Life As We Knew It Essay

The USACE is a vast branch of the army made up of over 37,000 personnel both civilian and military. with the mission to "Deliver vital public and military engineering services; partnering in peace and war to strengthen our Nation's security, energize the economy and reduce risks from disasters." The corps’ most notable areas of work include; designing and building dams and other flood control measures throughout the United States, building military facilities, and environmental regulation and ecosystem restoration. These missions run contrary to many people’s perception of what an engineering agency would participate in. Typically, when one thinks engineer they tend to think of designing mechanical marvels

You will be surprised when you find out how much medicine has changed over the years. In the 16th century medicine was viewed differently than medicine today. There were several areas in which medicine has changed since Shakespeare’s time. Some of the areas that have changed are in the areas of prevention, treatment, and illnesses.

“In the late 1800 and early 1900's, infectious diseases were the most serious threat to health and well being.” Until the late 1900’s the leading cause of death was communicable diseases. As doctors gain more knowledge about medicine the death rate of those disease has substantially decreased. The three main illnesses of the 1800’s-1900’s were scarlet fever, tuberculosis, and chicken pox, yet a positive outcome from these horrendous sicknesses were antibiotics, remedies, and vaccines.

In Philadelphia in 1793, a disease that filled the whole town with terror broke out and struck the world, yellow fever. The disease spread rapidly and killed an estimated 2,000-5,000 people. Long ago, the best doctors in America lived in Philadelphia during this epidemic disease. They studied yellow fever as best as they could with their prior knowledge from previous diseases. The American doctors couldn’t find the right cure so that was when the French doctors came to America and helped treat the fever. The fever got spread due to infected mosquitoes. Refugees came to America and brought the disease.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” (Darwin). When pondering about the question if survival is selfish or not it comes with varied reactions and answers. Some may say “survival of the fittest (metaphor),” but is that really true? Not necessarily, it takes common sense, and how you react to determine how the situation will end. In survival situations, people act out in different ways depending on how one grew up. Faced with threatening situations so may act out in the “fight or flight” mode and others may instantly freeze and tense up and don 't know how to comprehend what is going on. Survival is not selfish because it is considered a natural instinct, imperative to one 's life, and it helps to go on to and save peoples lives.

The major diseases that affected the people in this assigned population and time period are small pox, measles, malaria, influenza, typhus and numerous of other diseases that killed thousands of people often in tandem. Nonetheless, with the foreigner’s arrival the course of history change; to begin with, the aching bones, high fever, burning chest, abdominal pain, consumption, and the headaches all erupted as signs, symptoms, and threats to mortality (Anderson, 2007, p. 148).

Many people do not realize how fortunate they are to have the medical advances and medical technology we easily have the right to use. People from many years ago did not have specialized doctors and medicine to cure their diseases that we easily have access to today. (Ramsey) Many civilizations used what they thought to be alleviating processes, but medical experts today know now were pointless and dangerous. Among these people were the Elizabethans. (Chamberline) The Elizabethan Era was a time of accusations. People believed certain procedures were curing people when in fact they were killing them. (Ramsey) They also blamed mysterious acts they could not explain on innocent people, creating a handful of superstitions we know and use today. Unexplainable events and hazardous medical customs sparked the era of the Elizabethan Age. (Elizabethan Superstitions)

There actually was a yellow fever outbreak that hit Philadelphia in 1793. It was one of the worst epidemics in US history. In almost three months it killed nearly 10% of the city’s population, which is around 5,000 people. Many had fled the city even Congressman as mentioned in the book, along with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Since medicine wasn’t very developed at the time many doctors did drain blood from patients, trying to get rid of the “pestilence”. Most doctors had left, and the ones who couldn’t find one, used sponges. They would plunge the sponges in vinegar and stick them up their nose, some even drank it. Most did just like Mattie, washed their hair and clothes in vinegar, they were very desperate to get rid of it. Dr. Benjamin Rush is an

