Can diseases ever be fully eradicated? 11.5

Question 1

What is salicin?

Answer 1

Bark of white willow and other willow species

Question 2

What is salicin used for?

Answer 2

Acts like aspirin, used for pain relied, gout etc

Question 3

What is Quinine?

Answer 3

Dried bark of cinchonas evergreen tree

Question 4

What is Quinine used for?

Answer 4

Malaria, kills malarial parasites in red blood cells

Question 5

What is caffeine?

Answer 5

Tea, coffee, coca . Used as a stimulant for central nervous system
Also used for migraines

Question 6

What is morphine

Answer 6

Dried latex from seed pods of several species of opium poppy

Question 7

What is morphine used for?

Answer 7

Pain reliever

Question 8

Where is the supply of medicinal plants?

Answer 8

Mainly sources from wild populations. However rosy periwinkle is cultivated commercially as it foxglove, they are two of only a few.
Majority of pharmaceutical drugs are made from synthesised products

Question 9

Where is the supply of medicines for traditional medicine?

Answer 9

Harvested from wild plants. 80% of the developing rely on traditonally medicines

Question 10

How likely is the survival of wild medicinal plant species?

Answer 10

Increasingly, the sourcing of medicinal plants for traditional Chinese medicine and other markets is unsustainable. Over-harvesting is widespread.
It reduces plant populations and their genetic diversity.
Currently at least 4000 medicinal plants are threatened.

Question 11

How can habitat destruction affect medicinal plants?

Answer 11

Tropical rainforests contain 70% of terrestrial plant species and yet no more than 1% have been screened for potential medicinal use.
Deforestation rates averaging 325km^2/day many species have become extinct before we have the chance to investigate them

Question 12

How is there biopiracy in the rainforest?

Answer 12

Pharmaceutical companies have exploited rainforest ecosystems and have proved highly profitable but benefits to indigenous rainforest people have been negligible

Question 13

Give an example of how pharmaceutical companies can help conserve ecosytems

Answer 13

In Samoa, a powerful new drug for treating HIV was found in the Samoan rainforest. Part of revenues from the sale of drug are returned to Samoa as compensation for protecting the rainforest and to assist economic development in the forest communities.

Question 14

What diseases is WHO currently looking to eradicate on a global scale?

Answer 14

Polio and Guinea worm

Question 15

How did the WHO eliminate polio?

Answer 15

1988 vaccination programme eliminated the disease in the Americas and by 2011 the polio virus was endemic in just three countries

Question 16

What were the challenges with eradicating polio?

Answer 16

Political instability and violence against health care workers has interrupted vaccination programmes

Question 17

What is an example of a national eradication programme?

Answer 17

Malaria in Mauritius. Eradicated by spraying buildings and breeding sites of mosquitos. Eradicated by 1973.
Cyclone Gervase reintroduced it and there was a malaria epidemic in 1982. Currently they are trying to eradicate it again, there had been one reported case since 1997

Question 18

What is an example of a grass-roots strategy used for disease eradication?

Answer 18

Guinea worm in Ghana. Teaches volunteers how it is transmitted and how transmission can be prevented. The volunteers then visit villages and educate local communities.

Question 19

How has the role of women been important in guinea worm eradication?

Answer 19

It is mainly women who are responsible for sourcing water and its use for household consumption.
Their responsibilities included monitoring, ensuring those affected did not contaminate water sources, distributing checking and replacing water filters and identifying water sources used by the community and treating it with larvicides

Question 20

How successful has the grass-roots strategy of eradicating guinea worm been in Ghana?

Answer 20

2010 the country reported its last indigenous case