September 7, 2014
Thoughts and Ruminations
Article: U.N. Struggles to Stem Haiti Cholera Epidemic
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/world/americas/un-struggles-to-stem-haiti-cholera-epidemic.html?_r=1
Chapoteau Haiti was in desperate need of funds from the United Nations in order to fund clinics to treat the cholera epidemic, but the United Nations failed to raise even $5 million of the $2 billion promised, so clinics ran out of even the most basic of treatment supplies and many were forced to shut down. Then 8,562 died from a disease which should be easily treatable.
Readings:
The Tipping Point Chapter One By Malcolm Gladwell
"Chapter One: An Introduction to Human Geography" of Human Geography
"How do Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point and chapter one of Human Geography relate?"
In both
Malcolm Gladwell's best seller "The Tipping Point" and chapter 1 of
"Human Geography People, Places and Culture" the authors discuss epidemics
using the examples of the spread of diseases and fashion trends through cultural
diffusion. Gladwell starts his
chapter by using the example of the contagious spread of hush puppy shoes in
1994. The hush puppy epidemic probably all started with a few hipsters wearing the outdated shoes
with no intention of promoting them.
Through line of sight and word of mouth the popularity of a shoe which had been
near extinction continued to rise. As more and more people started catching on
throughout the area, it continued to gain public attention until it had
snowballed into a national phenomena.
The text book refers to this process
of the spread of an epidemic through connected individuals as contagious
diffusion. Although it uses the example of silly bands instead of hush
puppies, the principle discussed is still the same. The brightly colored
silicon bands may not be all that exciting for the average adult, but the
product spread like wildfire among school children. One day only a few children
would be adorned with the silly bands on their wrists and the following day the
whole class would have them. Much like the spread of hush puppies, the wearers
of the silly bands were not deliberately trying to promote the product, but
nonetheless its popularity spread like a highly contagious cold. In addition to the hush puppy epidemic that swept the nation in the 90's, Gladwell examined the spread of several sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, HIV and Aids and how they were mapped with the use of medical geography. Each time a new patient is admitted to a public clinic in Baltimore for treatment of syphilis or gonorrhea, their address is subsequently entered into a database which maps all the cases in the city with a black star. This use of medical geography to create disease maps helps geographers understand more about how the epidemic spreads and its patterns, which is the first step towards finding a cause and a cure. In "Human Geography People, Places and Culture" it discusses how this same technique was also used to map the spread of Cholera which swept the Soho district of London in the 1850's. Eventually through the use of the map created, scientists were able to determine that the epidemic was being spread through the water pumps and were able to advise people to boil their water, nearly halting the spread of the disease altogether.
The two authors insights brought several important concepts to the table. The first being the ease through which an epidemic can disseminate and the fact that it only takes one individual to be the catalyst for the rapid spread of an epidemic. Secondly the ways geography helps to stop epidemics and lastly both authors illustrated that whether it be shoes, silly bands or STDs, geography is essential for understanding what propels the spread of epidemics.
This is a map of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in which epidemic, such as cholera easily entered the countries through people coming to help with disaster relief after the earthquakes and then spread gontagiously due to poor health care.
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