Good Example Of Essay On Epidemiological Events– Sars

Epidemiology in Health and Nursing

The term epidemiology is used to define medical studies which identify and interpret diseases and medical conditions that are inflicted on, or visited upon human populations due to specific physical and demographic conditions . The term is used exclusively to distinguish between diseases that are visited upon a population from those which reside upon a population . Whenever epidemiology is discussed, it needs to be kept in mind that information and statistics need to be collected from a population which is affected by a disease or medical condition which is not endemic to the population or region. Also, epidemiology refers to population-based medical researches which focus on the rapid spread of a contagious disease among the population. Over the years, there have been many epidemics around the globe and it is of great importance that information is gathered from reputable sources of global health care such as WHO and others, which are dedicated to the cause of upholding health and safety of the human population.
In accordance to the objective of this study, the key source of one recent epidemic – SARS have been selected to be the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) which is highlighted in the section to follow.

Declaration of SARS Virus as a Select Agent

SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome had acquired an epidemic magnitude in 2003 which had affected more than two dozen countries in the two Americas, Asia and Europe . Precisely, the cause for the disease is a coronavirus called SARS-associated coronavirus or SARS-CoV. The worldwide outbreak reportedly claimed more than 700 lives worldwide, even though the numbers of deaths are perceived to be much higher. Even though the discovery of coronaviruses had taken place in 1960s, the outbreak of SARS helped the healthcare industry identify that some strains such as SARS-CoV can infect both humans and animals – birds, monkeys, camels, bats and feline and canines. The significant aspect that needs to be highlighted is that a global healthcare effort was successful in arresting the spread and growth of SARS, as post 2004; there have been no reports of SARS outbreaks so far. This is a significant factor to be kept in mind as in the year 2012 in October, SARS was declared as a select agent by National Select Agent Registry program.

References

CDC. (2013, April 16). Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Retrieved March 01, 2015, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/sars/
Ogino, S., King, E.E., Beck, A.H., Sherman, M.E., Milner, D.A. and Giovannucci, E. (2012). Interdisciplinary education to integrate pathology and epidemiology: Towards molecular and population-level health science. American Journal of Epidemiology, 176, 659-667.
Porta, M. (2014). A dictionary of epidemiology (6th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.