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About This Blog

September 14, 2022 / upatel / 0 Comments

Infographics are important tools for clearly and simply explaining complex topics to the public using visual aids. Infographics are especially important for public health purposes to allow patients to be educated about illnesses, diseases and other health care topics. Using infographics also allows people to understand how a disease may be spread, treated and prevented.

Infographics pertaining to public health are often spread through print or digital media. In a study conducted by Professor David Steensma from Harvard Medical School, he found that using infographics on a one to one scale with a patient with a certain syndrome helped the patients understand their diagnosis and outcomes better due to the visual aids provided in the infographic (McCrorie et al., 2016). Images and symbols in the infographics could also be helpful to overcome language barriers if the infographic is displayed in one language. For these reasons, relevant infographics, created by the CDC and public health officials, should continue to be used and spread in the media and displayed in public areas, such as medical clinics and schools.

For this blog project, I created infographics by repurposing an infographic project from my Introduction to Epidemiology (PUB-205) class and used previous work from my One Health (BIO-445) to create new infographics on Canva.

Citations:

McCrorie, A. D., Donnelly, C., & McGlade, K. J. (2016). Infographics: Healthcare Communication for the Digital Age. The Ulster medical journal, 85(2), 71–75.

Steensma D. P. (2016). Graphical representation of clinical outcomes for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. Leukemia & lymphoma, 57(1), 17–20. https://doi.org/10.3109/10428194.2015.1061191

All About Zika Virus!

June 27, 2022 / upatel / 0 Comments

WHO Infographic on Zika Virus prevention methods https://apps.who.int/mediacentre/news/ statements/2016/zikainfosocialmedia.jpg?ua=1

Intended Audience

Zika Virus is an endemic disease in some parts of the world, primarily spreading in tropical and subtropical regions. Displaying this infographic in a visible spot inside outpatient rooms, especially at the travel clinic, for example, could help educate patients about the risks of the Zika virus and how to stay safe if they are traveling to certain areas. The intended audience of this infographic is people 12 and older since it is simple and easy to understand and for those traveling to areas where Zika may be spreading. Public health officials could also reach the intended audience by sharing the infographic on their social media pages and advertising to those traveling to countries where there are current outbreaks.

Zika Virus Spread

Zika Virus is spread by the bite of a mosquito, specifically from an infected Aedes species mosquito. It could also be spread if a person has had intercourse with another person infected with Zika, even if they haven’t experienced any symptoms. Aedes species mosquitos lay eggs in or near standing water and bite people during the day and night (CDC, 2019). The infection persists in mosquitos when they bite an infected human during the first week of the human’s infection.

As mentioned in the infographic, if a pregnant woman is infected with Zika, then the developing fetus may develop birth defects. They are advised to avoid traveling to certain areas where there are active Zika outbreaks. Microcephaly, incomplete brain development, is an example of a birth defect that may occur (CDC, 2019). If you have traveled to an area where there is an outbreak or a high risk of contracting the Zika virus and have experienced symptoms, you should get tested for it. Testing should occur while the symptoms are still present (Musso and Gubler, 2016).

Notes from Epidemiology (PUB-205) on Zika Virus

Symptoms

A few of the symptoms of the Zika virus are fever, rash, headache, and joint pain. These symptoms are very similar to other illnesses and are not specific to Zika, which may lead to misdiagnosis. The symptoms could last for a few days to a week (CDC, 2019). To help prevent Zika infection, one could wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants, use EPA-registered insect repellent and stay in places with air conditioning or window and door screens. Additionally, pregnant women should avoid traveling to areas where current outbreaks are using the CDC’s Zika travel map (CDC, 2022).

Treatment

Currently, there is no vaccine or specific treatment for Zika virus infections. It is recommended to take acetaminophen for fever and pain, antihistamines for rashes, and drink plenty of fluids (Musso and Gubler, 2016). This infographic would be beneficial to display at the travel clinic or in other clinical settings.

Citations:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). General Zika Information. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/pregnancy/zika/general-information.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Zika Travel Information. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CDC. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-information

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Zika Virus: Symptoms. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/zika/symptoms/symptoms.html

Musso, D., & Gubler, D. J. (2016). Zika Virus. Clinical microbiology reviews, 29(3), 487–524. https://doi.org/10.1128/CMR.00072-15

All About Toxoplasmosis!

June 17, 2022 / upatel / 0 Comments

Diagram of the life cycle of T. gondii – displays how intermediate hosts (mammals and birds) contain tachyzoites, which are cells that could grow and replicate fast, and could turn into bradyzoits, causing the disease to persist (English and Sttiepen, 2019)

INTENDED AUDIENCE

It is very important to educate the public about the disease, toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is considered to be one of the leading causes of foodborne illness in the United States today and is one of the most neglected parasitic infections in the United States (CDC, 2018). Displaying information about toxoplasmosis, in the form of infographics, in supermarkets, or where places where raw meat is sold, would be beneficial. Having this information in a visible area would be helpful to educate people about the importance of cooking their meat properly. Infographics could also be displayed in safety courses for hunters since animals, such as deer, also contain T. gondii (Schumacher et al., 2019).

