Free Essay Sample on New Diseases

Emerging diseases are referred to as diseases that have newly appeared in the population or have existed but increasing in geographical range and incidence. New diseases are emerging throughout the history and have included some of the feared most past plagues. Infectious diseases have newly appeared in the population or have existed in the past. Most of the recent emerging diseases all over the world include HIV/AIDs, cholera, and other diseases. The emerging diseases have increased in the recent past because of some factors that have exposed people to dangerous conditions. These factors if not addressed at an early age will eventually lead the diseases to dangerous levels, and the majority of the people might be affected by the emerging diseases.The factors that have exposed people to dangerous conditions include the changes in agricultural production methods. The current agriculture uses methods that expose toxic conditions to the body of the human beings. In agriculture, many processes have changed, and these processes are accompanied by toxic substances and these changes render the lives of the population living in such regions to dangerous situations. Furthermore, the transportation sector has also changed such that it poses dangerous conditions to the human beings. The current transportation sector is faced with the challenge of environmental conditions. Transportation means such as vehicles, airplanes and train produce air that pollutes the environment. Air might expose an individual to such diseases as respiratory diseases and may also damage the ozone layer and may eventually result in skin diseases such as skin cancer (Morse 2001, p. 34). Urbanization is also another factor that has led to the emergence of new diseases in the world. Europe and the United States has high levels of the emerging new diseases. The industrial revolution in the Europe continent is attributed to the industrial development in the European countries. With the industrial developments, many industries use energy that emits carbon into the environment. The release of carbon has been seen as a source of health problems in most societies all over the world. Additionally, the ecological and environmental changes have also been seen to increase the emergency of new diseases in the contemporary world. The changes in the environment come with changes that affect the normal working of the human body. When the normal working of the body is altered, some new diseases might emerge as a result. Hospitals might also become the causal agents as the equipment might not be sterilized and thus, may expose an individual to some conditions that might generate new diseases (Patz et.al 2004, p.29). The mass food processing technology is associated with the contamination of meat. People who consume meat may be affected by the already altered meat and thus may generate new diseases in the body of the human being.

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Most of the infectious diseases appear to be caused by pathogens which are already present in the environment. Furthermore, it can also be caused by the obscured or the selective advantage or altered viruses. The infectious diseases may transfer from animals to human beings. The activities in which a human being engages in may expose them to emerging diseases. Such activities may increase the microbial traffic and as a result, promote the emergency and epidemics (Morse 2001, p. 44). In some cases, the emerging diseases may be zoonotic and may cross the natural host to another. The zoonotic diseases may also cross from the animals to the human population. It has been known that majority of the emerging diseases are caused by human actions which include the changes in climate which result from human activities such as farming. Human beings may use poor methods of farming that brings adverse effects in their bodies. The modern human beings unlike in the past are prone to infectious disease epidemics due to the poor ways of living.

As human beings try to improve their living standards, they may alter the normal working of the bodies. For example, the consumption of certain food may bring some changes in the human body. They may change the genetic make-up of such an individual. When the genetic make-up of the individual is altered, the body of such an individual may become weak and unable to fight the foreign bodies in their bloodstream (Daszak et.al 2000, p.105).

Furthermore, the changes in the human demographics and behavior have also been seen as a factor that exposes human being to infectious epidemics. The human population movements are upheavals which result from migration or war have been seen as important factors for the disease emergence. This is caused by economic conditions that encourage the mass employees from the rural areas to the urban areas. The U.N have estimated that with the increase migration of people, the infectious diseases are widely spread all over the world. For example, HIV/ AIDs is an infectious disease that has spread due to the migration of people from some places to other places. HIV/AIDs and rural urbanization are intertwined in that urbanization allows HIV to be spread among the people living in such urbanized areas (Mandell et.al 2007, p.90). Furthermore, the disease may be spread from the rural areas to the main cities. In the city, the newly introduced infectious disease may have an opportunity spread as the city may be densely populated. The rate of contact among the people in towns is high, and this facilitates the spread of the disease.

