Question

9. Go to the CDC website. What is a current outbreak in the US (something other than measles). List what the outbreak is, how many people have been infected, and how many people have died from it.

10. How does the CDC learn this information?

11. Lastly, discuss your feelings on quarantining exposed people (sick or well) during times of epidemics.

Answer 1

9.The measles virus is one of the most infectious diseases known to humans.For anyone born before 1960, there’s a good chance they suffered through a measles infection. They may have lived to tell about it, but they probably had friends who didn’t. In the US, before a vaccine was introduced in 1963, there were 4 million measles cases with 48,000 hospitalizations and 500 deaths in the US every year. Measles was also a leading killer of children globally.. And by 2000, because of widespread vaccination, the virus was declared eliminated in the US: Enough people were immunized that outbreaks were uncommon, and deaths from measles were scarcely heard of.Already in 2019, health officials reported the highest number of measles cases since 1994, with more than 700 people infected.

In New York, the current outbreaks also originated with travelers who had recently visited Israel, where a massive measles epidemic is currently underway. The travelers returned to the US and spread it among unvaccinated or under-vaccinated communities in New York state.

In the Washington outbreak, “patient zero” was also visiting from outside the country, carrying a strain of the virus that’s circulating in Eastern Europe, and came into contact with unvaccinated children in Clark County. Those children then visited public places including health care facilities, schools, and churches, as well as Ikea and Dollar Tree spreading measles to others.

They’ve both happened in communities with high rates of people who opted out of vaccines on behalf of their children, making them more susceptible to entirely preventable diseases. And in both states, the outbreaks centered on tight-knit, traditional communities

These communities have become an urgent focus of health departments across the country, said Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before New York and Washington, it was vaccine-refusing Amish in Ohio and Somali Americans in Minnesota.

According to CDC data, 88 percent of all recent measles cases have happened in tight-knit communities, which Messonier defines as people of a similar background who share values and beliefs and interact often.

10.As the nation's health protection agency, CDC saves lives and protects people from health threats. To accomplish the mission, CDC conducts critical science and provides health information that protects our nation against expensive and dangerous health threats, and responds when these arise.

11.quarantine and isolation can be justified, and indeed morally mandatory, when the expected benefit to others and to society, in terms of infectious disease prevention or limitation, outweighs the expected costs, including the moral costs of coercion and compulsion, and satisfies three further constraints. and depends on people sufering or well.