Additionally, it could be placed in veterinarian clinics or feline adoption centers to educate new feline owners about how they may contract toxoplasmosis by accidental ingestion after cleaning their litter box or touching anything that has come into contact with the feces (CDC, 2018).

How It’s Spread

Toxoplasmosis is caused by the parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, and it is found on all continents. The parasite is known to infect many homeotherms through ingestion, and members of the Felidae family serve as definitive hosts.

It could be transmitted through the fecal-oral route if the ingested food or water is contaminated with sporulated oocytes from feline feces. Humans could also come into contact with it when changing cat litter or if they consume undercooked or uncooked meat. A mother could also pass the infection to their unborn child if the mother was newly infected with toxoplasmosis just before pregnancy (CDC, 2018). Additionally, eating unwashed fruits and vegetables that could have been contaminated during the production process could result in infection.

symptoms

If an immunocompetent host is infected then they would typically be asymptomatic, but in rare cases, they may experience headaches, muscle aches, fatigue, fever, and chills. However, immunocompromised hosts may experience flu or mononucleosis-like symptoms, severe encephalitis, pneumonitis, or even coma or death. It is important for the general public to learn about toxoplasmosis and how it could spread. It is also considered a One Health disease because it affects humans, animals, and the environment and is a zoonotic disease. Spreading awareness about toxoplasmosis and the ways that one could be infected is important to reduce the chance of being infected.

Treatment

Currently, there is no vaccine for preventing toxoplasmosis, but certain antibiotics could be used to treat it. Those who are immunocompetent may not experience any symptoms but could take over-the-counter medications like Tylenol or Ibuprofen if needed. Affected pregnant women could take an antibiotic called spiramycin if it hasn’t affected the fetus. If the fetus contracted the disease in vitro, it could be treated with the antibiotic pyrimethamine or sulfonamides (Breecher, M. M., Catalado, L. J. 2020).

Citations:

Breecher, M. M., & Cataldo, L. J. (2020). Toxoplasmosis. In J. L. Longe (Ed.), Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (6th ed.). Gale. Credo Reference: https://une.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/galegm/toxoplasmosis/0

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Parasites- Toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma infection). Epidemiology & Risk Factors. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/epi.html#mom

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Parasites- Toxoplasmosis (Toxoplasma infection). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/index.html

English E.D., Striepen B. (2019). The cat is out of the bag: How parasites know their hosts. PLOS Biology 17; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000446

Melchor, S. J., & Ewald, S. E. (2019). Disease Tolerance in Toxoplasma Infection. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2019.00185

Pinto-Ferreira, F., Caldart, E. T., Pasquali, A. K. S., Mitsuka-Breganó, R., Freire, R. L., & Navarro, I. T. (2019). Patterns of Transmission and Sources of Infection in Outbreaks of Human Toxoplasmosis. Wwwnc.cdc.gov, 25(12). https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2512.181565

Schumacher, A. C., Elbadawi, L. I., DeSalvo, T., Straily, A., Ajzenberg, D., Letzer, D., Moldenhauer, E., Handly, T. L., Hill, D., Dardé, M.-L., Pomares, C., Passebosc-Faure, K., Bisgard, K., Gomez, C. A., Press, C., Smiley, S., Montoya, J. G., & Kazmierczak, J. J. (2020). Corrigendum to: Toxoplasmosis Outbreak Associated With Toxoplasma gondii-Contaminated Venison—High Attack Rate, Unusual Clinical Presentation, and Atypical Genotype. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 72(9), 1557-1565. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab798

Fun Facts about Hand Hygiene!

May 4, 2022 / upatel / 0 Comments

Official CDC hand washing infographic aimed at children and teenagers to raise awareness for when to wash your hands. Source: https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/posters.html

iNTENDED AUDIENCE

The infographic I created is mainly directed toward elementary and middle school students. Researchers have found that children aged 5 to 14 are an important target group for hand-washing interventions (Watson et al., 2021). Educating children when they are younger could help reduce the rates of school absenteeism and create habits that will remain throughout adulthood, which will also positively impact the overall health of the public. Although these practices could be influenced by the social, environmental, and behavioral determinants in each individual’s area, it is beneficial to start teaching them at a young age (Watson et al., 2021). The infographic could be displayed in public or school restrooms, classrooms and in school hallways.

Importance of hand hygiene

Maintaining proper hand hygiene is essential to preventing the spread of disease and staying healthy. Hand hygiene, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the “way of cleaning one’s hands that substantially reduces potential pathogens on the hands (CDC, 2016). It is recommended by the CDC to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water. If it is not readily available, then a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol should be used to clean your hands. A few key times to wash your hands are before touching your eyes, mouth, or nose, before and after eating food, and after touching objects or surfaces that other people frequently come into contact with (CDC, 2022). It is important for people of all ages to know how to do it properly, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows that proper hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to control infection (Nishimura et al., 2022).

