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. 

Epi 9

            During spring break it is usually a time where most students take a break from all of their work and relax for the week.  However this spring break was different from all of the other spring breaks I have ever had.  I went on an Alternative Spring Break trip with James Madison University to Jamaica to work with an organization called Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill.  I have never been to Jamaica before, so I started to ask several questions about the diseases that were prevalent among the homeless culture we were working with.  I found myself using many of the things I was taught in my epidemiology class while I was there.  Since I did not have Internet access, I had to ask the people I was working with to get data about the diseases.  I was most concerned about the spread of Malaria mainly because of the abundance of mosquitos and still water present around the area.  I was told that the mosquitos are always a problem because of the year around warm temperatures, the high amount of still water, and their ability to breed.  I, personally, got over ten mosquito bites while being outside during the day from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon. This was odd to me because it is not usual for the United States to get the amount of mosquito bites during the day, but it is more prevalent at night.  I took all of the information I gathered while in Jamaica and when I got home researched the matter.  I was lucky to find out that Malaria is not a problem in Jamiaca!

Epi 8

Most times you do not think about the overall mortality numbers and how it can affect the population.  Last class we talked about the maternal morality numbers and maternal health.  I related this back to my life at home because our neighbor just suffered from a tragedy of her own.  She lost her child while they baby was still in the womb.  This is where learning for the maternal health in this class I thought was important.  I think that everyone should be able to have a good amount of maternal health knowledge for his or her own personal use, especially when trying to have a child.  While learning about this in class, I did not realize how much the maternal health and morality affected public health.   It is important for epidemiologists to track this because it is vital to track trends and outcomes for maternal mortality and maternal health.  This is especially necessary for epidemiologists to do because they are able to figure out what the main causes of maternal death, which was found to be indirect causes, unsafe abortion, severe bleeding, eclampsia, and other direct causes.  This is an important aspect for the health population to know because with this knowledge they can help reduce the number of maternal deaths in each population.  This also correlates to how death certificates are taken and how they are also a flawed process.  The death certificates have several flaws with them and it negatively impacts the epidemiologists that use them for future studies.  Some of the problems are careless certification, physician not knowing deceased, and diagnostic fads.  I think it is important to recognize how many of subjects we discuss in this class overlap each other in importunacy and to see how things can create a domino affect. 

Epi 7

In class, we discussed the prevalence and incidence reports.  We also talked about how to calculate them for different diseases and populations.  In the beginning of the class when this topic was first brought up I did not think that these numbers were all that important, and just being able to figure out a cure was.  Little did I know that these numbers were the stepping-stones to being able to figure out a cure for all of the different types of diseases.  For an example, last class we focused on the prevalence and incidence reports for measles.  After doing some in class calculations, I began to realize how figuring out when the disease started and the population the disease was affecting would lead to figuring out what started the disease.  Without finding out this information, we would not be able to prevent the spread of disease from other populations.  Also, with figuring out how fast the disease is spreading we can identify how hazardous this disease is and warn people how to prevent themselves from getting the disease.  For an example, the Influenza virus is a virus that we know comes every year about the same time.  However, before Epidemiologists were able to figure out this information, it was a virus that was spreading fast and killing several people.  After taking the time to figure out the attack rate of the disease, the prevalence, and all of the incidence reports, they were able to figure out how to slow the transmission of the disease and find a cure.

Epi 6

Last class we had a discussion on if we should use “accident” as a term or try to turn to new words.  Before we started talking about it, I thought that the only term for a car accident or any other thing that happened unintentionally was an accident.  However, after listening to the discussion in class my view on the term accident changed.  I understand that accidents that we usually refer to them as, is actually not accidents at all.  I realized this terminology difference after being in the car with my roommate while she was parking her car in the parking lot outside of a restaurant.  As she tried to turn in between two cars, I tell her she is not going to make that turn.  Disregarding my comment, she continues to turn into the parking spot while side swiping the parked car to her left.  After she gets out to look at it she calls it an accident, but I corrected her to say she was in a collision.  She was confused because she said she did not mean to hit the car, but I explained to her that as a result of her actions of rushing and not acknowledging my warning she hit the car.  This changed my view because it displayed the different in word usage and how it affects how we explain situations to others.  With slight changes to our vocabulary, we can be able to more properly identify what kind of event actually happened.