New Epidemic Scare May Have Rapid Spread
https://afro.who.int/news/climate-change-increases-risk-outbreaks-africa
Epidemics have had a devastating presence the history of the world. Diseases like Smallpox, Malaria, Cholera, Polio, and AIDS have spread through countries rapidly causing harm to many and killing even more. These outbreaks have happened all across the globe; however, it is most often that we hear about epidemics on the African continent. Today, there is fear of another epidemic in Africa. In an article from the World Health Organization, they discussed the rising fears of the return of the Yellow Fever due to climate change and the increase in mosquito population. The fear of this spread is related to the ideas that we have covered in class regarding the cause and spread of epidemics.
Disease spread work in a network like system. The nodes would be the people, and the edges would be the ties between people closely connected or that one may come in contact with. The disease would then spread on some edges, not on all but it can be traced back through the edges of the network to see where the disease came from – this would usually be difficult because if a disease causes an epidemic, lots and lots of people have fallen ill. In the case of the new Yellow Fever scare, the nodes would be people and mosquitos – for the mosquitos are the ones that are carrying the disease. There are also environmental situations that play factor to how much the disease spreads. This is mostly associated with treatment for the diseases. In the Republic of the Congo, some of the major cities make most of the population for the entire country, which means they are densely populated. This means the spread of the disease in those areas could be much faster. As well, the medical resource availability and funding of the country may be limited which might also aid in the spread of the epidemic. People who can afford to be vaccinated have been already, however, the country is having a public health crisis which hints that most people will not be vaccinated and can lead to the creation of a large network epidemic.