The Yellow Fever Epidemic.

In the last unit in the disease class called World, we learned about how diseases can cause an epidemic. For this Action Project, we had to map and graph the path of an epidemic caused by a disease that we picked. I picked Yellow Fever, the reasoning for picking that disease is because I wanted to learn more about it. I have heard about it before but didn't know a lot of information. What I enjoyed most about this Action Project was finding information about my disease. What I found most challenging is graphing information on Gapminder. Overall I enjoyed doing this project, and I also really liked this term.

Yellow Fever. wwnc.cdc.gov. 2008.

Yellow Fever originated in Africa and was likely brought to America on ships during slave trade. The number of Yellow Fever cases has increased during that time because of the rising population cause dense living and not the right sanitation. The climate was also changing causing a rise of mosquitoes.

Yellow fever is caused by the Yellow Fever virus YFV, also called Flavivirus. The virus is transmitted by female mosquitoes, who pick it up from monkeys or humans, then delivers it to a new human when they bite and suck blood. The disease cannot be spread from person to person. Yellow fever epidemic of 1793 started during the summer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The disease was brought by refugees and mosquitoes on ships from Saint-Domingue. The disease rapidly spread to Prot City. About 5000 people died, ten percent of the population of 50,000.

Gapminder. Created by JV. 2015.

Above is a graph that shows a drought and epidemic deaths that occurred in the 1990's in Kenya. This epidemic that is shown may have been Yellow Fever. I picked Kenya because that was one part of Africa that was infected with Yellow fever. Two risk factors for this graph is drought, farms in that area lost crops because of low water continent. That will cause people not getting the right nutrition and weaking their immune system to fight off disease. That will cause an epidemic to spread because if you are weak and than get sick with an illness, you can fight it off. 

In 1853, the disease killed 7,849 residents of New Orleans. The press and the medical team did not alert citizens of the outbreak until the middle of July, after more than one thousand people had already died. The New Orleans business community feared that an epidemic would cause a quarantine to be placed on the city, and their trade would suffer. The steamboats carried passengers and the disease from New Orleans to other cities along the Mississippi River. Norfolk, Virginia 1855. A ship carrying passengers infected with the virus arrived in Hampton Roads in southeastern in June 1855. The disease spread quickly through the community, eventually killing over 3,000 people, mostly residents of Norfolk and Portsmouth.

The symptoms to Yellow Fever is affecting the kidney and liver causing high fever and jaundice. This disease is not curable, but is preventable with the Yellow Fever vaccine. The first vaccine was made in the 1930s and that controlled most of the outbreak. The vaccine coverage reach 60% to 80% of a population at risk.

The R0 for Yellow Fever is 4.1 so for every 1 person 4 people get infected. Vaccination is the only way to prevent the disease. If this disease would happen to break out again, I would say to quarantine people who may be infection because that would stop the spread of the disease. I would also recommend the vaccine because that brought down the infection rate.


Citations:

Gapminder. www.gapminder.org. N.P.N.D. Web 15 March, 2015. 

The importance of climate to global distribution of dengue and yellow fever.climate-services.org. Michael A Johnson. N.D. Web 15 March, 2015.

Yellow Fever.healthline.com. Colleen Story. 2012. Web. 15 March, 2015.

Yellow Fever Epidemic in New Orleans 1853.lafayettecemetery.org. N.P. N.D. 15 March, 2015.

History of Yellow Fever.historyofvaccines.org. N.P. N.D. 18 March, 2015.

The Original?

During the first unit in the Humanities Food For Thought class I learned how and why humans gathered food; how they domesticated food; how food has changed over time; and how humans and food depend on each other. I learned that we are “walking corn.” I say that because we depend on corn so much. Corn is one of the first and most important foods that we domesticated because literally almost everything is made up of corn. This Action Project was to pick a vegetable or fruit and write an autobiography in first person. I pretended that I was cilantro. I also had to find a way to connect cilantro to my family’s food culture. I chose cilantro because it is mainly used in Mexican dishes and my family uses it a lot. What I learned about my family’s food history is that we mainly like Hispanic dishes because I am Mexican and Puerto Rican. Look at my family food tree that I created down below!

Created by JV "Family Food Tree" 2014*

Think of me as a leader of all spices, I am an original. My name? Well I am Cilantro, also known as Coriander, but that was a long time ago and I have changed since then. I have been used for over 7000 years, and I am one of the oldest spices recorded in history. I am from Southwestern Asia and I have been used by Egyptians and many other cultures. But Egyptians were the first ones to notice me. They used me as food in the afterlife for the departed which was alright, I guess. When the Israelites were freed from Egypt they spread me basically all over the world and changed my life. I was in the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and Southern Europe. It was pretty amazing to be used in other countries and for different reasons. I wasn’t only used for the afterlife, which by the way sucked because I saw dead people and had to feed them - yuck! I was also used for medical reasons and as a culinary herb. People loved eating me raw, baked, and made into paste - you name it. I am also good for health reasons and I help body odor.

My flavor is fresh with hints of citrus, and believe me, I am strong! My specialty? Being used in Mexican food! My favorite dish to be mixed into is guacamole, which is also my family’s favorite. I know they only eat guacamole on special occasions, because I’m always made for holidays and I overheard them talking about how special I am. I love being made into a paste to spread over baked chicken. I am put into tacos for favor,and I am used in green juices, which are some of my owner’s favorites. I love to grow during the spring when it is 70 to 80 degrees. This weather is perfect for me and I enjoy the intense sunshine. I like to get my tan on.

In the United States, I am grown in California and Florida then, I get shipped to local grocery stores. Once I’m there, people will buy me like crazy and put me in many different kinds of dishes and I love it. I’m not only used on one side of the world anymore but everywhere. I would like to thank my creators, the Egyptians and Israelites, for discovering me and changing me. If I was never discovered I would have died off and wouldn’t be where I am today. Mexican food would basically be nothing without me. I give so much life and favor to so many dishes. People also wouldn’t be as healthy without me and let’s face it, they would smell really bad. My life has been full of flavor and I am so thankful to be a part of this world.

Sources:

“Brief History of Israel and the Jewish people”. science.co.il. 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

“Cilantro”. College of Agricultural Sciences. 2014. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

“Herb Profiles: Cilantro/ Chinese Parsley/Coriander.” herbinfosite. N.D. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

“Kitchen Dictionary: Cilantro.” food.com. N.D. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.