The central idea of Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone is that the outbreaks of many deadly hot agents are due to the oversight of humans. Preston conveys his message through detailed descriptions of simple mistakes that characters make. One instance of human oversight that he wrote about was the usage of dirty needles in the hospitals of Sudan, leading to a massive outbreak of Ebola Sudan. The virus “hit the hospital like a bomb” and “transformed the hospital at Maridi into a morgue” all because “the medical staff had been giving patients injections with dirty needles” (74). Due to the blunder of the hospital staff, Ebola Sudan was spread much quicker and killed much more than it would’ve if they had used sterile needles. The outbreak was severely

Dr. Oscar Reiss’s, M.D., Medicine and the American Revolution is a complete history of revolutionary medical practices, medical leadership, and common diseases that plagued the army. Additionally, Reiss included medical evaluations on the leaders of each side, to give the reader further insight into the medical side of war. With nine times as many people dying from disease than from fighting, medicine played a key role in the American Revolution Reiss, a World War II veteran, is familiar with the tactical side of warfare. However, in his writing, Reiss examines war from a physician’s perspective, looking at how diseases and medicine impacted the war.

When it comes to science and medical evolution, how far is too far? Are there some things that are just meant to be unknown? In Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, we are shown a dystopian future where incredible science advancements have been made. Although research such as the pigoons could be lifesaving, it is clear the research is being done for the wrong reasons. In Jimmy's world, scientists see the desperate need of organs and cures and take advantage of this to make more money. As many are aware, with more diseases and illnesses comes the many people who will pay good money to live. Scientists today are constantly searching for the next medical breakthrough. It would not be surprising if there were many scientists conducting studies similar to those seen in the novel.However if we as humans are not careful of our evolution, the world seen in oryx and crake could threaten to become our future.There are many parallels between our world and Jimmy’s world, including the

The book Five Days at Memorial, written by Sheri Fink illustrates the catastrophic impact of hurricane Katrina and its unprepared poor choices made by doctors who injected patients that ended their life, and the petrify stories of individuals that took place in New Orleans in August of 2005. After a couple of months in 2005 Memorial Center was under investigation for an estimate of two thousand patients that were in danger and other patients who died because of the horrific storm that struck that night. New Orleans, had to make the hardest decision in who in the hospital gets to evacuate first after the generators and the power failed.

The Civil War was a tragic war between the Union and the Confederate. Many soldiers died from both sides. There were many reasons why the war was being fought such as the succession of the south and the emancipation of slavery. The war began as soon as the Confederates had bombed Fort Sumter. During the war medicine was not as advanced as it is today. Only a few drugs were available that actually helped. The doctors did not know how to cure soldiers. With no medicine that actually helped cure the soldiers, many died from terrible diseases. Due to the fact that medicine was not advanced during the Civil War, doctors could not cure soldiers, causing many to die from diseases.

Everyday people struggle with an illness. Imagine being in an unsanitary environment in the Elizabethan era not getting the help from doctors that people get today. In the Elizabethan era the people didn’t have the right medicines to be able to cure their illnesses. In today people have way better medicines and doctors to be able to help cure illnesses. The plague was a disease that spread throughout Europe. The plague was similar to diseases today because it was not curable similar to Aids. Aids started to spread Africa when the people ate chimpanzee just like how the people in England would eat infected food. The bubonic plague was important to the English culture because this disease affected many people in England.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston is a terrifying true story about events circling the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Reston, Virginia in the late 1980s. The novel also covers additional virus outbreaks that later connect to the outbreak of Ebola Reston. One New Year’s morning, French emigrant Charles Monet explores the Kitum Cave with his friend in Kenya. Seven days later, Monet begins hemorrhaging. In the following days, becomes clear that he has contracted Marburg virus. The Sudan strain of the Ebola virus contaminates storekeeper YU G. and his district. Ebola Zaire hops to each village as a result of dirty, used needles and infects nurse Mayinga N. at Ngaliema Hospital. Four years after Monet’s death, we are introduced to Colonel Nancy Jaax, a veterinarian and scientist in the U.S. army. Nancy specializes in Biosafety LEvel 4 hot