re-opens the borders. The biggest concern for the nation is that the Dominican does not have the resources to treat the cholera outbreak if the nation is hit with the disease, their biggest fear is that it will cross boarders and create an outbreak among the Dominican people. The current focus is reinforcing the boarders between The Dominican Republic and Haiti to be sure that Haitians do not try to sneak through the border of The Dominican. Closing boarders also means a great amount of economic loss for both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Dominican does not want to take any risks with peoples lives. Dozens of Haitians have attempted to cross boarders, but many were captured and sent back to Haiti. A popular way for the people of Haiti to cross boarders is through human trafficking, this is making it difficult for the government to spot if any illegals are crossing borders.
It is very important that both countries try their best to keep Haitians in Haiti. The Dominican is working hard to keep Haitians in their own country. It is a huge concern if they do cross borders because the disease will spread, The Dominican is not prepared for a Cholera outbreak. If an outbreak occurred in the Dominican it would be similar to an outbreak in Haiti. Controlling the borders will not be an easy fix, they will need to be consistently controlled by the government for a long period of time. The outbreak in Haiti will last longer than anticipated, the most important aspect of this outbreak is to keep it confined to prevent further spread of the disease.


http://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-1759-haiti-cholera-epidemic-border-closed-important-dominican-military-device.html

Cholera strains in Haiti Set to Last Years

Emily Ferland
Soc 202-01
November 19th 2010
1:20 PM


As death tolls continue to rise each week, the strain of the virus strengthens. This strain compared to other strains of the virus is much stronger than many scientists have seen. The people of Haiti also have very little immunity if any at all to help fight off this disease, one reason is because this disease has not been seen in their country for nearly fifty years. Many fear that a great amount of infants will also die from this disease as well as newborns. About 1,000 cholera cases come about in Haiti each day. The biggest concern as of today is those that are ill from the disease are beginning to travel to Port Au Prince for help. The disease has now spread to the people there, this is alarming because much of the country is currently residing at Port Au Prince.

Weeks ago when I began following this outbreak, a concern for months and has now become a reality, people are beginning to travel to the densely populated areas of Haiti for treatment. Although these people may or may not receive treatment they are still spreading the disease like wildfire. Since those have traveled into these areas, the disease has gone up seven fold. Another concern is the aid workers and the cost for them to treat people. There are not enough aid workers to keep up with 1,000 new cases each day. The aid workers are also not located in every area. The funding is also a concern because that will eventually run out while the disease is still running rampant.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/haiti/8147386/Aid-agencies-say-they-cant-cope-with-Haiti-cholera-outbreak.html

Haiti Cholera Outbreak continues

Emily Ferland
November 12th 2010
Soc 202-01
2:50 PM

For the last few weeks a cholera outbreak continues to reek havoc all over Haiti. The death toll has risen to more than 800 people, as well as 12,000 have been hospitalized. The U.N. has gathered many countries around the world to help the people of Haiti. The plan is to give each person access to clean water, health services and rapid response. Most importantly the prevention of future outbreaks, creating a sanitation and waste management. This comes at an expense of $164 million in aid funding. Although only 10 deaths of cholera have been confirmed at Port Au Prince, it is still a concern for outbreaks. The majority of the people are still living in this area. The U.N. is making efforts to prevent the spread of cholera in Port Au Prince because the spread would be devastating to the country.

Things will only get worse before anything gets better. It is important that the U.N. has taken control of this social problem. It is a social problem because this could have been prevented due to poor sanitation. The amount of aid funds being put into this devastating epidemic will dramatically help the people of Haiti. The health services alone will help those that are Ill to get better and stop the spread of the disease any further. It is also important that the sanitation is taken care of, seeing that it is the main cause of this outbreak. The sooner that the U.N. can get people into Haiti to help, the better. The situation will not go away anytime soon but hopefully sooner than later with this new response team.


http://www.voanews.com/english/news/americas/-UN-Launches-Haiti-Cholera-Strategy-107515793.html

Haiti, Cholera Death Toll Rises

Emily Ferland
October 31st 2010
Soc. 202-01
4:19 PM

Currently in Haiti there has been an outbreak of cholera due to the lack of sanitation. Last week the death toll was nearing one-hundred, this week the death toll has risen to about three-hundred.

