Transcript Conference Presentation – ENGL 102

Out of Africa: How Localized
Infections Might Become Global
Epidemics
By Chris Rota
Introduction: Our Crossroads
• The 20th Century was the “golden age of medicine” in several
respects
 Introduction of antibiotics and vaccines worldwide
 Rise of an integrated global medical system
 Eradication of many deadly diseases from the developed world and
gradual improvement in the quality of life for the average global citizen
• The 21st Century has begun to show signs of reversing such
progress for both the developed and developing world
 Emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and parasites
 Continued inability of the global medical system to provide proper care to
the developing world
 Increasing occurrences of disease crossover from the developing to the
developed world
The African Dilemma
• Remains one of the world’s poorest regions
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Limits access to healthcare for the average citizen
Limits ability to conduct medical research on local diseases
Limits access to Western medical technology
Limits education on proper medical techniques and drug
usage
• Increasingly opening up to the developed
world
 Valuable deposits of mineral resources are drawing in
large corporations
 Population movement has increased with advent of fast
and affordable air travel
 African farmers are exporting their produce to a
worldwide market instead of a local one, linking the rural
countryside closer and closer to the urban centers
Bottom Line: Disease spread within Africa, and
beyond its borders, is very likely to increase in the
near future
Topics of Discussion
Antibiotics
Climate Change
Globalization
Antibiotics: Solution or Problem?
• Antibiotics have been a crucial tool for modern medicine
 Attack bacterial function and often produce immediate improvement in
patients
 Many of the simplest antibiotics, such as penicillin, can be mass-produced
and made easily available even to the poorest segments of the global
population
 Considered a cheap and effective means of disease suppression on large
scales until recent years
• Abuse of antibiotic compounds over many years have caused resistant
bacteria to become more abundant
 Continued use causes death of all bacteria individuals except those with a
mutation conferring resistance, which then go on to proliferate and create
a worse problem than the original one
 Usually occurs as a result of a poorly executed antibiotics regiment which
fails to eradicate the population at first usage and then allows the
remaining bacteria to recover due to disuse
The Culture of Antibiotics
• Netherlands researchers found that ,within
certain African nations, antibiotic
compounds “[are] often being perceived
as…capable of curing almost any
disease…even reach[ing] magic
proportions” (Haak 2)
 Leads to pressure on medical professionals
and venders to supply them
 Frequently used in situations where
antibiotics have no effect (ex. headaches)
 Clinics often misdiagnose patients based
on outdated or inaccurate examination
techniques, leading to further excessive
use
• Result is the emergence of bacteria
resistant to many of the frontline
medications available to the population
When The Pills Don’t Work
• Once the basic forms of antibiotics are exhausted, more
powerful and expensive ones must be used in order to repress
the bacterial infections in a patient
 Extensive laboratory resources and scientific
knowledge needed to develop such compounds are
unavailable to the majority of the African region
 New experimental compounds being produced in the
developed world are expensive and difficult to
acquire for the individuals who need them, often
leading to patient fatality and further spread of the
disease due to inaction
Topics of Discussion
Antibiotics
Climate Change
Globalization
Direct Impacts of Climate Change
• Gradual warming of the Earth’s surface as a result of excessive
global fossil fuel consumption will worsen existing disease
conditions if allowed to run rampant
 Increased temperature will cause winters to become milder, allowing
bacteria and parasite larvae to have a better chance of survival
 Also will increase the metabolic rate and transmission rate of diseasebearing microorganisms
Indirect Impact of Climate Change
• Climate change will also affect the behavior of their
host organisms, which would lead to an expansion in the
areas inhabited by both them and their disease-bearing
cohabitants and exposure to increased numbers of
human hosts
Topics of Discussion
Antibiotics
Climate Change
Globalization
Globalization: A Window to the World
• Transmission of diseases between the developed and developing world
has become increasingly frequent
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SARS
Avian Flu
Swine Flu
XDR Tuberculosis in South Africa
• Close interactions between rural
Africans and disease-carrying organisms
such as mosquitoes and wild dogs not
only increases the likelihood of not only
receiving common human diseases but also
receiving a crossover disease, which can be far more deadly
Legacy of Globalization in Africa
• Exploitative relationships between the developed world and African
nations over the last several hundred years have resulted in a large
outward flow of resources and comparatively little inflow of technology
and other advances
 Medical infrastructure is chronically underfunded and working with
outdated technology, and therefore unlikely to be able to cope with an
increased future disease threat should one arise
 Increased presence of disease would decrease productivity, causing a
proportional decrease in both economic stability and the capacity for
economic development
 This series of events would result in a further underfunding of the medical
infrastructure and weakening of support to some the globe’s most
exposed citizens
Putting the “Us” in Conclusion: How the
New Era of Disease Will Affect Us All
• For Africa, and for the rest of the world, the threat of
resurgent disease is one which could prove to be closer than
previously imagined
 Resistant diseases have been proven a challenge for the medical systems
of highly developed nations such as the U.S, and could prove even more
so if such diseases run rampant in Africa and then spread abroad
 Global climate change could result in an intensification of current disease
problems in the low latitude regions, and the arrival of new problems for
neighboring regions with the polar movement of tropical species
 As the world grows more interconnected, the chances of a localized
disease turning into a global pandemic will only get higher