Why We R Naught Wanting Smallpox to Happen Again!

In unit 3 of my Disease class, we learned about, the different type of epidemic and the levels that one can reach. We also learned about R naughts, which is how many people can get sick/infected from one person. Next, we learned about correlation and causation, correlation is when two events during the same time period have the same rates (one not really causing the other). Causation, is the same thing, but they are caused by one and another. For my action project, we had to pick a disease that has become an epidemic. When we do that, we had to find out what the R naught of it is, where it has happened, and talk about factors that might lead into it. The purpose of this was to see how some epidemics are caused by a lot of different things, and to see how infectious one can be. The disease I chose was smallpox, mainly because I have always been interested in how it was used as biological weapon for war a lot, and wanted to know why they use that one. The only real challenge to this was mainly that, it was hard to find different factors, that would be on a certain website we used to make our graphs, to correlate the correlation and causation factors of a disease.

Smallpox is an infectious disease, where it can be very hard to know when you have it, causing people to spread it around more. It is a disease that comes from the variola virus, and the incubation period can take from 7 to 17 days. In that time it is able to spread to other people, without them knowing until it is too late. The type of symptoms that will be shown are high fever, vomiting, back pains, those are the starting ones. The one where you know you have smallpox is when a rash starts to form on the head, hands, feet, chest, and soon everywhere; after those that have happened, blisters will start to form on the rashes and they will have a clear liquid in them and soon pus will be in them.

The R naught of this disease can range from 5 to 7, meaning from one person, 5 to 7 can get infected from that person. As I said before, it is hard to tell when you have until it’s too late and you have passed it on to others. From that, it should be able to tell how this can lead to big epidemics. The first cited one was from the thirteen colonies when the British would bring the disease to people that have never been exposed to it before, Native Americans. Soon it started to spread all over the world, but in different time periods, not making it a pandemic, another area in which it has spread would be Australia in 1828. From that date it just proves that disease is really dangerous and go anywhere and be anywhere. The area I want to focus on more is when it was in India in 1974 when smallpox, which was the most recent case of a smallpox epidemic, which happened in January and finished in May. In this time it killed 15,000 people in that time. Now both of those are very dense in population, meaning people would be living together in a close environment, and this is one of the biggest factors. Another factor that should be addressed, is the lack of doctors in some areas, now even if there aren’t in some, we need more doctors to help it be contained or prevented.

It is eradicated today and is not seen anymore because there is a vaccine made for it, but even the vaccine can be a problem; this is because if too many people get the vaccine in one area, it can spread faster than the actual virus itself. In 1979, it was declared eradicated, but it is believed that WHO or the CDC have some samples of it just for study, or for biological warfare. Prevention is one of the hardest things to do since it can spread without anyone knowing, so the main prevention to do for people in that area is stay away from anyone that is showing symptoms, and for a city or the whole area I would actually say to get more people interested in being a doctor, so they know ways to help the community. Just as a prevention tip for everyone is always cleaning your hands so that if you are in contact with someone; or with someone with the disease, if needed to go out just wear a mask so people aren’t contaminated with it.

NVA "Smallpox Graph" 2015. Gapminder

The picture above shows how drought, or when water is more available, the disease is more likely to show up in India. This shows, that smallpox could actually appear more when the water is good, meaning people will be drinking water  a lot, and when that happens it is easier for people to possibly drink from an infected person’s drink.

NVA "Areas that have had Smallpox" 2015. Gapminder

References:

“Smallpox” Mayo Clinic. Aug 16, 2014

“Smallpox Vaccine Overview” CDC. Feb 7, 2007

“Smallpox” IDHP. n.d.

“Frequently asked questions and answers on smallpox” WHO. n.d.

“Samantha Farley “1974 Smallpox Epidemic of India” Prezi. 2012

Want to Know What Temperature Books Burn At?

