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Disease Cycles
The cycles of diseases have had a profound impact on human history--from
the plague to leprosy to today's continued struggles with malaria and
sleeping sickness and AIDS.
Sample some of the following activities to learn more about disease cycles.
Places To Go | People
To See | Things To Do | Teacher
Resources | Bibliography
Places To Go
The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out
about disease cycles.
Center for Disease Control
Visit the Center for Disease Control. Read the Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report from the Center for Disease Control to find out the most
current information about the cycles of disease. Look at their Morbidity
Tables to find out which states have  the highest numbers of infectious
diseases. Utah has a high rate of E.coli infection. Some states have surprisingly
high rates of rabies cases. Find out the number of people who got measles,
mumps, rubella, or whooping cough in Utah (diseases that are preventable
with vaccination!). Check out the CDC's
list of diseases and find out the natural history of each disease,
how it is spread, how it is diagnosed, its distribution, its prevention
and control, and more.
American
Lung Association
Visit the American Lung Associations and check out their lung diseases
A-Z.
The
Irish Potato Famine
Travel to Ireland
to understand how the cycle of a plant disease named Phytophthora
infestans affected that country in the 1840s. Discover how dependent
this country was on potatoes for its main food crop and how the potato
blight spread throughout the land. Over the course of the famine almost
one million people died from starvation, and another one million left
Ireland and immigrated mostly to America or to Canada .
Views
of the Famine
Primary sources are original
records created at the time historical events occurred. Read newspaper
articles from the 1840s for historical perspective on the potato famine.
The
Peloponnesian War
Visit ancient
Greece in 430 B.C. and learn how disease affected the outcome of the Peloponnesian
War. Pericles, one of the military leaders from Athens , had over 200,000
people flee from the outlying countryside and gather in Athens for protection
from the pesky Spartans. While Athens was coping with this huge influx
of people, the plague broke out and killed more than a third of the population
of all of Athens , including Pericles. The effects of the plague and the
war basically ended the Golden Age of Athens.
The
Peopling of Mexico from Origins to Revolution
Take a trip to Mexico
in the 1500s during the time of the Spanish invasion. The Europeans introduced
diseases into Mexico and Central and South America that had a devastating
impact on the native peoples. According to this site, after the Spanish
invasion, the population of Mexico decreased by 33% in 10 years and by
95% in 75 years.
People To See
Doctors
Without Borders
Talk to the health care workers at Doctors Without Borders. These doctors
form part of a medical relief agency that helps victims of armed conflict,
epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and others who lack health
care due to geographic remoteness or ethnic marginalization. Annually,
more than 2,000 volunteers representing 45 nationalities work in over
80 countries in front-line hospitals, refugee camps, disaster sites, towns,
and villages.
 American
Museum of Natural History
Meet the Bacteria in the Cafeteria at the American Museum of Natural History's
Infection Detection Protection site.
The
Bad Bug Book
Talk to a "Bad Bug" and learn about the cycle of food-born illnesses.
National
Inventors Hall of Fame
Meet Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown. They were pioneers in
creating antibiotics in the 1950s.
 Ask
the Doctor Services
Choose from this long list of online medical advisors to find out more
about the spread of infectious diseases.
The Official Mad Cow Disease Page
U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
Meet some sick cows and
learn about the cycle of this disease, how it is spread, who is at risk,
how to keep yourself safe, and the impact that Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is
having on the economy of affected countries
Sir
Edwin Chadwick
Meet Sir Edwin Chadwick. He was a
19 th century sanitary reformer. As a journalist in London , he wrote about
the appalling living conditions of the working class and the effect that
these conditions seemed to have on their health. He was instrumental in
helping to get a law passed called the UK Sanitary Act of 1866 that helped
improve water systems, waste disposal, and housing standards. As a social
reformer, he helped improve living conditions and disease cycles through
sanitary science.
Answers.Com – Louis
Pasteur
Re-acquaint yourself with Louis
Pasteur. The reason he was able to figure our pasteurized milk was because
he was an expert on germs and microorganisms. He discovered that heating
milk to high temperatures killed germs and thus made milk safer and more
accessible for longer periods of time to the general public. He also figured
out that certain diseases could be prevented through injecting people with
a weakened form of the disease in order to build immunity. So he was a
pioneer in vaccination as well as germ-free milk.
BBC:
John Snow
Get introduced
to John Snow. In the 1850s, he discovered that the disease cycle of cholera
was spread through water rather than through airborne sources.
Nova:
The Most Dangerous Woman in America
Try to avoid Typhoid Mary. She was
a carrier of the deadly disease of typhoid but was never sick herself.
Her real name was Mary Mallon, and she was considered such a threat to
public health in New York City in the early 1900s that she was quarantined
on North Brother Island in the East River for 23 years.
Ignaz
Semmelweis
Make the acquaintance
of Ignaz Semmelweis. In 1861, he observed that the patients of doctors
who performed autopsies suffered from more infections than the patients
of doctors who did not perform autopsies. From this, he concluded that
infection was spread by the contaminated hands of doctors. He recommended
that doctors always thoroughly wash their hands before examining patients.
His report was mostly discounted. Discouraged, he had a mental breakdown,
was admitted to a mental institution, and died in 1865.
Nobel
Prize: Robert Koch
Meet Robert
Koch. In 1905, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine.
He worked with the new science of bacteriology and discovered that specific
bacteria or organisms cause specific diseases. He also developed methods
of culturing bacteria for study and methods to sterilize instruments with
steam.
