Reference no: EM133309018

Case Study: A Chinese woman and her husband living in Hong Kong went to visit her family in the Guangdong Province, China. They stayed at a hotel for one night, then returned to Hong Kong where they live with their two sons, daughter-in-law, and 5-month-old grandson. The woman soon came down with flu-like symptoms including sore throat, cough, and swollen glands. Her family physician diagnosed her as having pneumonia, put her on antibiotics and sent her home. Three days later, her symptoms worsened and she died.

The woman's son came down with a fever two days later. He developed a cough, chest pains and indigestion. He was diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia and admitted into the hospital, where he was given intravenous, broad-spectrum antibiotics. Six days later, he died of multiple organ dysfunction.

Within days, all adult members of their household, as well as immediate family members not in the household, came down with flu-like symptoms. In addition, the 37-year-old physician who had treated the son developed a fever, cough, and severe headache. Another patient, who had been in the waiting room with the woman and her husband, came down with a fever and malaise. The list goes on.

What started as a local outbreak of pneumonia quickly spread throughout Southeast Asia. First, the Chinese Ministry of Health reported 305 cases of acute respiratory syndrome. Then a traveler to Hanoi spread the disease to health care workers in Vietnam. A month later, the disease appeared in Hong Kong, where hundreds became sick. This disease seems to spread casually through hotel lobbies, airplanes and hospital waiting rooms. Of those infected, about 10% die, especially the elderly. There seems to be no end in sight to the spread of this unidentified, fatal pathogen.

As an epidemiologist for the World Health Organization, you are called upon to help identify this pathogen so it can be controlled before hundreds more die. First, you must learn all you can about infectious causes of pneumonia and flu. Then you will analyze test results until you find the culprit. Remember that for a pathogen to be the cause of a disease, it needs to be found in all cases of that disease.

Question 1: What is the problem as you see it?
Question 2: There are always different perspectives to consider when approaching problems. For example, a hospital administrator, a patient, a nurse, a doctor, a taxpayer, or a politician would most likely see and approach a problem differently. Identify some perspectives important to solving this problem.
Question 3: Propose some potential solutions to attempting to solve this problem and briefly explain your proposals. Keep in mind ethical, logical, and cultural dimensions of the problem.
Question 4: What are some potential impacts (good, bad, and neutral) of your solution that you can think of?