5 January 2015
16 December 2014
Infectious Diseases Disorders caused by organisms, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, are know as infectious diseases. A lot of these different organisms live in and on our bodies. Under certain conditions, some organisms may cause disease, but they’re normally harmless or even helpful. Some infectious diseases can be passed from person to person. Some are transmitted by bites from insects or animals. Others are acquired by ingesting contaminated food or water or being exposed to organisms in the environment. Today, biomedical engineers, politicians, historians and social scientists are leading the battle in an attempt to understand and combat infectious diseases. There are many short-term and long-term goals of the current Presidential administration with regards to infectious diseases. One short-term goal would be to restrict air travel due to the Ebola outbreak. Some Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, want to restrict air travel from West Africa, the outbreak’s epicenter, or to bolster the U.S. borders (Douglas, 2014). In doing so, this will give the CDC (Center for Disease Control) and U.S. time to deal with this epidemic. Another short-term goal would be resources. The President is working to ensure that “all of the needed resources of the federal government are being deployed to deal with this specific situation” (Hudson, 2014). This will ensure that the U.S. is ready if someone else gets infected. A long-term goal for infectious diseases would be to retrain doctors and health care professionals. “We're going to need to make sure that our doctors and our health care professionals here in the United States are properly trained and informed and that they are coordinated if and when an Ebola case crops up here in the United States” (Somanader, 2014). This plan will ensure that doctors and health professionals will be ready in case of another outbreak. Another long-term effect would be to add some form of religion to patients. “But we want to make sure that we understand that they are doing God’s work over there” (Somanader, 2014). Many government actions have played a role in developing the policy of infectious diseases. One of these actions includes Executive Order—Revised List of Quarantinable Communicable Diseases. This order includes: “Severe acute respiratory syndromes, which are diseases that are associated with fever and signs and symptoms of pneumonia or other respiratory illness, are capable of being transmitted from person to person, and that either are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic, or, upon infection, are highly likely to cause mortality or serious morbidity if not properly controlled. This subsection does not apply to influenza" (Obama, 2014). Another action was President Obama’s response to Ebola. …” we have to keep leading the global response, because the best way to stop this disease, the best way to keep Americans safe, is to stop it at its source — in West Africa" (whitehouse.gov, 2014). As a result of the President’s response, there was a shooting that occurred in Canada. No one knows what the shooter’s motive was, but many believe it had to do with the Ebola outbreak. When it comes to opinions, Republicans’ and Democrats’ are split. Republican Reince Priebus says, “It was the president that actually has been telling the CDC get this to work on bike paths and get some of the walkways under control” (Priebus, 2014). Priebus is basically blaming President Obama for not doing enough for this outbreak. However Democrats’ views are slightly different. . Colorado’s Democratic Sen. Mark Udall says Gardner, his Republican challenger, tried to cut $770 million from the CDC budget, which would have impeded the agency’s response to Ebola.
Overall, the government has been