Pandemic Studios

Influenza Influenza, also known as the flu is an airborne pathogen that has a high morbidity and mortality rate. Influenza can be spread through the air or by contact, and maybe infectious before symptoms occur. Symptoms of the flu may vary, and severity differs between age groups. People who are at high risk include younger adults with strong immune systems, the elderly, and people with previous problems such as asthma. Symptoms may include: sore throat, fever, muscle pain, and weakness. Once…

The CDC determined that virus was new to humans and first began as a disease in swine. The second case was a 9 year old child who lived 130 miles away from the first case (CDC pwr pt 1). The disease continued to spread until it became a worldwide pandemic with approximately with 43 million to 89 million people contracting…

Often, when on the subject of whether or not animals should be used in animal research, it generally sparks up a debate. Some argue that animal testing does not work and the practice is cruel to animals while others argue that the use of animal research has produced tremendous medical breakthroughs and should not be stopped. Yes, animal testing has resulted in great medical discoveries and could be used to potentially discover more, however, new technological advances in medicine such as the 3D…

Global health is like a tree with an array of branches. There are so many health issues in this world today, and much struggle about which issues need our attention the most urgently. On one hand, we could use our money to cure a mass amount of easily treatable disease, or we could apply our funds towards the research, discovery, and curing of unknown illness in remote areas. The answer is balance. With everything there needs to be balance, and we should delve into both ends of the spectrum. We…

Elaine Marcello Human and Animal Interrelationships 30 October 2014 The Black Plague: Rough draft The Black Plague, commonly known as the Black Death was a disease that caused extensive damage to Europe during the years of 1346 through 1353. The disease is believed to derive from a bacterium frequently found in populations of fleas that are carried around by a variety of different rodents. The death toll of this unfortunate disease would build all the way up to 20 million people, which turned…

The Challenges of Preventing an Influenza Pandemic on Populations of Developing Countries One of the most common illnesses is influenza. It is a contagious viral infection that usually affects the respiratory passages, causes severe symptoms, and can occur in an epidemic. An epidemic is the slow spread of an infectious disease to a large number of people in a population within a short period of time (Wikipedia). A pandemic is an epidemic outbreak of an infectious disease that can spread through…

The plague killed more than 25 million people around the world. The plague had lots of causes and effects. Most people in Europe experienced The Black Death. The plague’s cause sparked scientists all over the world. Scientists found bacteria to be one of the causes of The Black Death. The bacterium was called Yersinia pestis (Dobson 8). The bacterium circulated among rodents (Benedictow). This bacterium was once harmless, but evolved to kill thousands of people (“Researchers” O6a). Scientists…

Since the ancient days, mankind has always dreamt to explore the unknown, be it a neighboring city or a faraway continent. With the advent of affordable commercial air travel, the opportunity to explore these places is bigger than ever before, shortening a few months’ worth of traveling by sea into mere hours by air. Thanks to this development, countries from across the globe have established countless points of interest as major income sources. But just like how fire catches, it has also…

beginning of the 20th century, there have been five IAV pandemics, including the 1918 pandemic, which is estimated to have been responsible for 50-100 million deaths worldwide (Taubenberger & Morens, 2006). Each major influenza pandemic has been associated with the appearance of a new subtype circulating in humans. Additionally, particularly virulent pandemic strains and in particular the 1918 strain tend to attenuate during the course of the pandemic, likely a result of adaptation to humans…

because of better management of the situation in that country. In the United States, unlike Europe, patients were transferred to large control centers, thus limiting the possibility of infection. Over time, and after millions of deaths, the massive pandemic was controlled. The book elucidates that in a later wave of the disease, mortality in the autumn of that year was much lower in Madrid than in other Spanish provinces…