Zika virus: prevent and control

   The Zika virus is definitely a hot topic in recently news, I am going to introduce the Zika virus also how to prevent and control it in this blog.

   Zika virus is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, mother to child and also sexually. According to the CDC website, the name of "Zika" comes from the Zika forest in Uganda. Zika virus was first isolated in that area in 1947. Although it has been found and outbreak for a long time, we just started to cover it on news because the affects are very slight for adults, people don't get sick enough to go to the hospital. And it's very rare that people are died because of Zika virus. It has similar symptoms as dengue, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and west Nile viruses, such as fever, rash, joint pain, red eyes. The Zika virus has been having a outbreak in Brazil in May, 2015, the major risk of infected Zika virus cause birth defects, it called microcephaly. Although there are additional studies needed to determine the level of relation between Zika and microcephaly, evidences are clear to see some link with these two.
 
   The most and important prevent way for pregnant women is avoid biting by mosquitoes. There are few steps from preventing pregnant women get bites. First, always wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants. Second, stay indoor with locked windows and doors to keep mosquitoes outside. Third, sleep under a mosquitoes bed net. If you are male who lives in or has visited the area with Zika, you should avoid sexual contact with your partner or use condoms.

   Unfortunately, doctors haven't develop a vaccine or specific medicine to effectively cure the Zika infections. If you have symptoms I listed above, these are some treatment you need to do. First, get enough rest. Second, keep your body hydrate. Third, take medicine like acetaminophen to relieve fever and pain. Fourth, don't take aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Do these and if you didn't get better in four weeks, go to see s doctor.

   

This is a picture of a child with microcephaly. if the pregnant women still infected by Zika virus and can't get effective treatment, more infants will be under the illness. It's a serious issue to develop a vaccine.








This is an example of long-sleeves shirt. If you traveled to or lived in the Zika virus area, remember to wear long-sleeves and long pants.

Polluter pay principle

    The polluter pay principle (PPP) is an environmental policy that requires polluters to pay the cost. Bugge (1996) concluded four advantages of the PPP: economically, it's more efficient; legally, it's more fair to the world and to the people; it pleased international environmental policies; it shows how to arrange costs within a State.

    The PPP was first mentioned in the year of 1972, suggested by the OECD (organization for economic Co-operation and development) and the European community. Where is stated that:" The principle to be used for allocation costs of pollution prevention and control measures to encourage rational use of scarce environment resources and to avoid distortions in international trade and investment is the so-called Polluter-Pays Principle."

    India imbibed the PPP into their Law of land. They believed that the PPP is aim to repairing ecological damage. The main idea is who messed it, who need to pay to clean it up. It actually punished the polluter who made the damage but it still need to be implement properly. The fine is too low for many Co-operations, this situation is also happened in China. The news always report that many factories had very low amount of fine compared with their revenue. It is insignificant. In case of that, these companies are willing to pay the fine without stopping damage the environment.

    But there are still some cons about PPP. First, If the country adopts the PP, production costs might increase, thus the company may lose its competition in the market. Second, since the company lost their previous status in the market, they may be move their factory to a country which don't apply the PPP instead. Third, PPP basically is a tax law, and this tax is based on pollution. Pollution can be measure accurately. Government should invest lots of money on administration fee to measure that. 

Reference
Bugge H. C., 1996. "The principles of polluter pays in economics and law", in Eide E. and van der Bergh R. (eds) "Law and Economics of the Environment", Oslo: Juridisk Forlag, 1996.


 





This is a picture I found online. It indicates pollution equals money. The factories should pay for what they have damaged the environment. 



      




 I arrived at Chicago on Friday. It's snowing today. I noticed that they are many air pollution in big cities. Like vehicle exhaust, industrial waste gas.

How do we recognize stress and three options to reduce it

   After watched the video in class and read some articles, I realize that stress sometimes is not a motivation, it's harmful. If a person is under lots of stress, he has a high chance to have health issues. According to a article on HelpGuide.com:"if the stress beyond the comfort zone, stress stops being helpful and can start causing major damage to your mind and body." Also the video showed in the class has the same idea but it focus on animals. Stress causes cognitive symptoms like memory problems which is also mentioned in class and make you can't concentrate well. Overlord stress leads emotional symptoms like moodiness; physical symptoms like aches and pain; diarrhea and constipation last the behavioral symptoms like eating disorder and sleep disorder. We can know the damage is real and serious.

   If we want to find some ways to reduce stress, we must know the causes of it. There are two parts of causes: external causes like life environment changes like change a school or a job or moving to a new city. And there is internal causes like people have negative attitude or been pessimism. Obviously, change attitude about life is important to reduce internal causes of stress. Otherwise there are very less ways that people can really get rid of internal cause stress. Stay positive is they key. For the external causes, another article in the same website mentions couple ways which can help. One is to eat a healthy diet; two, reduce caffeine and sugar, these substances often end in with a crash in mood and energy number; three, avoid alcohol, cigarettes and drugs and last, get enough sleep, sleep too less or too much is not a good sign of people's health.

   Stay positive for life, eat healthy and sleep well. Three easy but crucial keys to make you a stress-free person.



                                                                                                                                                           This is an elliptical I bought last year. I sometimes got lazy when thought of going to the gym. But after having this at home, I have no reason to be lazy. And exercise everyday make me feel energetic and alive.            

                               This picture shows all the harms that stress can cause to our body, mind, emotions and behavior. Also, it warning us how important it is to learn how to reduce the stress.