POP_ASSESS1- Module 1 Lesson 1
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Pasco-Hernando State College *
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2000
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Medicine
Date
Dec 6, 2023
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docx
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Uploaded by bissaya
Module 1 Lesson 1:
Foundation of Public Health Assessment
S
YNTHESIS
A
SSIGNMENT
Introduction:
This session introduced students to the advances in public health and the importance of assessment in understanding
disease conditions.
You will continue learn about disease past, present and future. Our goal is that we can learn from the
past to be better prepared to prevent disease conditions in the future!
In this assignment, you will build upon the
materials presented in class to explore a public health condition of interest to you.
Learning Objectives:
This assignment meets the following course objectives:
1.
Examine the essential purpose and necessity for understanding and applying key principles and skills from
epidemiology, biostatistics, socio-health sciences, environmental health, and global health when assessing
public health issues from a systems framework.
2.
Describe the natural history of disease and risks for disease
3.
Identify common indices used in identifying the health status of populations.
4.
Discuss modes of transmission in communicable diseases.
Y
OUR
A
SSIGNMENT
Prior to completing this assignment, please complete all of the readings and accompanying videos.
1.
Review the list of the causes of death among those living in London during the 1600s (attached). Using the Bills of
Mortality, determine the 10 leading causes of death among Londoners in the 1600s.
Table 1. 10 Leading Causes of Death among Londoners in the 1600s
Leading Cause
Disease
1.
Consumption & cough
2.
Chrisoms & infants
3.
Ague & marsh fever
4.
Plague
5.
Aged
6.
Teeth worms
7.
Flox and smallpox
8.
Dropsy & tympany
9.
Convulsions
10.
Abortive (miscarriage)/stillborn
2.
Review the information presented above.
Select one of the leading causes of disease from the 1600s.
Consider this
condition and how it affected Londoners in the 1600s. [You will need to do some individual research on this
condition.] Using what you learned, complete the following table:
Table 2. Disease Information Table for ____Ague & marsh fever (aka malaria)__________
Agent
Plasmodium parasite
1
Host
Anopheles female mosquito, macaques monkey (less common)
Mode of Transmission
Anopheles mosquito bite or contaminated blood (transfusion) > human
Environment
Then: England coastal marshlands (Dobson, 1994)
Now: Warm, humid regions (primarily Sub-Saharan Africa)
Incubation Period
7-30 days
List the links in the chain of
infection
Chain 1: A plasmodium parasite infects a mosquito:
1.
Infected mosquito bites human (blood meal)
2.
Human’s liver is infected
3.
Red blood cells are infected
4.
An uninfected mosquito bites infected human (cycle repeats)
Chain 2: Blood transfusions/needles infected by the parasite > humans
(“Malaria - About Malaria - FAQs - CDC”, n.d.)
* If any of the above are not applicable to your disease condition, list N/A
3.
What is/was the best way to stop the spread of this condition? Were there challenges with prevention mechanisms?
[Think about social, economic, and political factors]
At the time of the ague outbreak in London, the mode of transmission had yet to be linked to mosquitoes. The
plant medicine, cinchona bark, was promoted in England for its success in treating fever-type ailments in other
societies, so it was offered to the people. However, the medicine had serious health risks, and later a man who
claimed of having an ideal cure, Robert Talbor, proposed a modified treatment with cinchona bark. This was used on
individuals in King Charles II’s government; it was seemingly effective in some cases, but relapses often occurred
after a person was “cured” (Keeble, 1997, p. 285-9). This was a challenging medical trial in combatting what is now
known as malaria, as eventually the ague in England came to a decline for other reasons besides the medicine, but it
continued to prevail in other parts of the world.
Over the last century, an extremely effective and cost-effective method to reduce malaria was controlling
mosquito populations. John Frederick Marshall was a dynamic figure in leading that effort in the 1920s and to this
day (Coates, nd), the simple implementation of insecticidal nets in various countries in Africa has shown tremendous
efficacy. The present-day obstacle with malaria is mitigating exposure to children, pregnant women and travelers
from locations with either a low or absence of reported cases. This recurring risk renders preventative measures
more critical, but certain governments in developed nations such as the U.S do not prioritize such efforts; this factor
contributes to the lag in fully eliminating malaria globally and even within the U.S and other regions which were
initially classified malaria-free.
1
It is debated whether the host was the same for ague in the 16
th
century
4.
Discuss the key challenges you faced in investigating this disease condition and/or the diseases of the 1600s?
I came across multiple sources from blogposts to informal science articles on the Bills of Mortality but most were not
journal articles or research papers. It took me significant searching, clicking on links to digital archives of documents
from that time period and later, to understand what the disease was like and what measures did the population take
to eradicate it before the interventions of modern medicine.
5.
Much has changed in terms of disease conditions between the 1600s and today.
Today, we experience emerging and
reemerging infections (we will discuss this more in the coming weeks!) and are constantly battling new public health
problems.
In fact, you are currently living an example through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using information from the
CDC, WHO, and other credible sources, review the critical information regarding COVID-19 infections.
Once you have acquired a good understanding of this infectious communicable diseases, please complete the
following table:
Table 3. Disease Information Table for COVID-19
Agent
SARS-CoV-2 virus (“About COVID-19” | CDC, nd)
Host
Humans, other mammals
Mode of Transmission
Exposure to respiratory fluids – inhalation, touching, deposition
Environment
All environments
Incubation Period
2-14 days
List the links in the chain of
infection
1.
Individual inhales virus via droplets from coughs/sneezes/saliva
2.
Touching a contaminated surface/object -> touching part of the body
(nose, mouth, eyes)
6.
How were the challenges you faced researching COVID-19 similar/different than the challenges you faced
researching the Bills of Mortality?
When researching COVID-19, I encountered a wide scope of information from credible sources that was easy to
access. I did not face any challenges aside from pinpointing whether the COVID-19 virus had higher reports of
transmission in certain environments than others. It was simple to discover the ague disease from the Bills of
Mortality as the malaria equivalent and that it was more contained within a region of a particular climate (i.e:
Sub-Saharan Africa); however, obtaining concrete data and facts on the disease in that time period entailed
further examining every source to compare different narratives and identify any aligning viewpoints. The Bills of
Mortality contained many diseases with archaic names that have long been replaced, so that made researching
the ague a laborious endeavor in contrast to COVID-19.
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Works Cited
About COVID-19 | CDC
. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. September 1, 2023.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/about-covid-19.html
Coates, P.
Pursuing British mosquitoes into the archives
. WetlandLIFE. September 1, 2023.
http://www.wetlandlife.org/latest/30-pursuing-british-mosquitoes-into-the-archives
Dobson M. J. (1994). Malaria in England: a geographical and historical perspective.
Parassitologia
,
36
(1-2), 35–
60.
Keeble, T. W. (1997). A Cure for the Ague: The Contribution of Robert Talbor (1642-81).
Journal of the Royal
Society of Medicine
, 90(5), 285-290.
https://doi.org/10.1177/014107689709000517
Malaria - About Malaria - FAQs - CDC
. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. September 1, 2023.
https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/faqs.html