Ghost maps: epidemiology can be exciting!

Reading about epidemiology again, and as always I’m reminded how COMPLEX the whole thing is – tracking disease, assessing risk, sorting out treatment, and maintaining public calm when a new and ‘deadly’ virus looms over the horizon. John Snow I like! Sounds an interesting chap, resisting pressure to conform with current beliefs about ‘miasma’, and insisting that something else was spreading cholera though London 140 years ago. His ‘ghost map’ revolutionised epidemiology (see picture on the right). Go, John! I’m biased though, as he was born in the same English town as I…

Of course, current fears over swine ‘flu illustrate how information can be so powerful in shaping public perceptions of disease. Is swine ‘flu REALLY that bad? This report confirms that, though serious of course for those who are infected, in reality the virus is only impacting on specific groups. No generalised epidemic is emerging, and like other viruses (HIV is one example), fears of generic risk are often overstated.

So – back to reading for this week’s lectures. Being a student studying for another degree is challenging, but I’m continuing to learn a great deal not only about global health (what I’m studying here in Dublin), but also how the world for students today, though different in many ways to the 1970s (the decade of my first studying experience), also has striking similarities. Carpe Diem, my friends! And don’t catch a virus