Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

1. For my Independent Component 2, I want to take a class at Cal-Poly that has to do with the science of Infectious Diseases. Right now I am looking at an Animal Diseases class, a Basic Biology class, or a Biology Lab class. 
2. I plan on doing my 30 hours, by attending the class and doing the work that is assigned in that class.
3. This relates to my EQ because my first answer is knowledge, and in the class I will learn in depth of what happens in the basics of life. I will then have knowledge in the basic components of diseases.

Independent Component 1

Literal 
       a.) I, Victoria Montoya, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.
       b.) I researched 20 different infectious diseases, and wrote up my own fact sheets on them. On each fact sheet, I included a picture, the causes, the name, symptoms, complications, tests, and prevention towards getting the disease.

Interpretive

•  Doing this matrix of diseases, I focused on bacterial vs viral. What I found very significant, is that vaccination plays a huge role against infectious diseases. A lot of disease are easily preventable, its just that people do not take the right precautions like vaccination and eating foods that have been cooked thoroughly or making sure water is treated correctly. I also noticed that most of the infectious disease are zoonotic diseases, meaning that they mutated in order to infect humans. When I asked Dr. Collisson, what makes infectious disease so much more rampant now, she answered that it is because animals and humans live in such close quarters now, that it makes it easier for diseases to mutated. With my independent component I found evidence of this. A lot of diseases that originated from Africa tend to happen because of the close proximity with animals. My independent component identifies 30 hours because, I had to write each fact sheet, which took about an hour, I then had to go through websites and decided what information is relevant, and if the website I am pulling information from is credible. After finding the right source, I would print out the articles and margin note it for my Working Bibliography.  Each of the diseases took about an hour and thirty minutes, and putting it a portfolio, took about an hour.

Applied

• This helped answer my EQ, because if most of the disease are preventable by vaccination, then the vaccination history can play a big role in diagnosing an infectious disease. For example, Influenza is easily preventable by vaccination, many people go to the doctor anyways, and get a prescription for over-the-counter medication. But if someone were to go, and had already gotten their vaccination, the Influenza is already ruled out and can be decided to go towards a different path in diagnosing a disease. With my Independent Component, I also learned that testing and diagnosis point chart, play a huge role in diagnosing. The point method I found very interesting because each symptom values to a certain amount of points, if the points add up to a certain amount, that is the path of treatment the doctors take.

20 Minute Infectious Disease Lesson

20 Minute Lesson

Answer 1

My essential question is " What is the most important thing to know in the diagnosis of an infectious disease?"

1.) Symptoms may relate to another medical condition or an underlying harmless effect of another disease, but symptoms are a main factor in diagnosing an infectious disease, symptoms help you identify what is being effected, which helps narrow down the possible diseases.

2.) My three evidence are Epidemiological Triad, Similar Diseases, and Bacterial vs. Viral Infection.

Epidemiological Triad- When a new disease emerges, epidemiologists use the Triad, including symptoms, so they see what if the unknown disease affecting.

Similar Diseases- When you know the symptoms you can relate them to other diseases that maybe similar to what is effecting the host. When Ebola first came out, the epidemiologists related it to the Dengue Fever, a disease that is very similar to Ebola.

 Bacterial vs. Viral- The symptoms usually tell if someone has a bacterial or viral infection. One common symptom attached to bacterial diseases, is a fever. Another thing that helps pinpoint a bacterial infection is that they are usually a respiratory, or digestive tract infection.

3.) I haven't really put my sources on my WB, because the second two were common knowledge, and the first one, I just read up on a website and didn't think about using it as an article. But I found four sources that prove my answers.

• "Bacterial Diseases - Symptoms - Better Medicine." BetterMedicine.com - Health and Medical Information You Can Trust. - Better Medicine. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.bettermedicine.com/article/bacterial-diseases/symptoms>.
• Understanding the Epidemiologic Triangle through Infectious Disease. CDC- Center of Disease Control. PDF.
• "Types of Viruses and Types of Viral Infections - Treating Human Viruses Naturally." Native Remedies® – Natural Health Remedies | Info on ADD ADHD to UTI & More. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nativeremedies.com/ailment/types-of-viral-infections.html>.
• Preston, Richard. The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story. 1st ed. Anchor. Print.

Service Learning

• Where are you working for your service learning? I will be working in Western University in Pomona.
• Who is your contact? Ellen Collisson, Ph.D.Professor, at Western University.
• Summarize the services you have performed to complete the 10 hour requirement- So far I haven't done my 10 hours, because Ellen, just accepted me to do service learning with her, but in the future she wants me to prepare a 2 hour spanish presentation on a San Berdandino community about how to care for your chickens against Corona Avian Influenza. I would also be doing reading her manuscripts and helping her with lab work.
• How many hours have you worked?- So far none, but I talked to her for an hour, in her office.

Third Interview Questions

1. 1.    What is the most important thing to know in the diagnosis of infectious disease?
   2.    Would you say that the medical history plays an important role in the diagnosis? Why not?
   3.  What do you think that makes infectious diseases much more rampant now?
   4.  What is one significant disease that has effect the world significantly?
   5.   What is one thing that people should worry about to prevent the next pandemic?
   6.  Do you have a favorite disease?
   7. Why did you go into Virology?
   8. Why do you like to work with Zootonic diseases?
   9. How would you define Infectious Disease?
   10. What classes do you teach at Western University?

Self Reflection

1. I think that so far, I'm doing fine. I feel that the research I've done is very good and very informational. I feel like my interviews could have been better but overall I feel happy with my senior project. I feel that my senior project deserves a P, because I have done all my research, and I have done most of my blog assignments on time, answering them to my fullest potential. 
2. I think I have done well on my research, all the research I do, helps me with my project and informs me very well.
3. I would like to improve on finding more and better interviewees, that actually have information for me on infectious diseases.