| INTRODUCTION | REFERENCE | PERIODICAL ARTICLES | NON-PRINT |
| TOPIC ANALYSIS | BOOKS | INTERNET SOURCES | REVIEW |
"Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur cum mala per longas convalvere moras." (Stop it at it's start, it's late for medicine to be prepared when disease has grown strong through long delays). by Ovid- 11 A.D.
The focus of my research project is to bring about awareness to the general public that infectious disease can be prevented. Through some very simple techniques along with an understanding of the environment, humans do have the capacity to prevent themselves from becoming infected with disease caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other infectious agents.
This topic is of worldly concern as infectious disease does not know any boundaries and although this lack of boundaries may be due to human development it in no way suggests that infectious disease cannot be prevented nor eradicated through different measures.
Infectious disease has been on the Earth for hundreds of thousands of years and still exists today and is doing quite well for itself I might add. That is why the time is now to act upon infectious disease causing agents and preventing the growth from accumulating even more within any society.
http://www.nfid.org
The National Foundation of Infectious Disease was founded in 1973 and it's purpose was to prevent and cure infectious disease. Within the scope of this foundation is supporting research regarding infectious disease prevention, encouraging education, providing grants to independent researchers, and conducting seminars to increase awareness for the public and professionals in the health care field.
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology
http://www.apic.org
Established in 1972, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology strives to control the spread of infectious disease through education of the public and health care professionals. They conduct research and seminars as well as collaborate with other health organizations to control and prevent infectious disease.
This book provided an in depth look at who in the world is most susceptible to infectious disease. Included was statistics on the most deaths from infectious disease by region. I found what I had suspected, developing countries were at a much higher risk than developed countries for contraction. The country with the highest death toll from infectious disease was Guatemala and the lowest was the United States.
Economist Books Ltd. "Causes of Death-Infectious and
Parasitic Diseases." The Economist Book of Vital
World Statistics. New York: Time Book-Random
House Inc., 1990.
Berkow, Robert and Andrew Fletcher. "Prevention of
Infection." The Merck Manual. Rahway, NJ:
Merck and Co. Inc., 1987.
This reference book had much valuable information about my topic. Most of these things were precautionary measures in hospitals to insure that disease is not spread form one patient to another. Some of these topics were isolation, sterilization, antiseptics, microbial prophylaxis, and anti-infective drugs. Types, causes, and sources of infectious diseases were also given. The Merck Manual is a highly recommended book of physicians and is widely used in medical facilities. It does coincide with my own views in the importance of sterilization in medical facilities to prevent the spread of infection to others.
Christie, Andrew Barnett, Feigin, Ralph D., and
Renu Garg. "Effects of Environment on Human
Disease." Encyclopedia Brittanica Online. 2001.
19 April 2001. http://www.brittanica.com.
The purpose of this article was to suggest that the environment in which a human being lives has a definite impact on the chances for contraction of infectious disease. This article looked into social factors, population, temperature, movement of populations, and occupations which do contribute to the chances of infectious disease occurring within an individual and/or the population. This article does relate to my topic in that it refers to the environment that bacteria are more hardier and therefore more likely to transmit to humans providing means of prevention.
"Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases."
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
Palo Alto, CA: Bull Publishing Company, 1998.
This book had numerous different subtopics relating to my topic. Not only was there an abundance of text but also graphs and charts showing morbidity and mortality rates and reported cases of infectious disease each year per country. There was information on each infectious disease agent, where it attacks the host, and the results of the disease on the host. Prevention of infectious disease was focused upon as well which included antibiotics, trends in spread of infection, and environmental causes. Was very relevant to my topic with thorough, researched information and remained consistent with my own views.
Ward, Brian. Epidemic. New York: Dorling
Kindersley Limited, 2000.
Provides an easy to read understanding of epidemics and their causes such as transportation, population, pollution, and food and water contamination. Also provides prevention measures such as immunizations, promoting health in remote areas, and changing the hygiene habits of people. Ward has written numerous books on the subject of infectious disease and holds two degrees in microbiology and molecular biology. This book remains consistent with my own views in that epidemic is of worldly concern and can be spread so rapidly that the people of the Earth need to be aware of how to prevent themselves from being infected.
Dowell, S.F. "Seasonal Variation in Host Susceptibility
and Cycles of Certain Infectious Diseases."
Emerging Infectious Diseases. May 2001.
Center of Disease Control. 22 May 2001.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/eid.htm.
Dowell is the Associate Director of Global Health at the Center of Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. He believes that the seasons along with the change in climate may have a direct correlation with outbreaks of certain strains of infectious diseases. He includes a large research document as well as charts, graphs, and numerous references from reputable sources to support his ideas. He believes that understanding this seasonal variation is key to being prepared for another outbreak and is consistent with my own views.
Banta, James E. "From International Health to Global
Health." Journal of Community Health.
