Cultural Anthropology

How Would a Pandemic Change Our (American ) Culture

A pandemic is an outbreak of an HYPERLINK " infectious disease that spreads across a large area such as a continent or throughout the world This occurs when there is an emergence of a disease previously absent in a population and causes serious or lethal illness through efficient human-to-human transfer . Black Death or the bubonic plague is one of the historic pandemics in human history . It wreaked havoc during the 1300 's in Europe , killing at least 20 million Europeans in six years During 1510

, the Influenza pandemic swept from Africa towards Europe followed by the Asiatic , Spanish , Asian , Hong Kong Flu centuries later (Potter , 2001

Several human pathogenic bacteria and viruses have the capacity to become pandemics with the aid of efficient vectors or carriers and mutations or changes in their genetic makeup . Coupled with this possibility is the tendency of bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance , which makes them virtually unstoppable like in the case of Staphylococcus aureus . Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV ) which causes autoimmune deficiency syndrome (AIDS , SARS which causes atypical pneumonia and H5N1 which causes the Avian flu are just some of the viruses that have the ability to spread over large populations and are feared to cause pandemics (USA Today , 2006

The sole key towards surviving and mitigating the effects of a pandemic to a country like the United States is preparedness . Preparedness entails the establishment of contingency plans during pandemics such as Influenza and this involves the cooperation at the international national , community and family levels . The World Health Organization (WHO ) recommends interventions in the international level through screening and quarantine of commuters from affected areas to prevent introduction to previously unaffected countries . In the national and community levels , WHO recommends isolation of patients and quarantine of person who made contact with them and social distancing such as closing of public institutions and postponing of public events . In the family level , practices of hand-washing and good respiratory hygiene are highly recommended . Stricken individuals should remain at home . Unnecessary social gatherings should be avoided . The use of mask is also encouraged depending on the proximity to affected groups or individual (WHO Writing Group , 2006

Aside from the above measures , researchers also found that participation with public health interventions for only even half of the population , the number of individuals that may be infected during the early year of a flu pandemic could be drastically reduced through domestic quarantine , isolation of diseased members outside the home and specific use of anti-viral medicine . In light of trans-b vectors and threat of terrorism-caused pandemics vigilance and pre-emptive practices should be observed . Vigilance involves reporting suspicious activities regarding terrorist activities . Culling of diseased poultry and isolation of visited areas of migratory birds are pre-emptive measures against invasion of flue entering via infected animals (Earls Hearne , 2007

The recommended practices above such as travel screening and quarantine , restriction of gatherings , closing of schools and offices isolation of family and community members , vigilance for related...