Infectious Disease Projection Report

Over the past half century, many in the U.S. have come to think that the threats posed by infectious diseases are a thing of the past. Advances in the development and use of vaccines to prevent childhood illnesses and in drugs to treat disease and improved sanitation have eased the burden of infectious diseases. Epidemics caused by plague, cholera, and influenza have largely been brought under control, and smallpox has been eradicated. However, over the past decade, we have been forcefully reminded that the threat posed by infectious diseases to the security and well-being of the global community, developing and developed countries alike, is very real. We have witnessed the reemergence of diseases previously thought to be largely under control, such as malaria and tuberculosis, and the emergence of newly identified infectious diseases as well as drug-resistant strains of widespread infectious diseases.

The root causes of this public health threat include environmental changes due to urbanization and deforestation, rapid population growth, migrations of populations due to conflict and political transition, and the adaptation of the microbes themselves in response to pressures we have put on them with modern antibiotics. Moreover, recurring outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria and measles in areas where they had been controlled signal the fragility and breakdown of public health infrastructures that are already strained and weak in many countries. These problems are amplified in many places by malnutrition, lack of clean water, inadequate sanitation, and overcrowding.
There is generalized consensus today that major infectious diseases have become one of the top global security issues. You are a public health advisor with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). You have been tasked with providing a detailed research report to Congress on an infectious disease that you have found that poses the most significant threat to global security in the twenty-first century.

Instructions:

Use a minimum of five different, credible sources cited in APA format to compose a 10-12-page research report (including a title page, a body, a reference page, and in-text citations) that addresses each of the following questions and topics below. You are preparing this research report to be presented to Congress. Please be cognitive of your language and tone.

1. Conduct detailed research through a literature review on an infectious disease that you determine to be a threat to global security; use credible sources.

2. Describe how and why the infectious disease you discover to be a viable threat is considered the greatest threat to global security in the twenty-first century. Produce an in-depth assessment of the securitization process of this infectious disease. Ensure that you support your assessment with credible academic sources.

3. Analyze the geographic locations and populations in the world that would be impacted the most by this global threat. Keep in mind potential ethnic or identity-based issues. Discuss why these geographical areas are most at risk and examine any potential ethnic or identity-based issues.

4. Compare how other global threat components (environment, energy, economic, crime, etc.) will be impacted by this infectious disease if there were to be an outbreak in one of the geographic locations you identified and analyzed above. Be sure to address each global threat component both individually and in relation to the geographic area and explain how each global threat component could be altered or impacted by this infectious disease.