The Spread of Disease

Essay # 58647

Medical and Health

An exploration of the factors that encourage or hinder the spread of disease.

1,562 words () | 8 sources | MLA | 2005 United Kingdom

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the various factors that either encourage or hinder the spread of pathogens both locally and globally often resulting in epidemics and pandemics. It highlights and discusses various factors including human/nature interactions and the spread of superbugs such as SARS.

From the Paper:

"The complex interaction of events that can result in the emergence of a new disease is well illustrated by Oropouche fever epidemic, a nonfatal disease which causes severe headaches, muscle pains and occasionally meningitis. Frequent epidemics have occurred in Brazil where hundreds of thousands have been infected and have suffered from diagnosed cases. The first outbreaks followed the building of a highway in the 1950s from Belem on the coast to Brasilia in Amazonia. Soon after construction, researchers isolated the Oropouche virus in the blood of highway workers and discovered that it was the same as that found in the blood of a sloth on the side of the Belem-Brasilia highway."