ANTHROP 1AA3 Lecture 2: Ebola
27 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Ebola
• First cases –1976, cases were probably before then, no record.
• Emerging diseases
• Fever and internal/external hemorrhaging
• No treatment or vaccine until 2015
• 50-90% mortality
• Marked by bleeding disorders, high fevers that lead to shocks and death.
• People spread out – low density – hard to spread
• Local funeral traditions, not a lot of trust of authorities, when they recommend
no contact, people goes against them.
Biological and Social landscape of Ebola
o Fruit bats – primary suspect of being natural reservoir of this disease. A bug
may infect them. Linked to eating other bush meat connected to this.
Hantavirus
• New ’virus appeared in US southwest in 1993
• Causes ‘Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome
• 50% mortality
• Carried by mice
• Shortness of breath, build up of fluid in lung
• People come into contact with infected rodent, their urines and become
infected
Mad Cow Disease
• Progressive and fatal nervous system disorder
• Caused by a prion, a mis-folded protein
• Transmitted from person to person
• Spongy degeneration of brain
• Sporadic CJD –1:1,000,000 ~85% of cases, consuming infected meats
• Familial CJD –gene mutation 5 -15% of cases – gene mutation, produces this
mis-folded proteins
• Iatrogenic CJD – surgery <5% of cases – surgical intervention, any nervous
tissue, growth hormone injected, donor is infected, etc.
Anthrax
• Caused by a bacterium
• Potentially fatal (20% cutaneous; 75% inhalation)
• Associated with bioterrorism
• Skin infection – direct contact with animals or those bacteria’s
Dengue Fever
• Known for ~200 years
• Tropical/subtropical disease
• High fever; seizures; potentially deadly
• ½ world’s population at risk
• mosquito born virus
• flu like infection
• popular among children
Death and Dying
• Corpses are burned or buried, with or without animal or human sacrifices;
they are preserved by smoking, embalming, or pickling; they are eaten – raw,
cooked, or rotten; they are ritually exposed as carrion or simply abandoned;
or they are dismembered and treated in a variety of these ways. Funerals are
the occasion for avoiding people or holding parties, for fighting or having
sexual orgies, for weeping or laughing, in a thousand different combinations -
Metcalf & Huntington
Culture and Death
• Attitudes towards death are culturally constructed
• Influenced by beliefs about life, death, and the hereafter
• Not an innate thing, not passed on genetically, passed on by culture
• Dying event – public or private?
• Ways of dying – abortion, murder, etc.
What happens to us after death?
Meanings Given to Death
• Death is an enfeebled form of life. The dead person gradually enters
underground world, transition from living to dead. Ghosts, spirits, restless
death. Very common theme seen in ancient life.
• Death is a continuation of life, idea that life goes on as usual, in another form.
Ancient Egyptian – good things carry on for life time, preserving organs, so
you can enjoy everything after life, bring along servant statues so you can
relax.
• Death is perpetual development – birth in a newer mode of existence, based
on personal development. Heaven only option, positive only, no hell.
• Death is waiting, Christians believe in a moment of judgment.
• Death is cycling and recycling – Buddhism, reincarnation, working your way
through karma, improving, sometimes just an endless cycle, death being a
temporary situation.
• Death is nothing – common in atheistic world, absence of process
• Death is virtual -
How do we define death?
• Traditional medical view – lack of respiration, pulse and heartbeat
• Failure to respond to stimuli
• Lowered body temperature and stiffness
Taphophobia
• Fear of being buried alive
• You may recover, hope is there
• Taphophobia led to inventions – give people a few days to recover, allows
families to visit
• Safety coffin – ringing bell from coffin if you alive
• Not a large scale concern today
• Modern medicine has allowed people to stay alive even though brain is dead
• Question is not when to bury someone, but when someone is dead enough
when you can keep bodies alive?
The Harvard Criteria for Death
Document Summary
Biological and social landscape of ebola: fruit bats primary suspect of being natural reservoir of this disease. Linked to eating other bush meat connected to this. Hantavirus: new "virus appeared in us southwest in 1993, causes hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, 50% mortality, carried by mice, shortness of breath, build up of fluid in lung. People come into contact with infected rodent, their urines and become infected. Iatrogenic cjd surgery <5% of cases surgical intervention, any nervous tissue, growth hormone injected, donor is infected, etc. Anthrax: caused by a bacterium, potentially fatal (20% cutaneous; 75% inhalation, associated with bioterrorism, skin infection direct contact with animals or those bacteria"s. Dengue fever: known for ~200 years, tropical/subtropical disease, high fever; seizures; potentially deadly, world"s population at risk, mosquito born virus, popular among children. Funerals are the occasion for avoiding people or holding parties, for fighting or having sexual orgies, for weeping or laughing, in a thousand different combinations -
