Epi 14

            I was trying to figure out what to write about this week, and then I came across this article about this year’s flu causing unusual deaths.  When we think about the flu we usually think that the very young and very old are the ones at the highest risks for deaths.  However, this article on ABC News from January 10, 2014, was written during the middle of the flu season.  ABC wrote this article because of the attention the United States Centers for Disease Control was giving on how hard the flu has been on adults’ ages 18 to 64.  They make up 61.5% of patients hospitalized by the flu compared to the previous year only making up 34%.  There are two high profile death cases mentioned in the article; a mother who is 29 years old and a 41-year-old man.  The ABC News Chief Health and Medical Editor believes that healthy young adults are more susceptible because they are less likely to get the flu vaccine.  This weakens the herd immunity amongst the young adult population.  The flu vaccination is even more important for these individuals because of their lifestyle of living in close quarters in college campuses, work, among several other things.  The influenza virus is not yet at an epidemic level, however, the increasing number of states with widespread geographic influenza is concerning.  During the time of this article, the number of states with widespread flu increased from 25 states to 35 states in a week alone.  Although the total number of deaths after the flu season was over is unknown by the information in this article, at the time of the publication the CDC reported a number of ten deaths total.  I think it would be interesting to see what the total number of deaths actually accumulated to, and how many of them actually got the flu vaccination. 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/years-flu-hitting-young-healthy/story?id=21490459

Epi 13

Last class we were talking about using the equations to see how many people that are tested for certain diseases can be wrong.  They can either be false negatives or false positives.  After learning this it made me think back to all of the times I have gone to the doctor to see if I was sick.  For an example, one time I went to the doctors to get tested for Strep Throat.  Once my test results came back, my doctor informed me that I tested negative and it was just a sore throat.  However, my mom was not convinced that I did not have Strep.  She is always very spectacle with the tests because once she went in to the doctors to get tested for Strep and they said that she did not have it.  However, a couple days later she was still sick so she went to another doctor to get tested again.  This time she ended up testing positive for Strep, and with that result got the proper treatment.  As a result of the first doctor getting a false negative when he originally tested my mother, she will no longer just go to one doctor when I think I am sick if it comes back negative.  There are several positives and negatives to my mother having me get checked by several doctors.  For an example, I have to pay for each test separately and go to doctors I do not usually go to.  On the other hand, I get the right information and make sure it is not a false positive or negative.  After figuring out my correct diagnosis, I can receive the proper treatment and feel better sooner. 

Epi 12

After talking in class about the increase number of death from overdose of heroin in New Jersey, I wanted to look into the problem as to of why this is taking place.  My dad is the captain of narcotics from my hometown and has also brought up the increase of deaths from heroin to me.  He said that people do not understand how much heroin they need to use to achieve the high they are looking to get, so many of them end up dying of an overdose.  I found an article discussing the problem of overdoses in New Jersey.  To try to reduce the number of deaths from the overdoses of heroin the state developed a new law.  This law holds the drug dealers accountable if one of their clients dies from an overdose of their drug.  This is called the “Strict Liability for Drug-Induced Death” law.  The drug dealers will be charged with homicide.  The reason why this new law is taken place is because of the high number of fatalities of drug overdoses.  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention heroin-related deaths increased by more than 60% from 2000 to 2010.  In addition to the new law, the police are being trained how to use a new drug that is supposed to help save lives.  This drug, Naloxone nasal spray, can possibly reverse opioid prescription drug as well as heroin overdose.  The New Jersey law also protects these overdose patients from prosecution with the “Overdose Prevention Act.”  This act was put in place to try to decrease the number of deaths from overdoses by taking away the fear that they maybe arrested for trying to get help after the illegal drug use.  I think that New Jersey is doing a good job on trying to decrease the number of fatalities from overdoses with new developments in medicine, and laws to protect individuals as well as holding others accountable. 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/justice/new-jersey-overdose-laws/index.html?iref=allsearch

Epi 11

In an article I found on Yahoo! News, published April 1^st, 2014 they are discussing birth rates and the relationship with vaccines.  They did a study on birth rates during different seasons.  The study was collected over seventy-eight years collecting data from the United States and 210 other countries in the Northern Hemisphere.  They found that birth rates “peak in early spring at more northern latitudes, and in summer and autumn at lower latitudes.”  Since they are finding when the largest percentages of infants are being born during the same period of time, this causes an increased number of susceptibility of disease that can be contracted amongst the population.  With this new information they are using it to focus when to have big campaigns for vaccines to increase their use.  I think that doing these campaigns at these times will positively impact the community.  Epidemiologists will find this important because they now know when the birth rates are more prevalent amongst the population.  Also they can use this information to stop the spread of outbreaks by encouraging the vaccines at a young age.  In class we have been discussing mortality rates and comparing them with different populations.  This article does the same thing when discussing the United States, regions of Africa, Asia, ect.  But instead of comparing death rates, we are comparing birth rates.  They also specify that different cultures have different types of impacts that the environment has on the birth rates.  In order to make this study better, they could add the southern hemisphere into the data collection to find if there are similar trends throughout the world.  

http://news.yahoo.com/seasonal-birth-rates-could-guide-vaccine-campaigns-233112620.html

Epi 10

When thinking about diseases and Epidemiology some times I underestimate the amount of factors that go into the mortality rates.  Before this class, I just thought that mortality rates were just the total number of people who died from a certain cause.  I did not take into account any of the other factors that could easily influence the rates significantly.  After going over the power point from last class, I thought it was an interesting concept to start comparing mortalities among different populations.  Age is an important factor when thinking about mortality rates because older people usually have a less healthy immune system causing them to not be able to fight off diseases as easily as younger people.  Another factor that influences mortality rates is race.  There are some diseases that are more prevalent in minority ethnic groups, and this could be because of several different reasons.  Gender is yet again another important factor for Epidemiologists to consider when looking at mortality rates because some diseases are overwhelmingly more prevalent in one gender compared to the other.  Also, another factor that can cause an influence on the rate that I used to highly over look is the community’s economic status.  For an example, if an outbreak occurs in a low income or poverty community than the death rate from the disease maybe much higher.  There are many reasons why this can take place such as lack of health insurance or lack of knowledge of signs and symptoms.  I think that this is not only interesting, but also overlooked information that can highly impact the rates.