Nobel
Prize: Alexander Fleming
Encounter
Alexander Fleming. Find out how he felt about the fungus Penicillium
notatum.
Jonas
Salk
Meet Jonas Salk and learn
how he developed a vaccine for polio. Prior to 1955, polio was a crippling
disease to millions worldwide. Salk’s
vaccine has virtually eradicated the disease.
Things To Do
 Center
for Disease Control - Influenza Prevention and Control
Everyone gets the flu. Learn more about it. The Spanish flu of 1918-1919
caused about 500,000 deaths in the United States and 20 million deaths
worldwide. The Hong Kong flu of 1968-1969 caused about 34,000 deaths in
the United States. Influenza viruses are divided into three types, designated
A, B, and C. These viruses are constantly changing which means that people
are susceptible to getting the flu throughout their lives.
Epidemic ! The World of Infectious Disease
The microbes that cause most infectious diseases fall into three main
groups: bacteria, viruses and protists. Microbes are everywhere-in the
air you breathe, the water you drink, and the food you eat. Over 99% of
all microbes are not harmful to humans. However, humans are at an increased
risk of exposure to disease-causing microbes when ecosystems are upset
by natural phenomena such as floods and droughts, as well as human disturbances
including deforestation, introduction of agriculture, and war. Find out
more about the natural and unnatural cycles of disease.
 What
the Heck Is Penicillin
Find out how penicillin and other antibiotics prevent the cell wall of
a bacterial cell from forming and, thereby, help to inhibit the spread
of contagious disease.
Plague
Factsheet
Plague is not an eradicated disease. The United States averages about
13 cases per year. There are three forms of plague : Bubonic, Septicemic,
and Pneumonic. Plague is transmitted by fleas from infected animals to
humans, by direct contact with infected tissues or fluids, or by respiratory
droplets from cats and humans with pneumonic plague. In the U.S., the
animals most likely to become infected are rock squirrels, prairie dogs,
and other burrowing rodents.
 World
Health Organization
Check out the World Health Organization to learn about the cycles of malaria
infection and other worldwide diseases.
Antibiotics
An antibiotic (the Greek word anti which means against and the Greek word
bio which means life) is any substance produced by a microorganism which
can kill or inhibit the growth of a different microorganism. Find out
how antibiotics can help stop the cycle of disease.
 Bugs
in the News
What is E.coli? What is mad cow disease? What is a virus? What is an antibody?
Find out from this germy site.
New
York State Department of Health Communicable Disease Fact Sheets
Find out how diphtheria, ringworm, typhoid fever, leprosy, and hantavirus
are spread.
Insects,
Disease, and Military History
Discover
the relationship that diseases spread by insects have had on history. Entomologists
(scientists who study insects) have long understood the impact that insects
and disease have had on history.
MedHunters:
Death on a Grand Scale
Plagues and infectious
diseases are not ancient history. Learn about outbreaks in the 20 th century.
Tuberculosis
Learn about the disease that was called consumption for
much of its history. Tuberculosis appears in Greek literature as far back
as 450 B.C. During the 1800s in Europe , up to 25% of all deaths in Europe
were thought to be caused by tuberculosis. Although modern medicine has
found ways to treat this disease, it is still a huge health concern in
developing nations.
Rocky Mountain Spotted
Fever
Figure out how the cycles of the weather
affect the cycles of ticks which then affects the spread of Rocky Mountain
Spotted Fever.
World
Health Organization: Smallpox
Discover how smallpox
has affected humanity over the past 3000 years. This disease would sweep
across continents and kill 30% of all who were infected with it. Between
65% and 80% of survivors of smallpox were marked with deep pox marks on
their bodies and were often blinded by the disease. Learn how this disease
has been eradicated through an aggressive campaign of immunization.
Division of
Global Migration and Quarantine
Learn which diseases are quarantine-able in
today’s world. Historically,
there were three types of quarantine used as early methods of fighting
infection: isolating sick individuals, restricting freedom of movement
during epidemics, and isolating healthy people who had been exposed to
infectious disease.
1918
Spanish Flu Pandemic
Influenza
1918
Learn about what has been called
the most devastating outbreak of disease in the history of the world. The
influenza pandemic in 1918 and 1919 killed between 20 and 40 million people.
This particular strain of influenza, also known as Spanish flu, in one
year killed more than the bubonic plague or Black Death killed in all its
years. What are the chances of a new influenza strain affecting worldwide
populations? What animals are the carriers of influenza virus? How is the
virus transmitted from animals to humans?
WordReference.com
Learn a new word today. Asepsis is
the process of inhibiting the growth and multiplication of microorganisms.
It means wash your hands a lot.
Utah Department
of Health Immunization Department
Learn which immunizations you need to protect
against infectious diseases.
Teacher Resources
Lesson Plan/Webquests/
Activities
Bibliography
- Corzine, Phyllis. The Black Death. San Diego, CA : Lucent Books, c1997.
- Dehesh, Hadayat. How Not To Catch A Cold. Southfield, MI : Global
Pub., 1996.
- Demuth, Patricia. Achoo! : All About Colds. New York : Grosset &
Dunlap, c1997.
- Maynard, Christopher. Micro Monsters : Life Under the Microscope.
New York : DK Pub., 1999.
- McGowen, Tom. The Black Death. New York : F. Watts, c1995.
- Silverstein, Alvin. Common Cold and Flu. Hillside, N.J., U.S.A. :
Enslow Publishers, c1994.
- Weitzman, Elizabeth. Let's Talk About Having the Flu. New York : Rosen
Pub. Group's PowerKids Press, 1997.
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