Zika Virus Prevention and Conrol

The Zika virus is a very serious problem and is now on global emergency according to the World Health Organization on the New York Times. The Zika virus is linked to cases of women having children with microcephaly. These children have very small heads and do not have fully developed brains. The global health agency is trying to strike a balance between alerting the public and scaring it. The symptoms are very mild and sometimes nonexistent so some people might not even know that they are carrying it. Action needs to be taken because if more countries get infected like Haiti for example a country with little public health infrastructure and no mosquito control could be in real big trouble. The WHO is taking this more serious than before because they were criticized for being late on saying that ebola was an emergency in 2014. Right now for prevention for the disease according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention there is not a vaccine to prevent the disease and the only way to prevent it is mosquito bites. If you are overseas and are sleeping then bring a mosquito bed net to protect yourself against the bites. Use insect repellent and try to wear long sleeve shirts so there is more clothing protecting your skin.

This is an interesting picture that tells you what you can do to protect yourself and what the symptoms are if you think you may be infected. If you do think you may have it then get a blood test right away.

In this picture there is a baby that has microcephaly and it is really sad to see this happening to these innocent children. There are conspiracy theories that a chemical used to try to control the growth of mosquitos by targeting their larvae in water may have a connection in what is happening. If that is the cause of the problem then who is liable for this happening?

The polluter-pays principle

For starters polluter pays principle is a commonly accepted practice that those who produce pollution should bear the costs of managing it to prevent damage to human health or the environment. This definition is from theguardian.com and its their definition. An example of something like this would be you going to the apple store and buying a new iPhone and instead of taking the packaging home you could unbox it there and Apple will be responsible for the disposal of it. If you wanted to give your phone back to Apple when you are done using it they will have to take it back in and properly dispose of it. This is great because some people just throw their old technology out and it can go in the landfill or be incinerated which is releases toxic chemicals into the environment which can pollute the water and the air. According to scientificamerican.com U.S. residential and businesses will scrap about 133,000 PCs daily. It is harder to recycle and refurbish them because it is so cheap for people to buy a newer one. A program call Plug-In encourages manufacturers and retailers to take back used electronics so that customers do not simply throw them in the weekly trash. Apple, Dell, Hewlett-Packard Sony all take back their products at no charge. In this next picture is one that I liked because it really disturbed me as weird as that sounds.

This pictures shows an asian man going through a mountain of technology and this stuff will never decompose and will be there for thousands of years. Should companies be blamed for this or should the consumers be blamed? I think that is is not the companies fault for this but they should be doing more to make their products not end up in landfills with more incentive.

Here at Ohio University students do their share to try to properly recycle old televisions that will have most likely ended up in a landfill or shipped overseas for parts in other countries. 

How do we recognize stress?

You can see stress in a person in many different ways. According to HelpGuide.org there are four categories that the body will show if you have chronic stress. The first category is cognitive symptoms and these can lead to memory/concentration problems, poor judgement, anxiety and seeing only the negative.The second category is emotional and this includes moodiness, irritability or short temper, agitation, inability to relax, feeling overwhelmed, and just being unhappy. The third category is physical symptoms is aches and pains, Nausea, and chest pain. The last category is behavior and you will have change in appetite/sleep, procrastinating, using alcohol/drugs, or just doing bad habits such as nail biting. Cortisol is the stress hormone that goes into your body and in nature it is released in tense situations. Humans with real jobs can get in stressful situations more than in the wild with jobs, traffic, relationships and financial situations. From the video we watched in class on Thursday we learned that people who were exposed to chronic stress their wholes live have a larger chance of having heart problems and high blood pressure and their DNA strands were literally unravelling.

When I think of chronic stress I think of how president Obama aged very rapidly when in office because it is a very stressful environment. 

There are ways to reduce stress and one of the best ways to reduce stress is to exercise because it gets your mind of your worries and gets out any anger or frustration you have.

Another way of reducing stress is talking to a close friend or relative. Stress thirives off lonliness and isolation so talking to somebody that you care about is calming. 

A third way of reducing stress is setting a relaxation time which can be reading, meditation or anything else that is calming to you.

 This picture is Ohio University's recreation facility Ping and this is a great place to exercise and reduce stress.