HMCD 325 Introduction to Epidemiology
Final Exam
Spring 2014
1. How does the class-presented case study of birth defects draw together and demonstrate each of the goals of epidemiologists (15 points)?
From class notes, the goals of Epidemiologists include confirming that an outbreak exists, confirming the diagnoses, developing a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and carrying out more questioning (Ham, 2014). In this specific case study, the epidemiologists were looking at birth defects of babies in Texas in April of 2001. Attention was first brought to this particular case study when three babies in Texas were born with incomplete brains in the same month. To meet their first goal, epidemiologists had to confirm an outbreak exists. This includes looking at how many repeated cases have shown up and the timeframe in which these repetitions happened. For this case study, six babies were born with anencephaly in Brownsville in a six week time frame; depending on their determining factors this constituted as an outbreak.
Next, their diagnosis of the outbreak was confirmed by the epidemiologists looking at every possible factor that could have contributed to the anencephaly in these infants. The following step goes hand in hand with confirming the diagnoses and that is to develop the hypothesis. By looking at every possible contributing factor to the birth defect, the epidemiologists can view all of the common factors in the conceiving of the children, the duration of the pregnancies, and the births themselves to determine a common denominator between the cases. This step helps the epidemiologists to determine why this occurred; was it one solid, isolated event? Or maybe a widespread problem that is not under control?
After determi...
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... to epidemiologists that can help to speed up the determination of an outbreak. At the same tone, there should be cooperation with health care providers. Health care providers are the first people to see these diseases coming, because people go to the doctor when they are sick. If our clinical providers are properly trained on what to look for and reporting diseases, we may be able to catch Bioterrorism acts must sooner. Working with the health department, clinical providers, the CDC, the FDA, pharmacies, governments, and like groups we can try to set up the best surveillance and procedures necessary to quickly pinpoint and stop these outbreaks from happening.
Pugh, D. 2014. Bioterrorism [PowerPoint Notes].
Pavlin, Julie A. "Epidemiology of Bioterrorism." Emerging Infectious Diseases.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 13 Dec. 2010. Web. 14 May 2014.
Another guest speaker and guide in this podcast is David Quammen. He talks about how the epidemiologists were trying to figure out what this new disease was and how they were thinking that maybe it was a sexually transmitted disease. So, the CDC launched the study of a group of about thirty patients came from New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco to see who had had sexual contact with who. They led as a series of interviews: “Please name all the people that you have had sex with”. After these surveys the CDC eventually released the results in the form of a diagram, like a network drive with circles representing patients and lines representing sexual contact. In each patient, each circle was numbered so that they could tell who is who. They noticed: New York seven, Los Angeles twelve etc… and soon they noticed a common denominator in this huge spider web of connections. One little circle, numbered zero: PATIENT ZERO. That was the first time they ever used the term patient zero.
This module of study has focused on many aspects of human health, anatomy, and the disease process. It has included such topics as the human organ systems, the mechanism of disease and the resulting disruption of homeostasis, the integumentary system, and the musculoskeletal system. The following case studies explore how burn classification will affect treatment, how joint injuries can disrupt mobility, and last, how a sedentary lifestyle can contribute to a decline in a person’s health status. The importance of understanding disease and knowing when to seek treatment is the first step toward enjoying a balanced and healthy life.
study I am going to go into detail about the epidemiology, discuss the signs and
Peterson-Iyer, Karen. "Confronting a Fetal Abnormality." http://www.scu.edu. Santa Clara University, Jan. 2008. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. .
Publication of this can help us to develop better cures for the worst viruses. In addition, people will know how deadly it is, and if they get the virus, they will know what it is. On the other hand, Michael Specter gave an example of Clinton’s speech about bioterrorism. Hilarity Clinton says, “Evidence in Afghanistan. Al Queda in the Arabian Peninsula made a call to arms for – and I quote – ‘brothers with degrees in microbiology or chemistry to develop a weapon of mass destruction”.
...ease, be open to explore alternative ways in handling medical crisis, look to our neighboring countries to learn how they resolved epidemic, encourage practice primary health care that contains immunization and vaccines against the major childhood.
middle of paper ... ... More awareness about valley fever among the general community and among healthcare providers is needed. Increased awareness can help avoid missed diagnoses. For example, one study showed that valley fever patients who knew about the disease before visiting a doctor were more likely to ask to be tested and were diagnosed sooner than patients who didn’t know about the disease.
The patient presented in the setting of a large epidemiologic study of yellow fever virus;
...also putting together vaccines and other medications on other diseases that could possibly cause an outbreak
Health Care workers are constantly faced with legal and ethical issues every day during the course of their work. It is important that the health care workers have a clear understanding of these legal and ethical issues that they will face (1). In the case study analysed key legal and ethical issues arise during the initial decision-making of the incident, when the second ambulance crew arrived, throughout the treatment and during the transfer of patient to the hospital. The ethical issues in this case can be described as what the paramedic believes is the right thing to do for the patient and the legal issues control what the law describes that the paramedic should do in this situation (2, 3). It is therefore important that paramedics also
second, prenatal testing, is a testing of a fetus at risk for the disease. The
Mercer, Joe. Mother's Response to Their Infants with Defects. Charles B. Slack Inc., New York: 1974.
They also look at Genetic Epidemiological Studies. These three studies deal with twins in relation to th...
Medical anthropologists examine epidemic outbreaks through numerous approaches. According to Joralemon, “Epidemics offer particularly vivid demonstrations of the interconnections between biological, social, and cultural components in the human experience of disease” (2010:29). Many times these approaches cannot function on their own accord and rely on each other to solve the epidemic. It is the job of the medical anthropologist to put all the pieces of the disease puzzle together.
Frieden establishes the fundamentals of success. These components that are innovation, communication, technical package, management, and political commitment create a web for Public Health. By utilizing this over everyday lives. These programs can target anything from micro issue to epidemics. This educational tool focuses on building a system that challenges normative ideas and helps identify new strategies. This ultimately relates in a creating an ecosystem of new ground rules that every Public Health official should use. Dr. Frieden did a great job on explaining what is next in educating and