The Re-emergence of Disease - Term Paper Example

It is a very difficult task to track down these new drug-resistant strains of diseases and there is yet to be agreement on how best to deal with this situation. Bettelheim (1999), states that these new strains, after tests were done, were shown to have acquired genetic traits which enabled them to evade most of the conventional lines of pharmaceutical attack, and if left unchecked, they could severely limit the ability of doctors to control dangerous infections. Furthermore, these drug-resistant strains would make even the simplest operations into potentially life-threatening situations. There has been news of outbreaks of infectious diseases not only in the United States but also all over the world.

According to Krause (1992) diseases that were once thought to have been eradicated, such as polio, are slowly reemerging and very little can be done to stop them because they are drug resistant. There are increasing cases of new infections by such strains every day and these contagions have been making powerful impressions all across the world many states have chosen to give them special attention to develop new ways of eradicating them. Cherry (2010) declares that in the United States, there have been cases of whooping cough especially in California in 2010 where over nine thousand cases were reported with several infant deaths.

Kim (2007) states that the most common symptoms of whooping cough are having a runny nose, sneezing, low-grade fever, and a mild occasional cough which is similar to the one experienced when having a common cold. Later there develop numerous bursts of coughing accompanied by a long effort to breathe in. between episodes, the person infected may appear to be in normal condition, but in infants, they appear to be very ill. There have been cases where immunization programs have been interrupted due to the belief that the fight against various infectious diseases has been won and this has enabled the reemergence of these diseases that have resisted the drugs available (Caladrillo, 2005).

Furthermore, the resistance against such diseases has been greatly reduced because of the lack of resistance in human beings. There are several reasons why the diseases which were once thought to have been eradicated or controlled are reemerging. Email (2008), states that one of these is the fact that some disease-causing bacteria have acquired genes that enable them to resist the drugs which are administered to eradicate them. Another reason is that there is an abundant use of antibiotics and this has enabled the bacteria to develop resistance to drugs.

Lastly, the use of antibiotics in livestock to encourage their growth has enabled bacteria that were previously confined to animals to get transmitted to human beings and these have transferred their genes to human bacteria enabling them to survive. Examples of these drug-resistant diseases that are reemerging are tuberculosis and poliomyelitis. According to Wang (2012), there have been cases of doctors refusing to give any medical care to children who have not been immunized because their parents were concerned that vaccines cause autism and other medical problems.