Three Major Pandemics

Essay by VchinCollege, UndergraduateB, October 2007

download word file, 8 pages 3.0

Pandemics have been a problem since the beginning of the mankind. There have been significant pandemics such as the influenza, TB, Cholera, AIDS, and most recently SARS. What is causing pandemics to rise in an alarming rate? Most pandemics start really small then escalate to a large degree. In the video about the 1918 Influenza, it started with one person in a remote village and it affected many in shape, healthy men. Today most of these contagious diseases are gone; however during this bioterrorism is a huge threat to the United States. In 2001, Anthrax was a big problem in the United States. The anthrax powder substance were put into letters and sent to people such as Tom Brokaw and Senator Tom Daschle (Hanley, B5). How prepared are we for this kind of attack? There are classes around the tri-city that teaches the local residence on how to deal with this kind of situation.

The Fire Department and paramedics are there to instruct people. They have the participating people play various roles. First everyone is handed a card to inform them what kind of person they are playing. It can range from young to old. Then they make everyone fill out forms regarding how they are feeling. This is critical because it informs the physicians what kind of medical attention the person needs. After everyone is handed pills, but really M&Ms, to take incase there was something left undetected by the physicians. I feel this is a necessary informational event for people in this area to take because the Bay Area is a huge threat for bioterrorism.

AIDS has been around since the mid 1960s, but the first recorded case was in 1981. For twenty-five years AIDS has affected over 35 million people. First it was called gay related immune...