Unit 1: Basic Concepts
9/30/16
Recently,
there has been an outbreak of coxsackievirus, or as it is most commonly known; hand-foot
and mouth disease. The first outbreak was in late August and it happened to
fifteen football players that go to Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, New Jersey. Then,
just thirteen days later there was a similar outbreak in Pequannock High School
which is just sixteen miles away. This week there has been more sudden
outbreaks at two other New Jersey high schools near each other. These high
schools are Kinnelon High and Hunterdon. There isn’t much space between the
different locations.
There is seemingly no pattern
except that the schools are close together. They are more clustered rather than
dispersed. The
symptoms of HFMD include sores inside the mouth and skin rashes on a person’s
hands and feet. It could lead to fevers and body aches. This outbreak would be
what is called contagious
diffusion. This rapid widespread of the Hand, foot, and Mouth disease is
very alarming.
Analysis:
This outbreak of the Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease is very
scary. It could essentially keep spreading throughout New Jersey and even into
nearby states. The virus could be spread through contact, or the air from
someone coughing or sneezing who’s infected. However, this outbreak is really
strange because this virus never used to spread as rapidly as it is now. It is
now spreading through locker rooms and schools which in the past it hasn’t
done. This leads me to believe that something must have happened to cause this contagious diffusion.
Something in these places must be causing this virus to spread faster than it
usually does. Human Environmental
Interaction could be studied because it looks like the environment
is encouraging its spread. This virus used to be most commonly diagnosed in
younger children rather than high school students. Younger students are messier
and are unaware of what they come in contact with which might be the reason why
this virus used to be diagnosed among them. However, now it is diffusing through
high school students and medical experts need to find out why. It is the first
time an outbreak of this magnitude has ever occurred which is why it is puzzling
many professionals. One thing that could actually help is behavioral geography.
Studying the actions of the individuals infected might provide some insight
into the cause of the spread. The concentration of the outbreaks are clustered together so
it must be something new that has happened in that area. Another option is that
a new strain of the same virus has developed that is more severe. This might be
the reason why it is so new, unheard of, and puzzling many scientists. Medical professionals
would have to figure out how and where it originated from if that is the case.