Another infectious disease is malaria which is caused by the mosquito bite. It has been established that when mosquito bites and already malaria-infected a person and goes to bite a healthy person, such a person who eventually contract malaria. The infection of malaria is considered to be high where the population is dense (Daszak et.al 2000, p.65). When people are densely populated, in particular, they increase the chances of infection as the rate of spreading is faster. It is also is known that malaria spreads faster in the environments that are poorly maintained. Some human activities may result in stagnation of water which becomes a breeding ground for the mosquito. Such areas may expose individuals to dangerous situations and the mosquito multiply fast, and mosquito bites become prolific.

Tuberculosis is another infectious disease that has been witnessed in many societies all over the world. Even though the disease has been there since immemorial, there is a new strain of tuberculosis which are incurable (Bailey 2005, p.78). The spread of tuberculosis is also associated with the high population. It is known that in a highly populated areas, the spread of tuberculosis is high. Highly developed nations as the United States is associated with high cases of tuberculosis. This is because the contact of the people is close and thus the disease spreads rapidly. The industrial revolution in Europe has been known to cause the spread of the tuberculosis disease in the whole region of Europe.

The use of contraceptives by human beings has also increased the spread of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). In the past, people used to take care of themselves and could easily engage in sexual activities since they feared the pregnancy cases. However, with the use of contraceptives, people now engage in sexual activities without thinking of the consequences of such activities (Patz et.al 2004, p.109). The use of intravenous injections is also another factor that is associated with the spread of sexually transmitted infections. The emergency and spread of HIV/AIDs are attributed to using of contraceptives and use of intravenous drugs such as heroine.

The changes in the environment may increase the frequency of contact with the natural host. The infection increases the chances of encountering microorganisms. The microorganisms have been associated with the changes in agricultural production of food. The food handling practices are also factors that have been associated with the new spread of infectious diseases. Diseases such as cholera are prevalent in the current world unlike in the past because of the consumption of food that are poorly handled of produced. Furthermore, some of the food such as fast moving food have been associated with the spread of cholera in the current world. When people consume food that has been poorly produced or handled, they might be exposed to infectious diseases such as cholera (Bailey 2005, p.107). The ecological changes have also been associated with the spread of new epidemic diseases. When there is an ecological change, the normal working of the human body is altered and many anthropologic diseases may take advantage. The ecological change provides new opportunities for the emergence of pathogens, and this will gain the access to the human population. They may then be in a position to create new infections. The infections may then spread in the population and will eventually affect many people globally.

The new environments that may be caused by ecological changes may harbor new environments for the development and spread of new diseases. For example, the Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is an infectious disease that happens to spread widely in the United States in the year 1992. It was reported as a medical emerging infections in October of the year 1992 in the United States of America. Its first appearance was made in the Southwest of the United States before it spread to other regions. Richard Preston, the scientist through his research, reported that the diseases were a "revenge of the rainforest (Bailey 2005, p.127). According to him, people had continuously destroyed the environment such that God sent the disease to revenge the activities that human being engaged in to destroy the environment. The diseases were discussed in the National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID) after its outbreak for the specialists to come up with the best ways of addressing the disease. It was also reported that people who were infected by Hantavirus developed the distress, and when they were in contact with other people they would also contract the disease. Many of the cases were hospitalized and some of them died while others survived. When the victims were tested to know the cause and the spread of the diseases, it was discovered that the diseases are caused by poor environmental conditions and it, was spread through rodent's species.

There has also been the H5N1 avian flu in humans which has been another pandemic in the human population. The H5N1 is associated with the movement of birds which known as the migratory fowl and also the domestic poultry. The outbreak of H5N1 has been witnessed in the Europe, Asia, and Africa continents. The human activities such as occupational have been associated with the spread of the H5N1 avian influenza, and this has increased the fatal rate in these continents (Pickering 2003, p.56). It is however known that even though the disease is infectious, its transmission from human-to-human is low and apparently quite limited. The diseases however spread faster from birds to people and with the continuous development of the disease it will be able to spread faster among the human being. It is known that those people who mostly consume poultry birds have the likelihood to contract the H5N1 and may therefore spread among other human beings in the world. The spread of the disease is also associated with the migration of human being from one place to another. The global business of poultry birds has been associated with the spread of H5N1 disease.

Conclusively the emergence of new infectious diseases is associated with human activities. The modern have become prone to new infections diseases because of the changes in the environment where they live, and th...