Public Health 007

Let's talk about the “three coughs” or three major problems that threaten global health from the perspective of a U.S. Scientist.

He believes the first problem is the emergence of new diseases such as; Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (identified last year), H7N9 avian influenza flu and SARS (which swept the world in 2003). He goes on to express his appreciation of the efforts made by Chinese health authorities in relating all the information about the H7N9 strain and thereby allowing the disease to be considerably contained worldwide. These new infectious diseases pose 2 problems; Health care professionals have no knowledge about them when they develop and we don’t have any natural immunity against them. We can only assume their devastation...

The 2nd “cough” is the ever growing risk of multidrug resistant tuberculosis. And the 3rd global health issue he addressed was the threat of Bioterrorism in today’s world and the need for wide spread surveillance in order to prevent mass disasters. The growing dangers of measles and HIV infection was also cited in the article and ended on a happier note; how the efforts of PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) had saved millions of people from AIDS.

The scientist quoted throughout the article was the director for the Centre for Disease Control, Dr Thomas Frieden from a few years ago...

Infectious disease! Whether it was vector borne dengue or manmade biological weapons, microorganisms continue to rule our microscopic world. On reading the article, the 1st “cough” and the 3rd “cough” caught my attention. With our growing population and the effects of global warming, I would not be surprised if I hear about the emergence of a new avian flu in the months/years to come. It is critical that we pay more attention to the way we interact with our environment and there by aid in the emergence of deadly organisms. As a health care professional it would be ideal to create a upstream solution to this problem. With the current data at hand, one could assume 2 things; that, by invading the natural human free ecosystems, we expose ourselves to organisms that lay dormant and there by disturb the sleeping horrors that lay in the forests. The second possibility is that we create ideal environments in our communities for disease progression and evolution. Either way, it is time to create a vaccine for our arrogance.

If we didn’t have enough problems to start with, we now must protect us from ourselves. Bioterrorism has been the arena for much debate over the years. It started with the study of deadly organisms like Small pox and has now become the reason that nations go to war. As a public health professional, I would ponder on the relevance of bioterrorism to my field. I could argue that it is not my fight, that it is a fight at the macro level. But I believe it is also a major problem that public health would have to face in the future. The world just became more like a James Bond movie.