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A Global Crisis
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Story by Amy Morris and Mary Park | Design & Photo Illustration by Krista Kok
The streets of Wuhan, China were crowded with a population of over 10 million people. Their faces were masked as they tried to shield themselves from getting sick. However, there is no escaping the virus. Flights were canceled and public transportation stopped. The city went into lockdown. On Jan. 30, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global health emergency. The virus outbreak is just one out of the many epidemics that have negatively affected millions of people throughout history. Informing the community on how these diseases are spread and eliminated is one step toward protecting society from future outbreaks.
Epidemiology, the spread of diseases, at its root means “what befalls a population,” according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). This form of study is how public health officials across Washington State monitored the spread of the coronavirus on society.
According to the CDC, epidemiologists examine the five Ws of an epidemic: who, what, where, when and why. All of these provide key information on how the epidemic is spreading. The five Ws of an epidemic are what people typically hear through breaking news reports when a new virus or disease is located. The media’s focus on the number of deaths or those infected is often either alarming or confusing to the general public, especially if one of the Ws is unknown.
In addition, with social media often publishing information that you might not know is true, it can be difficult to tell what is real about an epidemic and what is fabricated. Amie Wojtyna, a former CDC employee and a Public Health professor who teaches a course on Epidemiology, says, “You can make statistics say anything, but it doesn’t mean that it’s valuable or accurate information.” She adds that it’s important to analyze where the statistics you see in the media come from and the CDC is an accessible and accurate source for information on epidemics.
Protocol While your first thought during an epidemic might be to panic, you shouldn’t. There are protocols that will be put into place to help contain the spread of a virus. According to Kasey Knutson, the special programs coordinator of the Kittitas County Public Health Department (KCPHD), the department needs to follow a certain protocol when there is an epidemic.
If the department is notified of an individual who has a possible but unconfirmed case of a disease, they would work with that individual, says
Knutson. Most people would voluntarily quarantine or isolate themselves and then an investigation would take place, according to Knutson.
The investigation would consist of finding out where that person’s been, who they may have come in contact with and checking on their condition.
This is a similar process to the voluntary isolation of the student at CWU who was suspected to carry the coronavirus, as noted in a press release from CWU President, James Gaudino, on Jan. 31. Sometimes, like in the case of the novel coronavirus epidemic, the KCPHD are the ones who send testing, says Knutson. There are certain staff who are required to have specific shipping and handling training. According to Wojtyna, once the samples taken from the patient get to the CDC lab, it takes about three days for results to come out. After the virus sample is sent to the lab, the only thing left for the patient is to be involuntarily quarantined so that if the test is positive, they haven’t potentially infected anyone else.
Even before someone tests positive, KCPHD would already know who the infected person was in close contact with. The next step would be continuing to check in with those people who were potentially exposed or considered close contacts, according to Knutson.
Then, if there are people who may have been exposed but wouldn’t be considered in a close exposure range, they will do some self-monitoring, which means providing KCPHD with their temperature twice a day and then notifying the department if they feel sick. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, health behaviors are the actions people take to maintain their health and prevent or minimize illness. “We can’t force people to get vaccines … but we can support broader policies,” Hoxmeier says. “For [an] infectious disease, it is really challenging because it can start to approach on people’s individual rights.” Wojtyna says that part of the Public Health Department’s job is to spread accurate information on health topics to students. “The hardest thing is to change people’s health behaviors and their beliefs. If we could, there’d be no public health,” she says.
Each person has their own reason for making a health decision, but Wojtyna adds that everyone should do their due diligence to research and not perpetuate wrong information. In regard to viruses, she has two suggestions for protecting yourself and others from most diseases which includes washing your hands and not touching things that aren’t yours.
While it only takes a couple of easy steps to help prevent the spread of a virus, it still remains a big problem. A lot of people underestimate how easily diseases can spread and how important personal hygiene is.
The next time you think about going to class or work sick, sharing your drink with a friend or not washing your hands before you eat, think twice. Your life could depend on it. “While your first thought during an epidemic might be to panic, you shouldn’t.”
People’s Health Behaviors When it comes to diseases, one factor that contributes to how fast they spread is people’s health practices. Associate Professor of Public Health Jill Hoxmeier says one of the ways to prevent or contain virus outbreaks is to educate people on their health behaviors and how to stay safe.
