Topic of Interest: Cholera--The Painted Veil, Haiti, and Cuba

For my topic of interest, I chose to study Cholera more deeply. Cholera is the topic that I used for my brochure. I choose this topic not only because I wanted to learn more about it, but because it was brought to my attention in a movie that I recently watched called The Painted Veil. The movie was based on a book from the 1920s, and has a great deal about Cholera in it as it shows an infectious disease doctor who tries to fight a Cholera outbreak in Shanghai. 

I learned that Cholera is an intestinal infection brought on by eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water. Most are contaminated by feces of someone with the bacteria that causes Cholera (Vibrio cholerae). Some infected person do not show symptoms at all, and others show severe symptoms such as profuse diarrhea which can lead to extreme dehydration. In most cases, if treated in time, Cholera can be treated with rehydration and replenishing of salts. There are between 3-5 million cases per year of Cholera and 100,000-120,000 deaths from Cholera each year.

Since 2010 Haiti has had an ongoing outbreak of Cholera. Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, has reported over 140,000 Cholera cases since the beginning of the outbreak. The CDC recommends than anyone traveling to Haiti get a prescription from their doctor in case they get diarrhea on their trip. In addition 170 cases have been reported in Cuba for a current outbreak of Cholera. 

I was surprised to hear of the extreme outbreaks in Haiti and the growing outbreaks in Cuba. I have always known about Cholera, but I have never put much though into it because it is not heard of much in the U.S. It definitely makes me grateful for the advances that we have in sanitation and water preservation. I hope that we can use this knowledge to help other countries avoid Cholera outbreaks.      

Rachel Carson--Silent Spring

Rachel Carson is a prominent figure within environmental health. Her book Silent Spring was published in 1962, just two years before her death, and helped lead to public opposition and the ban of DDT as well as changes in laws concerning pesticide and chemical use. Carson exposed the results of human and environmental exposure to DDT and pesticides and helped to make our environment a safer place to live today.    

 Image from: http://www.rachelcarson.org/

Maps

Chloropleth Map:

 

 

 A Chloropleth map is a "thematic" map. The map uses colors, shades, patterns...to illustrate statistical measurements. It is a good visualization of variation across a geographic field. This Chloropleth map from the CDC uses shades of blue to illustrate obesity--the darkest blue being the highest prevalence.

Dot Density Map:

 

A Dot Density  map uses a symbol, generally a dot, to illustrate the distribution of some phenomena. Here the Dot Density map shows the total number of West Nile Virus cases in the U.S. from 1999-2008. The density of the dots allows us to understand the magnitude of the virus. 

Proportional Symbol Map:  

A Proportional Symbol map uses different sized symbols to represent data. Here the size of the cows increase as the number of cows increase---I know this map seems random, but cows are CUTE! and who doesn't love a good glass of milk?!? :) 

Topographic Map:

 

A Topographic Map is very detailed using contour lines. This is a map of Chattanooga.

Environmental Sensitivity Index Map: 

 

An ESI map is used to illustrate coastal shoreline sensitivity, for example, to be used in showing oil vulnerability. This map is of part of the Point Reyes National Seashore.