Epidemiology in the News

Running head : EPIDEMIOLOGY

H1N1 : Epidemiology on the News

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Unlike the other fields of medicine which deals primarily with illnesses , epidemiology is a branch of medicine that deals with how illnesses spread and affect a given population , and formulate effective measures in to prevent or stop them . Recently , we have been aware on the news of the occurrence of an extreme case of influenza , called H1N1 . One such news article , along with the principles of epidemiology is hereby discussed

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Healthcare officials advised the vaccination of about half of the U .S population , with priority to healthcare professionals , young adults , and pregnant women . 160 million vaccines are expected to be available by October , but in the event of a shortage , the ones on the said three groups of the population would be vaccinated first . Young people ages 19-24 and infants are at a huge risk in exposure to the flu and most young adults can usually be found in places that may contribute to the worsening of the epidemic . The recommendation also included health care professionals , and pregnant women , who are four times as vulnerable to the said infection . It was estimated that the combined size of the high risk groups to be 41 million

The government is setting up a huge campaign for mass vaccination in mid-October . Each person is advised to be vaccinated twice . However there is not enough vaccine available , since vaccinating the entire population would require 600 million doses . At...