Emerging Infectious Diseases Essay Example for Free

Emerging Infectious Diseases Essay Emerging infectious diseases are diseases that are new or changing, and are increasing, or have the potential to increase in incidence in the near future. (Pearson, Microbiology) Some important contributing factors to the development of EIDs are evolutionary changes in existing organisms, the movement of previously identified diseases to new geographic locations and populations by modern transportation, and increased human exposure to previously undocumented, uncommon infectious agents in areas of ecological growth or change. This includes previously uninhabited areas that may be undergoing deforestation or construction. EIDs also emerge as a result of resistance, and in recent years, an unusually high incidence of EIDs has drawn the attention of the global population in reaction to unsatisfactory health care facilities and geographic locations with tendency toward breakdown of public sanitation measures. (Pearson, Microbiology) Avian Influenza A (H1N1), or bird flu, became a subject of global attention in 2003 when it caused he death of millions of poultry and 24 humans in eight countries in central and south Asia. Avian Influenza A is transmitted by birds around the world, however, certain wild birds, particularly waterfowl, do not get sick but instead carry the virus in their intestines and release it through their excretions. Most frequently, wild birds spread influenza to domesticated birds and poultry farms, where the virus causes death. Most avian influenza viruses actually do not naturally cause disease in humans. However, some Influenza strains, like Avian Influenza A, are zoonotic, meaning that they can infect humans and cause disease possibly resulting in death. World Health Organization) The NS1 protein of the influenza virus is the most critical virulence factor that allows it to antagonize the host’s antiviral response. In doing this it employs several mechanisms, including the binding and sequestration of double-stranded RNA. The structure of full-length NS1 protein has now been identified using samples from a virulent H5N1 avian influenza virus strain. â€Å"The molecules RNA binding domain displays noticeable differences when it is compared to that of the non-H5N1 strains, whereas the effector domain is significantly altered. The two domains interact in such a way as to form tubules that may act to sequester dsRNA, allowing the virus to evade the hosts innate immune response. † (International Weekly Journal of Science) The following groups od individuals are at an increased risk for contraction Avian Influenza A: Farmers and others factory farm workers who handle poultry, Travelers who may be visiting visiting affected countries during an outbreak, Those who touch an infected bird, or Those who consume raw or undercooked poultry products from birds infected with the disease. Health care workers may also be at an increased risk of contracting the bird flu from an infected patient. (NYT Heath Guide) The avian flu virus (H5N1) has been proven to survive in the environment without the help of a human or animal host for long periods of time. Infection is possible simply by touching contaminated surfaces. Birds who were infected with Avian Influenza A can continue to foster the virus and release it in their excretions for as long as 10 days, and are still a risk after death. NYT Health Guide) Infection with the H5N1 virus in humans causes flu-like symptoms that often progress quickly to more adverse complications such as Acute Respiratory Distress, Organ failure, pneumonia, sepsis or death. The initial onset of symptoms may include cough, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, unusually high fever, headache; muscle aches, a runny nose or a sore throat. NYT Health Guide) Tests to verify Avian Influenza in an individual exist, but are currently not widely available to the public. If you are unable to receive a preliminary test which yields results in four hours, your physician may also conduct the following tests: Auscultation, to detect abnormal breathing and lung function, a chest x-ray, a nasopharyngeal culture and blood work, all to determine the presence of the virus in an individual based on their bodily immune functions. (World Health Organization) Many strains of the influenza virus have become resistant to the effects of the antiviral drugs that were previously being used to treat them. Health officials are now recommending the use of Oseltamivir, known as Tamiflu and possibly Zanamivir, known as Relenza as the newest, most helpful pharmaceutical treatment options. (Mayo Clinic) These drugs must be taken within forty-eight hours after the appearance of symptoms in order to be effective, but this may prove as a roblem in the vent of a global outbreak. Because of the short supply, its not entirely clear how Influenza drugs would be distributed and administered if there were an epidemic of global proportions. In terms of prevention, physicians recommend that all healthy patients receive an influenza shot (commonly called a â€Å"flu shot†) to reduce the likelihood of an existing avian flu virus mixing with a human flu virus, which would create a new virus that may easily spread and cause an epidemic. The U. S.  Food and Drug Administration has approved a vaccine to protect humans from the avian flu, and experts say that the vaccine could be used if the current H5N1 virus began spreading between humans. (NYT Health Guide) Human infections with Avian Influenza viruses detected since 1997 have not yet resulted in sustained human- to-human transmission. However, because Influenza Viruses have the potential to mutate and gain the ability to spread easily between people, monitoring for inter-human transmission is extremely important.

