Reply to two prompts in 100 words each. No sites needed, these are just thoughts on the prompts. (Original prompt for you consideration,Public perception of infectious diseases is managed and mismanaged through a variety of channels. Sometimes the population may have knowledge of a disease only from seeing a movie. Choose a highly contagious disease. Compare the scientific information about it with how its effects are portrayed/communicated to the public.Approach this discussion by answering the following questions. When you have the information, compare your answers to how you think the public perceives the contagious disease.
- What are the symptoms, and what causes them?
- How has it been studied?
- What are its defenses that enable it to survive and spread?
- How can immunity be established? )
Prompt 1: The couple that lives next door to my parents adopted a child a few years ago and the child was born with a hepatitis C infection. The couple asked if I could babysit and they made sure that I knew to wear gloves if he ended up getting a cut and I had to help him with a bandage. His parents have to be careful if he gets a small cut because this contagious disease spreads through blood-to-blood contact. There are usually no symptoms for a few years and then the symptoms of hepatitis C are bleeding easily, jaundice, poor appetite, fatigue, itchy skin, and other symptoms. The symptoms are caused by liver inflammation that can lead to liver damage. In the 1970s the infection was studied by a research team at the National Institutes of Health finding that most post-transfusion hepatitis infections were not from hepatitis A or B viruses. In 1987, a molecular cloning approach was used to identify hepatitis C. The infection is spread by blood-to-blood contact and can spread from mother to her baby. It is a small, enveloped, RNA virus and the virus can multiply in the liver and in lymphocytes. There is no vaccine against hepatitis C and efforts are focused on harm reduction.
Prompt 2: Public debate over the safety of childhood vaccines, particularly the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, is typically linked with a 1998 research study, which was later discredited, that suggested that the MMR vaccine was associated with autism. A number of prominent public figures have expressed reservations about the safety of childhood vaccines, especially the MMR vaccine, which is recommended to be given to children between the ages of 12 and 15 months, followed by a second dose at the age of 4 to 6 years. Surveys suggest that a large majority of Americans consider the preventive benefits of the MMR vaccine to be high and the risk of side effects from the MMR vaccine to be low. Overall, 88% of Americans think the benefits of the MMR vaccine outweigh the risks. Measles is a childhood infection caused by a virus. Also called rubeola, measles spreads easily and can be serious and even fatal for small children. While death rates have been falling worldwide as more children receive the measles vaccine, the disease still kills more than 200,000 people a year, mostly children. As a result of high vaccination rates in general, measles hasn’t been widespread in the United States in about two decades. Most recent measles cases in the U.S. originated outside the country and occurred in people who were unvaccinated or who didn’t know whether or not they had been vaccinated. Symptoms of measles include Fever, dry cough, runny nose, sore throat, conjunctivitis, Koplik’s spots, and skin rash. People can become immune to measles in two ways. Natural immunity: those who got sick with measles earlier in life will be immune afterward, and they won’t get it again. Vaccine-based immunity: 97% of people who have been vaccinated with 2 doses of measles vaccine have long-term immunity to measles.