For my last unit of Forbidden Books, I got to pick a book that was censored in some time, given to us by our teacher. After reading it, we started to view other people’s books that they chose, and see why that might that might have been censored, by reading some passages from it. Then, why our own book might be censored, and hear other people’s thoughts on the book. The book I chose was Fahrenheit 451, which was written by Ray Bradbury, originally in 1953; I chose this book, because it seemed interesting to me that a book was made about people who personally burn books to stop people from reading them. Leading me to the action project, after we reading this book, we had to write an essay talking about a certain topic, that would show/explain why this books was censored and the theme of the book. The purpose of this was firstly to see why some books are censored, and secondly to see what information they talk about explaining why it might be censored. This was interesting to do, mainly because it showed me how sometimes, some censorships are for really silly reasons; also to see how people want to ban books, that actually have some really good content that we need to learn about. Something that was difficult was having my thesis statement, and making sure that everything I had in my essay would still connect with that statement all the way through.

Discogangster "Fahrenheit 451" 2008.

Dissociative Identity Disorder

For Unit 2 of my disease course we went over learning about diseases of the mind or just mental disorders, the main one we focused a lot on was Autism. For that we learned about Autism is how it affects people personally and how they deal with it. Then we learned about Schizophrenia and how that affects someone, and actually did some simulations for it, just to experience what it can be like. We also learned about the DSM-V, and how that has a lot of mental disorders and is a guide book for psychiatrists for them to diagnosis people with a mental disorder. For our action project, we had to pick a mental disorder and then create a simulation for it to present in class to our classmates. We also had to make a flier containing stats, misconceptions, and ways to seek help. The one I picked was Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), which is when a person will have separate personalities. The purpose of this was to see how we can make are own simulation that other people can use if they find this. I actually really enjoyed this action project because it was a good challenge to make my classmates see what it is like with Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Scientific Definition of Dissociative Identity Disorder: “Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a severe condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present in—and alternately take control of—an individual.” - Psychology Today.

My interpretation: When there are separate personalities in one body, and they act very differently.

“Later, I had another incident. My friend messaged me on Facebook to apologize that she couldn’t make our plans that day. I asked her, “What plans?” She explained to me that we had made plans to hang out. The next time I saw her I told her that we had never made plans. I was sure of it. She showed me the text conversation we had had, and I had no memory what-so-ever of having had that conversation.” - Sherry Polly

Above is a quote that can show what people with this disorder might experience and how it can really affect normal day life. Now people can get this disorder from child abuse at a really young, because since their personalities are still developing they might act dissociate personalities to make this situation in their eyes better.  

Flier:

 

Simulation:

Citations:
Text:
“Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder)” Psychology Today. 11-24-14

Sherry Polly “Losing Time With Dissociative Identity Disorder” America’s Mental Health Channel. Feb 1, 2015.

“Dissociative Identity Disorder” National Alliance on Mental Illness. n.d.


Pictures:

AlwaysAnUnquietMind “Dissociative Identity Disorder” n.d.

04Mukti “Dissociative Identity Disorder” n.d.

Gemma Taylor “Dissociative (Multiple) Personality Disorder Awareness” Aug 3, 2009

"Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde poster edit2" by Chicago : National Prtg. & Engr. Co.Modifications by Papa Lima Whiskey

Military Dictatorship in Brazil 1964 - 85

For unit 2 of my Forbidden Books class we learned more about religions; where it started and how and the prophets were involved with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and their role in censorship. Then we learned more about how governments started to censor more things to gain political power. For the action project we were given a list of censorship cases that happen at different countries and times, but also we had to just research what was going on in the country at the time and how that lead to the censorship. I picked the Military Dictatorship in Brazil during 1964 - 1985, I thought this would be more interesting to learn how a military would censor different things to gain power and see what different things they would censor. Also this was a huge event that happened in Brazil, and is seen as one of the worst times for the Brazilian citizens, which was surprising to me since I never heard of it before. The purpose of this was to see how governments would censor items and why they chose to do that. I really liked this action project because it really pushed me to work harder, mainly because a lot of my sources that started out with had the same story, but different dates. To me censorship is really only justified if it is very small or specific, but I don't think big picture ones are justified. For example, dictatorship and them using censorship to gain power, but when it used to help keep a child from seeing things they aren't ready for, I think that would be justifiable.