The Yellow Book
Welcome to “A Closer Look”, my name is Joseph Christiansen, I am an undergraduate at the University of Florida studying chemistry and medical geography. My hope is to receive a Master of Public Health degree and work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an epidemiologist. I am primarily interested in emerging infectious diseases, and the mechanics behind an epidemic. While most people understand the way disease outbreaks occur, they tend to assume that these are rare or even impossible events in Western countries.
It might be hard to imagine, but it isn’t that difficult for infectious diseases to spread in the close quarters of modern American cities. On average, people touch their faces five times a minute, and we rarely think about it. In between touching our faces, we touch door handles, phones, stair rails, and bathroom stalls. Without even being aware of it, we invite germs into the seven openings on our face at an alarming pace. We spend hours every day packed into crowded spaces. As a college student, I get exposed to thousands of other students’ germ clouds on a daily basis by taking the bus and sitting in classrooms. Just walking through a lecture hall, I inhale between 400,000 and 1.6 million germ particles on average.
All that probably sounds scary, or at least a little gross. Not to alarm you, but it should sound bad. Schools have easily the second highest rates of transmission for airborne diseases behind public transportation. At the University of Florida there is a common reference made to “UF Plague” whenever the common cold runs through the students. This plague is nothing but a mild inconvenience that lasts a few days. In the fourteenth century, the Black Plague had a strikingly similar rate of transmission.
With that in perspective imagine how a disease more serious than the common cold could rampage through a classroom. The main reason for high transmission rates is a general lack of awareness. People tend to not realize they are sick until they’ve had significant contact with other individuals. Diseases spread during their incubation periods, a clever trick they use to ensure they survive. As a community, we need to come together better in times of outbreaks and stay vigilant for symptoms in ourselves and others. If you see people around you are getting sick, then try to avoid them and wash your hands frequently.
Now you may be thinking that this is common sense and everyone would do this, but you’d be wrong. During high profile disease outbreaks, such as when Ebola spread to the United States in 2014, people tend to become aware of the danger because of general panic. Likewise, when Zika virus became a public concern in 2016 people took more precautions when traveling abroad. Even now the average person isn’t that concerned with contracting Zika out of complacency. We need to stop waiting until it gets bad or for health professionals to come and save us. We need to stay vigilant and be prepared for things to get bad. Keeping that in mind, it’s more important to no let the fear and panic get to you. Get educated with sources like the Yellow Book and the CDC website. And remember, don’t panic.