16 Nov. 1999. Proquest Direct. Bell and
Howell Learning and Information. Seattle Central
Community College Lib. 15 May 2001.
http://www.umi.com/pqdauto.
Banta is a doctor, senior associate, and a professor at the School of Public Health and Health Services at George Washington University in Washington, DC. The article refers to historical incidences such as plague to the present vectors for infectious disease such as travel, airlines, economic globalization, and the loss of boundaries because of these things. The intention of the author is to educate the public as well as those involved in controlling disease that the interrelatedness of these things and infectious diseases is very much in our presence now and we need to do something about it before things get any worse with which I could not agree more.
World Health Organization. World Health Report
1996. February 1997. King County Library.
24 May 2001. http://www.who.int/.
The World Health Organization strives to inform the world of infectious disease as one of it's lifelong commitments through developing statistics and research. This article states that infectious disease is on the rise and the move as well. This is due to urbanization, population growth, and poverty to name a few. This report also gives information on how infectious disease is spread such as through person-to-person contact, anti-microbial resistance, food, water, insects, etc. and what the population of the world, including government offices, can do to help control it such as adequate drinking water, immunizations, and effective pesticides to name just a few. This report provides an in depth look at infectious disease with an educated and well-researched background of information listing facts and not fiction. It is well-written and complies with my own beliefs on the subject of infectious disease and it's prevention, causes, and spread.
Platt, A.E. "Infecting Ourselves: How Environment and
Social Disruptions Trigger Disease." Combined
Health Information Database. April 1996.
Statistical Resources on the Web. 23 May 2001.
http://chid.nih.gov/simple/simple.htm.
Platt is a corporate author for the World Watch Institute. He contends that changes occurring to the environment due to disruptions from the human race are significant to the continuation and prevalence of infectious disease. Preventative education to the public as well as the employment of public health measures are key in preventing infectious disease. The author does take a biased opinion on the topic of interest however, it is leaning in the right direction, prevention by means of education is necessary to control infectious disease which is much the same as my own opinion.
"Ten Things to do to Prevent Infectious Diseases."
The National Foundation for Infectious
Disease. June 1999. Statistical Resources on the
Web. 25 May 2001.http://www.nfid.org/factsheets/.
The National Center of Infectious Disease is committed to educated people about infectious disease in order to limit the impact as well as to prevent the spread. This is an in depth look at ten things a person can do to prevent contraction of infectious disease such as hand washing, immunizations, and avoiding areas with insects. This article is consistent with my views and provides an excellent educated summary of them.
"Immunization Protects Children- 2001 Immunization
Schedule." American Academy of Pediatrics.
17 January 2001. Statistical Resources on the
Web. 24 May 2001.
http://www.aap.org/family/parents/immunize.htm.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization that began over seventy years ago. It's credible members include over 55,000 people with 35,000 being board certified doctors. This organization is concerned with the health and safety of children by providing researched information to the general public as well as health care providers to attain optimal health for all children. This schedule provides all of the recommended immunizations for children at a specific age and what disease should be immunized against at that time. This is a very important aspect of the prevention of infectious disease as immunizations do protect people from many of them.
Within my strategy for finding information I have used many different sources ranging from the Internet to books, to reference sources to medical journals. Due to the large amount of information available on my subject I found it necessary to use certain keywords on the Internet as well as becoming familiar with the Library of Congress Subject headings. This saves quite a bit of time and frustration either because of too little or too much information found as it nullifies this problem for the most part. I have also found that the use of synonyms when conducting a search is very important especially on the Internet because of the large amount of information available here as well as the huge amount of people inputting this data whom will of course use different words than one might first think to identify the same topic. I have searched numerous databases and journals which I found to be great places to look for information because of their organization as well as their reliability.
I found that the Internet as compared with other sources provides so much more information than any other source. I was able to find numerous articles in journals, web sites, databases, library catalogs, online books, etc. more than I could find anywhere else. I also found that the information on the Internet was much more up-to-date than just about any book that I found. Although, many of the Internet sources that I found did not provide reliable information because of it's lack of editing, sources, or research I found that for the most part, much of it was very pertinent and reliable within it's information. Books did provide a more thorough investigation of my topic and were much more in depth and in being as much provided more information than I needed and therefore, were more time consuming while the Internet provided a much more detailed but briefer description.
I have found quite a bit of information on my topic of infectious disease. This would range from environmental factors to insect infestation to improper sanitation to sexual and age preference of the infector. I have learned so much from this search process but I think the most important thing that I have learned is how simple it is to stop the spread of infectious disease. There are so many people that succumb to infectious disease each year without having to. If they had only followed a few preventative measures, most would probably be alive today.
As for the conclusion of my topic after all of my research, I would still uphold my belief that the prevention of infectious disease through awareness is of the utmost importance to everyone in the world since we are all susceptible in some way or another. All of the information that I have found points to the fact that infectious disease is one of the top killers globally but also that prevention is far from out of reach in fact, it is right in front of all of us.
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