Raising Awareness about Tuberculosis – World TB Day, 24 March 2012 Pt. 2

Why We Should Care About TB Many people in the West have never thought about tuberculosis as a risk to their health.  Tuberculosis is often considered to be a disease of the past.  In 2011 in Canada the incidence of any form of tuberculosis was only 5 per 100,000, according to the World Health Organization [...]

Raising Awareness about Tuberculosis – World TB Day, 24 March 2012 Pt. 1

What is TB? Tuberculosis is caused by an infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, rod-shaped bacteria that are spread mostly through air-born droplets or dust micro-particles of dried sputum.  Once inhaled, the body’s immune system typically reacts by engulfing the bacteria, forming a tubercle that contains the bacteria to help keep it from spreading.  In most cases, [...]

History of Health Care: Quarantine and Isolation

Before the nineteenth century, quarantine and isolation had been practiced in an effort to protect the community from contagious diseases such as plague and smallpox in the absence of specific treatment. Such diseases were considered contagious even though the cause and method of transmission were not known. Two important developments occurred during the last half [...]

History of Health Care: Vaccination

Why will Jane and John Jones born in 2010 and 2011 respectively live four score years or longer? Vaccination as a deliberate attempt to protect humans against disease has a short history. In spite of this, vaccination has had a major effect on the reduction of mortality and length of life Since the time of [...]

A Brief History of Isolation and Infectious Disease

Contagious disease has challenged society throughout human history. Quarantine and isolation was practiced in response to the pandemics of bubonic plague and cholera, beginning in the Middle Ages. In the 18th and 19th centuries, smallpox led to smallpox hospitals in some large urban communities. At the same time, citizens lived with the fear of outbreaks [...]