Running head: SUMMARY REPORT
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Summary Report
Samantha Phillips
404 Epidemiology
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Summary Report
Rx for Survival examines public health globally and the many challenges that humans
face. Due to the increased globalization of the world, global health is more important too all
individuals than ever before. Diseases that used to be contained in remote parts of the world can
now be spread to developed nations with one plane flight. The world’s medical knowledge and
resources are greater than ever before and capable of helping low-income countries prevent
human suffering from many diseases faced today. Rx for Survival highlights how vaccines,
antibiotics, clean water, adequate nutrition, how to deliver medical goods could help improve
global health in low-income countries. In developed countries and low-income countries the
series highlights vector-born diseases, and need to protect the public from new and reemerging
diseases.
Many aspects of epidemiology are recognized in each of the series videos. The main
focus presented in every episode is the identification of the disease-causing agent. In each
episode the disease-causing agent was different, but identified. Diseases in the series are
identified from the first discovery of cholera in water, to inadequate nutrition, to vector-borne
diseases in mosquitoes, for example, West Nile. The cause of the disease must first be known
before an intervention can be created to treated. This was evident in the episode, Back to the
Basics. Through environmental epidemiology that involved identifying contaminated water as a
source of illness, the results of this illness, and implementing ways to allow clean water to reach
the villages. Villages, in the episode, that had clean water were more prosperous, and this
showed an association between the water and disease in villages that were not clean.
There were several population studies in the Rx for Survival series. Studying night
blindness, Alfred Summer, used a control population to study the use of vitamin A. To find out if
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vitamin A could improve night blindness and mortality rate, Sommer gave a group of children
vitamin A and compared them to a group without vitamin A. Having a control group within a
population study helps to show increased causation. This study also proved that a nutritional
deficit was the disease-causing agent.
With the development of vaccines and antibiotics medicine has greatly improved humans
chances against diseases. In the episodes Disease Warriors and Superbugs each of these
improvements in the course of history are presented. Antibiotics turned the tide against disease
with improvement in health, but with misuse they can lead to resistant superbugs. Surveillance
and data of drug resistance is an important aspect of epidemiology to monitor the progression of
bacteria and virus. Vaccines need to continue to be developed to decrease the need for
antibiotics.
When vaccines and antibiotics are available they must be able to reach people to be
useful. Lack of infrastructure, natural geography, lack of funding, availability of healthcare
workers, and lack of understanding healthcare information can make delivering medical supplies
and providing treatment difficult. It takes funding, innovative ideas, and acceptance of these new
ideas to overcome these obstacles In the episode, Delivering the Goods, the Riders for Health
organization provided innovative thinking to solve transportation problems in a rural village by
creating a motorcycle ambulance. It is this type of low-spending innovation to each barrier that
will help overcome these obstacles.
In conclusion, this video series provided compelling stories to described global health
challenges and success. The series shows many aspects of epidemiology and how important it is
to use surveillance and response in a growing globalized world to protect humans from disease.
Human health will continue to rely on the surveillance and response of epidemiology to survive.
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References
Allen, P.G, Patton J, and Hutton, Richard H.E. (Productors). (n.d) Rx for Survival. NOVA
website, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/series/video/index.html. (Accessed
November 22nd, 2014)