If the response is quick and effective, the disease can be contained.
In the case of infectious disease,
we should do the same, perhaps with even more urgency and more hope. Potential epidemics are sensitive to human response. If the response is quick and effective, the disease can be contained. If the response is lacking, the result may be an actual epidemic, with rates of transmission and spread that are exponential. Infectious diseases have been ma-
jor actors in the course of human history. Words like plague, smallpox, consumption, and pestilence strike a deep fear inside us. We like to think of those diseases as something of the past. We feel protected by modern sanitation, vaccines, and antibiotics. But inside us that fear remains. There are a few things we can do with that fear. We can suppress it and hope for the best. We can be its victim and jump from crisis to crisis, devel- oping ad hoc responses and finding scapegoats when the responses fall short. Or we can put the fear to good use and think constructively and with foresight about how to manage future threats. Q
DAVID LAKEY, MD, is associate vice chan-
cellor for population health and chief medical oficer for The University of Texas System. He served as commissioner of the Texas Depart- ment of State Health Services during 2007–15.
12 TEXAS MEDICINE February 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68