The biggest concern when the death toll has risen three times the amount that it was over a week ago, is that this disease is not backing down anytime soon. This means that it will affect that many more people. The biggest struggle for this nation is to keep cholera as far from the nations capital as possible. Seeing that most of the population is still camping out in Port Au Prince since the earthquake in Haiti back in January. Another concern is that this country will also be going under elections on Nov. 28Th, this is a concern because this can also help the spread of the outbreak. This is a social problem because it can be avoided. Although presidential elections are very important, it is also important to prevent the spread of this disease any further. Thousands upon thousands of people were already killed during the Earthquake back in January, now hundreds of lives are being claimed due to cholera. The health department needs to set rules to minimize any further illness and help these people.

http://www.topnewspress.com/cholera-death-toll-reaches-300-in-haiti-disease-to-%E2%80%9Csettle%E2%80%9D-soon/871164/

Aid Groups try to Stop Cholera Outbreaks in Haiti

Emily Ferland
Soc 202-01
October 22nd, 2010
12:55 PM

As the Cholera outbreak in Haiti continues, it has claimed over one-hundred lives so far. As of right now the outbreak has been located mostly in camp areas far enough outside cities in rural areas. Since the earthquake back in January, many Haitians are living in these camps. The largest concern is that this outbreak will occur in Port Au Prince, which is the capital of Haiti. In Port Au Prince much of the area is populated with camps of those that survived the earthquake. As of today aid workers are trying their best to be sure that no one leaves the camps from these rural areas. Cholera thrives in poor sanitation, Haiti has seen this disease for a vast amount of time. This makes it more difficult to prevent seeing that at anytime, anywhere in Haiti it can occur and cause an outbreak.

As discussed in class, whose responsibility is it to be sure that disease is prevented in a country that cannot afford to take care of itself. Aid workers understand this and they are trying their best to be sure that Haitians are safe from illeness. Although this is also a social problem because it can be fixed if we helped educate them on sanitation and how disease are spread. It is just as important to have aid workers helping these people as well as aid educators, who can discuss how and why diseases spread and how to prevent future occurances.



http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/cholera-in-haiti-aid-groups-race-to-stop-outbreak/19685243

Vaccinations Recommended for Adults

Emily Ferland
Soc 202-01
October 17th 2010
3:40 PM


Many times, people view vaccines as something just for children or students. It is now being recommended to adults, and not at small amounts. It is recommended that adults take as many as fourteen vaccines for infectious diseases. Vaccines are not cheap, many are at least $20-$200 and several may need up to there doses at that price each. As many as forty percent of adults claim to have had boosters as children and say they do not need them are wrong, in most cases they do need them. Many doctors do not check up on this. Approximately one out of every five adults believe that adult vaccines are not necessary.

A problem with this fond belief that vaccines are not necessary is that many times the vaccines are necessary. If some parents have not yet been vaccinated they may spread disease to children or elders around them. With the new health care bill, it will allow many adults to get their vaccines at a cheap price. Many times people do not want to become vaccinated because the cost is so high. It can add up to thousands out of pocket. The most important thing for adults to look at is if they do become ill, it will cost them much more to be hospitalized in the treatment of the disease when it may have been prevented by a $20 immunization.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/vaccinations-for-grown-ups-2/?scp=4&sq=infectious%20disease&st=cse

Early Virus Prevention

Emily Ferland
Soc 202-01
October 9th, 2010
3:30 PM


Each year more and more physicians are urging people to take action against virus' like the influenza. This year especially, they are urging people to take action as soon as possible to prevent the spread of flu by becoming vaccinated. Unlike last year, everyone is encouraged to take the vaccine. Last year many people were not able to get hold of the vaccine because the demand was much greater than the production of the vaccine (especially for H1N1). Each year vast amounts of money is poured into advertising for the spread of disease. This prevents the spread of outbreaks and encourages the population to take action for themselves and others around them. People need to become more publicly aware. The elderly are at the greatest risk of catching disease.