How committed is Canada, with respect to environmental security in the

In Canada, concerns involving environmental security are not the top priority. But due to recent research, Canada must be more strongly committed to environmental security due to increasing environmental problems internationally. There are many ways Canada can stay committed to environmental security, for example, increased funding to Canada’s Department of National Defence’s Environment Department. Also to stay committed to increased access and support to Voluntary Environmental Programs across Canada. Finally to completely stay up to world standards in environmental security, Canada must implement an effective environmental planning system. Throughout the essay, the topic at hand will be if Canada is able to implement these actions to make the nation more environmentally stable and explain that environmental security should be a main means of concern in Canada. Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) created the Environment Department on 1983. What motivated the DND to do so was that there was an outrageous amount of environmental issues emerging in 1983 within Canada. The Environment Department started with energy conservation, then forestry and vegetation concerns, and on to storage tanks and sewage treatment facilities. Over time, the department realized that one of their main concerns was sites contaminated by prior military practices, such as disposal of chemicals or ammunition. There is a policy in place for site closures and to ensure that the pollution of these sites is diminished. The policy is the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and it governs issues such as the acquisition of a new base or the closure of a facility. Many sites have been found across Canada and are under control but sadly the Environment ... ...meet all eight steps in the environmental planning system. Therefore once these eight pieces of criteria are met, Canada will be strongly committed to environmental security. In conclusion, the steps needed to make Canada more committed to environmental security are in place. It is up to the Canadian government and also the Canadian population to realize what is available and help our nation when it comes to environmental security. Whether it be increased funding to the DND’s Environment Department or increased accessibility and support to Canadian VEPs. And most importantly, meeting the eight steps of the environmental planning system. The information and resources are all there for Canada, the federal, provincial and local governments must now use these resources to improve the environmental security across the true north strong and free, the land we call home.

Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The tell-tale heart’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘The fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ Essay

Compare and contrast the main themes from Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘the tell-tale heart’ and Ray Bradbury’s ‘the fruit at the bottom of the bowl’. The two stories both contain crime, punishment and murder. The two stories both contain two men who become obsessed with either his own or someone else’s body part. They seem very similar but they are actually quite the opposite†¦ The writers both build up tension in there stories they make this clear by adding something about the item in nearly every line, which makes the reader clear of what is going on. Ray Bradbury tries to give us a clue in his title what the story is about, before you have read the story the title is not clear but after you have read the story it becomes clearer, the man in the story murders someone and gets obsessed with cleaning, as he wants to get rid of the evidence. The author uses the metaphor ‘the fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ to emphasise that the man is so obsessed with the evidence and what can be seen he has forgotten about the things that are deeper than the surface what the eye can’t see, like the fruit that is at the bottom of the bowl. In this story we are not given a name, sex or given any kind of information about the character, which is rather strange. Edgar Allan Poe does the same kind of thing with his title ‘the tell-tale heart’ this as well is not clear to us until we have read the story his title explains what happens when the character is caught he/she breaks down in front of two policemen because of his/her heart, his conscious is telling him what to do and finally the character breaks down. The story is about a mad person ‘†¦that I am mad’ who is disturbed by one mans eye and can’t take it no longer and eventually murders the man and gets caught when he/she breaks down in front of two officers, but he/she only thinks they have killed the eye but they don’t realise they have killed the man but deep in there heart they know they have done wrong and their conscious gets the better of them. The fruit at the bottom of the bowl is set at midnight ‘the clock ticked midnight’ and the character who is William Acton becomes obsessed with cleaning as he has killed a man (Huxley) and wants to get purge of the evidence in nearly every line it mentions something about his hands or fingers he is trying to remember what his hands or fingers have touched ‘the fingerprints were every, everywhere!’ at the end of the story it doesn’t tell us if Acton was caught it leaves us to guess what is going to happen to him. As in the tell-tale the character (who we are not told a name or sex) is mad and becomes obsessed with an eye of a man ‘I think it was his eye, yes his eye’ and that’s what causes the murder and we do know that he is caught. They both committed the crime by murder. We do assume that both the main characters are taken away and given prison sentences but it doesn’t actually tell us this is happening because of the way the stories are set out with the flash backs, the past and present tenses we do not know if the story is being told to us even from a prison cell or if they have already received there punishment it leaves us in suspense to what is going to happen to them or what has happened to them. It does give us an idea that they are already sentenced because they are telling the story in the past presents. In the tell-tale heart the narrator is telling the story he or she starts to go mad when he mentions the eye and he starts to build up tension when it comes to the end where the character breaks down in front of the two officers the character breaks down because of the heart beaten in his head but I don’t think he does hear this in his head I think it is his conscious telling him to confess to what he has done in the written story they show this by adding a lot of explanation marks because he is breaking down and it is all happening so fast ‘I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt I must scream or die!’ In the two stories the characters choose to kill their victim. In the tell-tale heart the character planned to kill the man he couldn’t take the sight of the eye anymore ‘I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever’ as in the ‘fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ it was done more spontaneously he just ended up having an argument with a man called Huxley and Acton (the main character) ended up strangling Huxley and killing him. Even though the two stories seem very alike they have their differences. In the ‘fruit at the bottom of the bowl’ the writer uses a range of sentences when he is talking about the past he uses long sentences and in present he uses shorter sentences also the author writes the story after the murder is committed and tells us how the murder is accomplished by using flash backs and includes us into the story when he is talking in the present, which makes the story seem more eerie, as the ‘the tell-tale heart’ is told in a slightly different way it doesn’t use the same style of writing he writes in one format instead of two. He writes in the first person ‘hearken I and observe how healthily- how calmly I can tell you the whole story’. He starts the beginning of the story talking to the reader which drifts you in to the story because the character is not talking sense ‘I heard all thing in heaven and in earth. I heard many things in hell so how then am I mad?’ and you become confused to what is going on and makes you want to read on to find out what the character is saying and what he is on about? In the tell-tale heart the character mentions that he has gone mad ‘why will you say then that I am mad?’ he has lost his mind and I think that is punishment enough for him because he has took away someone’s life now he has had his mind taken from him. In the fruit at the bottom of the bowl I don’t think Acton has gone insane he just becomes obsessed with trying to get disposal of the evidence and this is what makes him become obsessive. I don’t think before the murder either of the characters were mad, maybe the character in the tell-tale heart may have been a bit mentally unstable as it is a bit confusing how he becomes so obsessive over one mans eye but I think that he/she tends to lose their mind after the murder as it has got to him/her a lot. As William Acton also tends to loose his mind towards the end of the story as his hands start to take control ‘but unknown to his eyes, his gloved fingers moved in a little rubbing rhythm on the wall’ and also he starts to talk to himself ‘would u, I would, are you certain, yes’. I think both stories had a well thought out setting and both themes were superior but even though the stories both contain the same contents (murder, crime and punishment) they seem very similar but they are really quite diverse I didn’t realise that until after I had compared the two stories. The two authors use different styles of writing in their stories. I really enjoyed reading the stories but not as much as comparing them and spotting how much they are unlike.   

