Your textbook defines epidemiology as "the science that studies when and where diseases occur and how
they are transmitted." According to the CDC public health is the branch of medicine concerned with preventing disease and improving health outcomes for communities.
However, to be a good public health care practitioner requires more than "book knowledge" about the
epidemiology of disease. A good example of this can be seen in the response to the Ebola outbreak in
West Africa during the years of 2013 through 2016.
Students will be assigned one (1) of three (3) different articles to read. Each of the three articles presents
a problem for people trying to manage a public health crisis that arose the spread of an infectious agent (the Ebola virus).
Read your assigned article and answer the following questions:
What cultural or social perspectives do health care providers need to take into account in order to treat
patients? Please note that your answer should not be about how to 'treat' a patient - it needs to focus on
what you need to know to ensure a good health outcome for patients. Use specific examples from the reading(s) to back up your points
Although diseases like Ebola can be scary, widespread transmission of disease depends on systemic and
often interdependent problems. What sort of natural, social, cultural, economic and political forces are
driving this problem? Use specific examples from the reading(s) to back up your points
How did the actions of individual Americans (such as yourself) and the media make the Ebola crisis
worse?
What sort of social and ethical problems arose from the crisis? Use specific examples from the reading(s)
to back up your points that is the link for the article
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C7_879Yge1hbFW1WM784XFh6qIMGyJIrM42CUZK4lqs/edit?
usp=sharing
Sample Solution