In many cases and many countries, the people are unaware of the prevention and spread of disease. Although in the USA we are encouraged to get vaccinated, other places are not so fortunate. Many people are anti-vaccination, due to the belief that it causes autism. The benefits of vaccinations are much greater than the down falls. Many more people each year die from the disease than they would have from the actual vaccination. It is most important that elderly are encouraged to get vaccinated and reinforce the importance of it. It is important that people are also self-aware, we we are self-aware we are also preventing the spread of the disease from our selves to others around us who may also have yet to receive any vaccines. Although this is primarily about the spread and prevention of influenza, it is also important to take action with any other disease and the vaccines that may be offered.

Promising New Treatment For Cystic Fibrosis Symptoms

Emily Ferland
Soc 202-01
October 3rd, 2010
12:20 pm




Cystic fibrosis is a chronic inherited disease, the disease usually leads to death at a young age. The body produces a thick mucus that clogs the lungs, which creates an infection. The pancreas begins to improperly work and lacks the absorption of food. Many patients find out they have this disease when they are children, they lack the ability to gain weight like their peers. With the lack of weight gain their growth is stunted, usually they are small stature because of this. Using a human growth hormone on these patients will increase the height and weight of a person with cystic fibrosis. This may also prove the lung function and bone structure. Although their is no evidence to back up any claim that it could improve the longevity of one's life. It has proven that many of these patients have less visits to the hospital prior to the human growth hormone. One issue with taking the growth hormone is that it raises patients blood sugar, many doctors fear that this may cause diabetes in the future.

Cystic fibrosis affects people all over the world. There is a very low quality of life for many of these people. Not only does it affect the person with the disease but the families as well. The idea of the human growth hormone seems promising and relatively less risky than no treatment at all. If this treatment can be proven to improve the quality and longevity of ones life with cystic fibrosis it will become a staple to many patients. The benefits out weigh the risks, although diabetes may become an outcome of the disease it is less crucial than say weekly visits to the emergency room.




http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/human-growth-hormone-shows-promise-in-treating-cystic-fibrosis-symptoms-104279118.html

Whooping Cough in Children

Emily Ferland
Soc 202-01
September 24, 2010
4:50 PM

Many states recommend that young children are immunized with at least four doses of the whooping cough vaccine by the age of three. Twenty seven states have lowered that amount of dosage, which is resulting in the spread of the disease because the dosage just isn't enough. Some of these states allow parents to have children go without the vaccinations because of their "strong beliefs" against vaccinating their children. Such states like Texas, Ohio and California are states that allow this "strong beliefs" law. The biggest problem with these beliefs are that of the states with the highest counts of whooping cough, all three of these states fall into that category. Many of these states do not enforce adults to become vaccinated either, this causes for great concern. Children can contract the virus from those who have go with out vaccination. Infants are at the highest risk for virus because they have absolutly no immunity to the virus.

Globally and internationally this causes for great concern. The biggest concern with this virus is that nationally, many states do not enforce parents to have their children vacinated. A child is at great risk with out any sort of vaccination. Another concern is that whooping caugh is not just a national crisis, it is also international. Such virus' can kill infants and young children. In many countries, families can not afford such costs for healthcare and vacinations.

