Many of us do not think or deny the possibly of major change with the way that we live. Infectious diseases are going to change how we live, work, and play within the coming years. How?
This is one article in a series of editorial comments about infectious and what can or will occur. How these diseases will challenge the way that you think, believe and live your life.
Examples of these issues:
1) If you have children and they attend school-what would be your reaction if you knew or thought you knew, a child was attending the same school as your own, who was infected with some infectious disease. Would you want your child to be in the same classroom, or school as this child? Would you want your son or daughter to play with the child?
Then again, what would you do if that were your child?
2) In your work environment, what if one of your co-workers was diagnosed with an infectious disease. Would you continue to work with him/her? Or would you want to management to remove this threat from this work area?
Then again, what would you do, if the infected person were you?
3) Many religious sects believe that these diseases are a message from God-either as some type of punishment or some type of trial.
How would you respond?
4) Everyone and every governmental organization around the world wants to know how many of their citizens are infected. This fact will help governments understand and prepare for the future. But what if the actions of the government are to placate its non-infected citizens by enforcing laws that punish those who are infected. The people who are infected will just learn how to hide from the authorities better. If citizens condemn those who are infected, why should those who are infected seek help or assistance from those who denounce them?
5) Marriage is based upon commitment. What if your partner became infected-(sexual relations are not the only method of transmission of many of these diseases-medical procedures, work related accidents, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time-TB), how would you respond. Remember, that it is easy to explain or rationalize from the ideal world. But what are you going to do, when body fluids have been exchanged, or when you have to cleanup the dishes, wash the clothes, breathe the same air? (99% of all relationships in this situation end in divorce.)
This is just an introduction to the problem of infectious diseases. The real problem with this issue is that unless the problem is addressed as a major concern, nothing will be done to change the future outcome. A problem must first be shown to be a problem become any type of solution can be used. A report from the Central Intelligence Agency addressed this concern several years ago; governments know of this problem and yet do nothing. You can access this report here http://heart-intl.net/HEART/072404/GlobalInfectiousDiseaseThreat&Its.pdf
Thank you
James Hoyt
www.heart-intl.net
A review of this web site from The Global Health:
Hepatitis & AIDS Research Trust
http://www.globalhealth.org/sources/view.php3?id=1036
The contents of this site are a data reserve of research reports, governmental reports and business reports on the various issues of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis (primarily Hepatitis C). There are no opinions offer by the owners (except on home page)-the wealth of information presented here is the corner stone of this site: from the Financial Issues (Economic concerns)-how AIDS and Hepatitis are changing the social and economic fabric of society; Stigma-the first obstacle of any newly emergent disease, to providing math models that can be used to predict the course and costs of infectious diseases. Each sub-folder contains 100's of reports. The information provided here is the most up-to-date source of information about these diseases and the implications that they are having on all of us, now and in the future. Many only investigate the medical costs of these diseases, but there is a far greater cost to society that these diseases create. A simple example of this is: When a person becomes ill from any disease, the financial resources of that family unit are diverted towards the healthcare cost for that person. As this individual becomes sicker-more resources are diverted to the care of that person. Productivity for the stricken individual also declines. Less money is being spent on so called luxuries (extra clothing, non-essential goods and services), and as more money is consumed for medical necessities, less is spent on non-essential items. As more people become ill, there is less revenue generated for taxes, which means the government either has to increase taxes overall or decrease the services it provides, as fewer people buy consumer products-this impacts the factory worker because people are not buying this product. Adam's Smith Economic Theory in reverse.
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