|
The Covid-19 virus infection is a new type of respiratory disease that first broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Since then, the virus has spread throughout China and around the world, and the world is still suffering a lot of economic and social damage from it. The book's title, Pandemics refers to the pandemic of infectious diseases, which is equivalent to level six, the highest level of warning from the WHO. The WHO divided the alert level of infectious diseases from one to six levels, depending on the risk of infectious diseases. I recommend this book because it covers the history of infectious diseases, how humans cope with them, and the healthy city of Hygeia, a new concept city that allows people to survive under the situation of pandemics.
Chapter one. Virus attack, what should I know?
Chapter 1 discusses the background of the birth of the epidemic, the creation and spread of viruses following changes in the way humans live, and the infectious diseases that have threatened humanity.
Infectious diseases rarely occurred during the era of hunter-gather societies. It was not until humans settled down, around 5000 B.C., that the epidemic began. Humans have encountered various and deadly infectious diseases from the past to the present. A typical example is the plague caused by rat fleas parasitizing wild mice. Also, some diseases are caused by mutations in pathogens in animals. Examples include brucellosis disease brought by goats and anthrax disease brought by cows.
Chapter Two. Virus attack, how should we prepare?
Chapter 2 presents the globalization of health care, patient-centered treatment rather than disease-oriented, platform-oriented health care, and value-based systems of health care as a way to cope with infectious diseases.
1) Globalization of medical care
Today, mankind lives a globalized life. Because of this, epidemics can spread throughout the world, not just within a country. Therefore, producing medical treatments for diseases in a country would not immediately ease the whole human race from Covoid-19. So, with the development of new antibiotics or vaccines, comprehensive measures are needed to curb the occurrence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. That is, we need a world-class strategy beyond the regional level.
2) Patient-centered treatment rather than disease-centered treatment
The term 'patient-centered treatment' was first used in 1969 by British psychiatrist Enid Balint. She thought "disease-oriented treatment" ruled out other means necessary to understand and treat patients. And in 1977, George Engel, a British doctor, also proposed a model of bio-psychological society that considered patients, their social conditions, and the social system that responded to diseases. Patient-oriented care requires sufficient data about the patient, and a platform-based data center for that sufficient information. A typical example of the medical field using the platform is community health care.
3) Value-based system of health care
Value-based system refers to a medical system that pays medical providers, such as hospitals and doctors, based on the health results of patients. Unlike performance-based handover system by act or pharyngeal agent systems that pay for the amount of health care provided, value-based systems are based on values determined by the improvement of the patient's health outcomes. The value-based system allows patients to receive higher quality medical services efficiently and economically.
Chapter Three. Pandemics Survival Solutions, Healthy City 'Hygeia'
Chapter 3 presents the Pandemics survival solution, public health, urban reform, and Hygeia.
1) Social method for developing immunity
There is a community for the immunity of the elderly population, which comes up on welfare policies in the UK. The UK enacted the National Medical Service in 1946, and the Social Security Act, and the State Assistance Act in 1948. In the early 1960s, the government introduced a community care program called Community Care, the starting point for full-fledged welfare for the elderly. It refers to programs that help communities and countries to live in their own homes instead of senior citizens' shelters.
2) ‘Hygeia’
Benjamin Richardson, a British doctor and hygienist, gave a lecture in 1875 on a sanitary city named 'Hygeia.' ‘Hygeia is not just a healthy community but has a ‘healthy’ community system. A healthy and productive environment is required to achieve sustained human well-being and prosperity, and such a society can respond flexibly in times of crisis, such as the prevalence of disasters and infectious diseases brought about by environmental changes.
Pandemic is a term that has been used with mankind since long ago, and it is a very familiar and scary word for us today. Through this book, we should learn how to cope with and overcome old pandemics. And it would be nice to think about ways to practice the new city, ‘Hygeia,’ which the author suggested. < Copyright © The Gachon Herald All rights reserved > |