A Tragedy Of Hamlet - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1063 Downloads: 10 Date added: 2019/04/08 Category Literature Essay Level High school Tags: Hamlet Essay William Shakespeare Essay Did you like this example? Hamlet was published in 1603 by William Shakespeare, a renowned English playwright and actor. This play brings up very sophisticated topics that were very often hidden and shied away from in Shakespeares time period. The audience follows the story of a young prince who seemingly falls apart after the death of his father and brings the kingdom down with him. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "A Tragedy Of Hamlet" essay for you Create order Hamlet is drowning in grief after his fathers death and is driven by a rage at his uncle for the murder. Hamlet loses all other thoughts and emotions as he is overtaken with a passion for revealing the truth, and a passion for revenge. There is a moment in the play when many readers are no longer rooting for Hamlet, when the vision of his pure character is destroyed. In Act 3 when Hamlet murders Polonius he shows no remorse for his actions and that is a prime example of Hamlet becoming â€Å"passion’s slave†. Hamlet is so overcome by his blind rage for Claudius that he is no longer thinking clearly, so when he enters his mothers bedroom and hears another person in the room, he rashly assumes that it’s his uncle, and lashes out, killing Polonius, â€Å"How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!/ (stabs his sword through the arras and kills Polonius) [] Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell/ I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune†(act 3, scene 4, 23-33). The fact that Hamlet shows no remorse for his actions towards Polonius, a close friend, shows that he has gone over the edge of insanity. Over the course of the play Hamlet is so overcome by his emotions that he loses sight of t he origin of his behavior. It takes the reappearance of his fathers ghost to get him back on track and to remind him of his original purpose, to prove to Gertrude that Claudius is the murderer. Essentially Hamlet lashing out at everybody, is him becoming enslaved to his passion for vengeance. Throughout the play Hamlet is on a whirlwind of emotions, always governed by passion over reason. The need for revenge and Hamlets complete focus on correcting a wrong, impede on his responsibilities of being a ruler, a son, and a suitor. As he is so determined on fulfilling that desire of revenge, he doesn’t realize how irrational he’s behaving. An example of Hamlet’s passion interfering with his responsibilities of being a â€Å"lover† is how diabolical he treats Ophelia. Hamlet feels betrayed by his mother because of her lack of mourning over her late husband, King Hamlet, and the fact that she hastily married King Hamlet’s brother, Claudius, soon after. This deceit causes him to view every woman as untrustworthy, which in turn negatively affects his sense of duty of being a good â€Å"lover† to Ophelia, accusing her of being disloyal and deceptive. His unrefined comments to her exceeded sexist barriers, she says, â€Å"You are keen, my l ord, you are keen†, complimenting his intelligence, and he replies, â€Å"It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge† (act 3, scene 2, 227-228). Hamlet shows some very questionable behavior in this scene through his conversation with Ophelia, which proves him capable of abuse despite his supposed love for her. Unfortunately, this conversation with Ophelia is only one of many moments where Hamlet unleashes his rage on those around him. Several critics and readers believe that Hamlets insanity is just an elaborate charade that he puts on to obtain a confession to murder from his uncle, and it’s true that he started out that way. It’s in this scene, when Hamlet manipulates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, that he appears the most in control of his own behavior, almost eerily so. Almost ironically, Hamlet even shows admiration for Horatio’s calm demeanor, the absence of which is Hamlet’s most flawed trait. â€Å"Give me that man/ That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him/ In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart† (Act 3. Scene 2. 64-67). In this scene, as he goes from wild to mature behavior, it appears that Hamlet is not insane after all. So, while there is truth behind the statement that Hamlet is only pretending to be a slave to his passions, over the course of the play it’s obvious that he loses that control over his emotions, and no longer has to pre tend to be insane. Hamlet commits the height of this passion in a response to his fathers death and in his evident love for Ophelia. A prime example of Hamlet’s passion is shown in the graveyard scene when he learns of Ophelia’s suicide. Hamlet exclaims, â€Å"What is he whose grief/ Bears such an emphasis, whose phrase of sorrow/ Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand/ Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, / Hamlet the Dane (leaps into the grave)† (act 5 scene 1, 238-242). Hamlet is beside himself with grief, knowing that he had caused her pain by murdering her father, Polonius. Hamlet may have started his act of insanity with pure intentions, but he gets in too deep and is overcome by his strong emotions and his passion for vengeance. When Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, his whole persona changes. His moods become more hysterical, his words more aggressive, and his motivations secretive. The old hamlet, the hamlet before seeing his father’s ghost, is gone, and has been taken over by a bitter and vindictive figure. Hamlet let his situation get way out of control, and drowning in his grief, he becomes â€Å"passion’s slave†. This play proves that a person cannot just be a human of action nor only a human of thought, you have to find a balance. As Hamlet shows, being a human of thought can mean that you never accomplish anything significant. In the beginning of the play Hamlet announces that he wants to kill his uncle, but when it comes down to it, he spends the entire play driving himself insane with the internal debate. In contrast, becoming only a human of action can result in almost hysterical behavior, and can lead to negative consequences, like murdering the father of the women you loved. The tragedy of Hamlet holds a great internal conflict as Hamlet contradicts himself many times throughout out the play and causes the unnecessary death of many of those around him.