FINAL RESEARCH PAPER

Final Research paper

Abstract

This paper will be discussing the disease triangle: pathogens, the environment and society. It will be using the Greek Triangle technique in order to solve conceptually the environmental problem that exists. The primary means to define any disease is by naming a pathogen or agent that negatively affects the health of the host organism. Another assumed, but often overlooked, determinant of disease is the environment, which includes deleterious physical and social effects on mankind. The disease triangle is a conceptual model that shows the interactions between the environment, the host and an infectious (or abiotic) agent. This model can be used to predict epidemiological outcomes in plant health and public health, both in local and global communities. Here, the Irish potato famine of the mid-nineteenth century is used as an example to show how the disease triangle, originally devised to interpret plant disease outcomes, can be applied to public health. In parallel, malaria is used to discuss the role of the environment in disease transmission and control. In both examples, the disease triangle is used as a tool to discuss parameters that influence socioeconomic outcomes as a result of host-pathogen interactions involving plants and humans.

Table of Contents

Abstract2

Introduction4

Review of Literature6

The Disease Triangle6

Late blight disease of potato7

Discussion7

The disease triangle and monoculture7

The Disease Triangle and Social Impact9

Malaria and the disease triangle10

Conclusion12

Final Research paper

Introduction

With a global human population approaching 6.5 billion, 800 million people who are chronically hungry or starving and an estimated 2 billion who lack clean water or electricity, it is imperative that we develop better strategies to control and contain disease. Although the role of the environment has long been considered a determinant (or cause) of diseases in plants and man, it has been undervalued at times in the history of medicine, particularly after germ theory became dogma. This was particularly true in the early to mid-twentieth century when the dominant notion was that conquering disease was a job for science, perhaps best recognized by the commercial development and global distribution of antibiotics and vaccines. Although there has been some moderation of this viewpoint, laboratory research increasingly focuses on host-pathogen interactions while generally failing to consider the role of the environment in disease outcome.

This is unfortunate, as plant, animal and human health outcomes are affected by local and global environmental conditions. These conditions might include economic or ecological factors, changes in host populations, trade and travel, technology and changes in microorganism populations. Several human diseases, such as HIV, tuberculosis, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, plague, cholera, influenza and malaria are clearly influenced by one or more of these environmental conditions.

Further environmental factors that influence disease outcome include famines, war, the use of biological weapons, and natural or man-made cataclysms such as hurricanes, deforestation, drought, air and water pollution; each of these factors demands flexible approaches to preventing disease and improving the social matrix.

Over the past decade Paul Farmer introduced and elaborated the concept of structural violence, in which an individual's health is influenced by a ...