Chapter 4 was basically a continuation of chapter 3. It was agreed that this chapter was a lot easier to follow as it did not have as many vocabulary words as the previous chapter. Diseases were broken down first into two groups, communicable and non-communicable. Communicable diseases are transmitted from and infected host while non-communicable diseases cannot be transmitted. Examples are AIDs and then heart disease. It is extremely important to control the spread of communicable diseases by washing your hands and taking caution when coming in direct contact with others. Non-communicable diseases are only able to be prevented by keeping yourself as healthy as possible, though it is possible to attain these through hereditary history. Touching, kissing, sexual intercourse, and any other form of direct contact is a form of direct transmission. Indirect transmission includes airborne (breathing in germs through the air), vehicleborne (touching soiled towels, or coming in contact with any contaminated object, such as a counter top), and finally, vector borne transmission is through a living organism, such as a fly or mosquito. Priorities must be made so that the appropriate amount of funds can be made available. The order of priority is decided through the number of people who die from the disease, the number of potential years of life lost due to the disease, and also the cost and need for finances for the disease. The top 3 leading causes of death for Americans are heart disease, cancer, and stroke. Communities, along with individuals, need to start with prevention at a younger age. It is important to teach younger children about prevention, bad habits start at a young age!
Sumer was intrigued by how many risks for disease are all around us. The way disease transmission was broken down and explained, made it easier to understand just how we get infected with them. She was especially interested in diseases caused by food additives. This made her think of all the additives that are in the foods she eats and would like to know more about this topic. Jenny thought that we needed to make more time in our everyday lives to stay healthy and excersize, even though it is very hard to put those things into a busy schedule. It is very important to keep ourselves healthy. She thinks we need to utilize the opportunites such as using the gym equipment more, and of course there is more that should be done to allow more healthy activites.
Very interesting points about all the additives in the food we eat, food that we don't think twice about eating. I also agree that this chapter was much easier to follow than the previous chapter, nice summary and reflection, it is always good to relate it to something everybody has in common such as food.
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