This was an interesting lecture about two case studies (H1N1 & Ebola-West Africa). The guest speaker, Stephen C.Redd, MD (RADM, USPHS) started off by telling a story about his son’s bag getting switched up and how his son panicked because he had to catch another flight to Nashville soon. The son drove to the airport in a hurry only to discover that his suitcase was sent off to its destination . If the son had just called the airport and explained his situation then no confusion would have occurred.This was a little background story to explain the importance of predictable and unpredictable events. His son did not predicate that he would be in this situation however he made some risky decisions by driving to the airport,after a long flight, and then driving back to the next airport to catch another flight.
Predictable events are hurricanes, and floods that typically occur on the east coast. He also mentioned how every year, College of Charleston is closed, due to hurricanes and the importance of safety and being prepared. Emerging events are events that are unexpected or without precedent. Some examples mentioned were Ebola, Zika, and opioid epidemic.The urban population has gone through a tremendous growth , in the past 20 years so contagious diseases spread more rapidly. It is predicated that by the year 2030, 43 cities would have a population of 10 million folks which would cause an increase of poverty, and diseases.
Dr.Redd, explained the spread of diseases through a demonstration of a diagram that showed that the great-grandfather traveled 10 km, the grandfather 100 km, the father 1000 km, and the son, overall, 10,000 km. Most people, nowadays, can be in the United States in the morning and by this time tomorrow be in Europe or Africa. This makes it easier for disease to spread and hard for the public health workers to control the diseases from spreading. One of the references was to the movie contagion and animal contamination. (I have not watched this movie, but we are going to watch it, in my Epidemiology class this semester).
In the first case H1N1, on April 15, 2009, an influenza pandemic occurred. A ten year old got the virus but,he recovered, by the time the diagnosis was made. Then, two days later, a nine year old got the virus. The Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) bordered a influenza surveillance and more cases started to appear in Texas and Mexico. The clinical patients in Mexico of H1N1 had eighteen cases and seven of the people died by the time they were diagnosed with the virus.
Due to this outbreak, the public health professional needed to make some major decisions in responding to H1N1 such as:“when to publish information on cases,whether to close schools, produce a vaccine, and to distribute antiviral drugs (from presentation PowerPoint slide).” It is important to have a procedure in place, to respond to epidemics, and to spread the message, decrease deaths, and not to cause a public panic.
The second case, the 2014 Ebola, the countries that got affected the most were Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The health workers looked for people who showed symptoms. The patients that had the virus were in isolation for 21 day. The ones that did not survive were buried in a safe place. Also, that year a man traveled from Liberia to Dallas and due to miscommunication at the hospital, he infected a nurse, and he died after a week of being diagnosed with Ebola. After this incidence, ever traveler from those known places that were exposed to Ebola got a cell phone at the airports to reach them, in case of emergency. Dr.Redd said “nobody got Ebola after system was put in place.”
This lecture related to our Environmental class because it shows how we are all interconnected. Just because something happens in Africa, does not mean that it can’t reach us here in the states. It is important to be aware of what is going on in the world, and to have policies and procedures to respond to epidemics, but most importantly to prevent them in the first place. It is easier to control a disease from spreading in a small population rather than a large population. Some current outbreaks in the world are cholera in Yemen, and Polio in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Communication is key in pubic health. We need to be prepared for the future. There are all kinds of different emergencies out there and each have its own preparations.
At the end of the lecture Dr. Redd, mentioned a two year training program with the CDC Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) for students to look into, if interested.
Overall, it was fascinating to learn about preparing for public health emergencies.