Internationally this is a social problem. The problem can be fixed by states enforcing that their children become vacinated. Although this is easier said than done, others may occur it would be a social problem because parents are being enforced to do something that they feel is not right for their child.


http://www.examiner.com/infectious-disease-in-rochester/low-vaccination-rates-drive-whooping-cough-outbreak

Childhood Obesity

Emily Ferland

Soc 202-01

September 17, 2010

3:45 PM



Many years ago, dieting was specified for adults. It was very rare to see a child in the need of weight loss. Today, many children are suffering from obesity. The mayo clinic has found that children as young as 4 to 6 year old are weighing more than an adult at the height of 5 ft tall. Parents and communities are very alarmed and want to create ways in which to stop these trends and set these children in a good direction of health.

This has become a problem for everyone, whether a person is a parent of an obese child or not. The biggest concern of childhood obesity is the epidemic of the problem. A child learns his or her eating habits at a young age, although these habits are able to change, a lifestyle change is needed. Many children today are dieting in order to gain healthy habits and prevent obesity as an adult. These child will soon be the adults of the future, if we do not change these children's habits many medical problems will occur. There are many health risks with obesity. With more health risks, health care is needed. At this current time, health care that is affordable is few and far between. A good idea is for schools to focus on health education and nutrition at a young age. Schools would be helping children to reinforce these good habits. Without proper care many things like heart disease occur among those whom are obese.

Many schools are unaware of the affect they have on children who eat school cafeteria foods. Some children may be going home and the only food they have to eat may be horrible for them. This is where schools have the chance to step in and be sure that a child has at least one healthy meal a day.



http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/childhood-obesity/MY01440

Cholera Outbreak in Parts of Africa

Emily Ferland

09/10/10

10:45 a.m.

Cholera Outbreak

Due to lack of clean drinking water and lack of access to lavatories, recent floods have made areas of Cameroon and Nigeria extremely unsanitary. This contributed to the spread of Cholera disease. Nearly 600 people have died recently from the outbreak. It is said that only certain areas of the country have been affected it does not mean that the whole country should not be worried, everyone is at risk. Out of the 600 deaths, 352 were in Nigeria (6, 400 sickened by Cholera in Nigeria). Many people die from this disease because they loose great amounts of potassium and sodium through their stool or vomiting. Without potassium or sodium it becomes life-threatening.

I believe that this outbreak is important for everyone. Although we are far away from Nigeria and Cameroon, it may affect us in one way or another. People have easy access to leave from one country to another. This creates problems because not only are people going from country to country but had they not known they were carrying the disease until its too late, it causes serious problems. Many times the reason that disease become so out of control is because we don't know if we are a carrier of the disease until we become ill with it.

The article also states that the outbreak began because of poor sanitation, drinking water and floods that carried out the unsanitary factors into areas of the country. This could possibly have been prevented or downsized had the people of these places been given proper sanitary environments. Also a way to prevent future occurrences, educate the people as to how to go about finding or attaining clean drinking water.

http://www.justicenewsflash.com/2010/09/08/cholera-outbreak-kills-more-than-600-in-nigeria-cameroon_201009085458.html

New Malaria Drug

Malaria is a mosquito born illness that has been a great cause of deaths in many developing countries. A group of scientists have developed a medicine to treat Malaria. Although in many parts of Africa there is a decline in this illness due to access of insecticides, many are worried that a malaria parasite found in parts of southeast Asia resists this insecticide. Last year alone there were repordly 240 million cases of Malaria world wide. Of those cases, 836,000 people died last year from Malaria. This new drug has been tested on mice and proven to be effective.

I find that it is very important that a drug that is effective towards the disease is marketed to people. Many people die each year from this disease, approximately 1 out of every 300 people. I believe that it is worth the risk of testing this new drug because Malaria has become so common and taken so many peoples lives it is about time for that to change. The drug has yet to be used on humans so the results are inconclusive. Although many people may say that 1 out of every 300 people die from this illeness is not enough to test the drug. The drug could possibly be saved for those who are beyond extremely ill, the other question that comes to mind is if we use it on the extremely ill will it be as effective? The idea of this new medicine sounds wonderful but we also have to take into consideration the side affects, the safety and if it will do more good for treating humans with malaria than it does harm.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703431604575467623938805544.html##