Citations:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019a). Hand Hygiene. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/infectioncontrol/faqs/hand-hygiene.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). When & How to Wash Your Hands. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html

Nishimura, Y., Hagiya, H., Keitoku, K., Koyama, T., & Otsuka, F. (2021). Impact of the world hand hygiene and global handwashing days on public awareness between 2016 and 2020: Google trends analysis. American Journal of Infection Control,50(2). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2021.08.033

Watson, J., Cumming, O., MacDougall, A., Czerniewska, A., & Dreibelbis, R. (2021). Effectiveness of behaviour change techniques used in hand hygiene interventions targeting older children – A systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 281, 114090. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114090

A Winter Walk

March 22, 2022 / upatel / 1 Comment

Original Image

This photo was taken at the River Walk in Westbrook along the Presumpscot River on December 12^th, 2021 at 5:00 pm. After a week of stressful finals, my siblings and my cousins decided to go on a walk to unwind and get into the upcoming holiday season with my family, despite the cold temperatures.

I edited this image by first using the Photos application on my iPhone 11. I decreased the brilliance to -25, the shadows to -17, and the brightness to -41. I also increased the vibrance to 24 and the warmth to 30. Increasing the exposure to 24, helped to enhance the contrast between the lights on the trees and the natural lighting. Lastly, I added the filter “Vivid”, which created a subtle difference between the adjusted image by making the lights look brighter. Together, these edits helped to increase the brightness of the lights on the tree and made it look darker than it actually was.

Image with Adjustments

I also used Instagram to help add Gifs and stickers onto the edited image. I added the date and a location tag from the Instagram application. Additionally, I added “Merry Christmas” and “Present” Gifs, which were provided through GIPHY.

Reflection

I chose to edit the initial image using the photos application to help darken the background because the lights from the trees were making the surrounding areas brighter. Doing this helped make the shapes of the lights more visible and darkened the tree branches that the lights were hanging on. I chose to add Gifs and stickers to the image from the Instagram application to help make the image look more visually appealing. Overall, increasing the contrast between the lights and the darkness by editing the initial images and adding the Gifs and stickers helped to add additional colors back to the image.

Filter Added

The location tag also helped make the image interactive on Instagram by allowing those who clicked on it to see images from other accounts that have also been to the River Walk. This could also help influence my followers, which are mainly other family members and UNE students, into visiting the River Walk and the surrounding local restaurants. The intended audience of this image would be my Instagram followers who could view my Instagram story once it is uploaded.

One of the key issues I had while editing the image was trying to maintain the sharpness of the image. When I took the image on my phone, I tried to get it in focus the best I could, but due to the lights, it was difficult. This caused the image to become blurry with the additional edits, such as the addition of the Gifs, however it did not seem to hinder the overall message of the post.

Final still image Link to final moving image

If I were to do another project involving images, this approach would probably be the easiest. Using the photos application after taking the image was simple and allowed me to easily compare the original image to the edited image. Once this step was complete, the image was already saved to my phone, which made it easy to transfer into other applications, such as Instagram to make further edits.

Infographic Creation

February 4, 2022 / upatel / 0 Comments

These infographics were created for my Introduction to Epidemiology (PUB-205) class. The assignment was titled “Epi-Ed” and we were instructed to create one-page infographics, using inspiration from the infographics created by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. I created the infographics by myself using Canva. The graphics included in the infographics were stickers and stock images provided by Canva. This software was easy and straight forward to use.

Additionally, to create the infographics about toxoplasmosis, I used information from an assignment for One Health (BIO-445). In this class, we had to create a fact sheet about a zoonotic disease, which is a disease that can be transmitted by humans from animals. Taking key facts and ideas from the fact sheet helped me present the information in a concise manner. For the purposes of PUB-205, the infographics were supposed to be uploaded on a class Instagram page, but we did not do this and just submitted them as assignments. The intended audience is the general public, including children for the infographics about Zika virus and hand hygiene. The intended audience for this infographic would also be for those in middle school or older.

Creating the Infographics using Canva

: Selecting a templates!

: Adding Stickers!

Blog 15

April 17, 2019 / upatel / 1 Comment

I chose to read chapter seven titled “So What? Who Cares?” from the book They Say/I Say. This chapter discussed the ideas of how to properly include facts and statements that are relevant and important to your overall argument. They addressed these topics by first talking about the significance of mentioning different facts into your writing. I found this section helpful because when I write, I often find that sometimes I just write facts when sometimes they don’t serve a purpose for supporting my argument. For example, when I used a scientific study to support my thesis, I found that I was including other scientific facts that did nothing but increase the word count. Also, using the templates that they mentioned within the chapter, could help me introduce other sources that I used besides the assigned readings that we had. The “so what” section of the chapter described how it is important to directly describe the significance of the different sources and how it supports your claims and overall thesis. In my paper, I plan to make the connections clearer and linking these ideas back to the argument that I was making. Using what I learned in this chapter and specifically identifying the purpose of introducing different facts and other sources to support the thesis.

Blog 14

April 12, 2019 / upatel / 1 Comment

One of my goals for the revision process is to improve the summaries of the different sources, which was suggested by my peers. Right now, the summaries and paraphrasing of the main points of the sources are too long so, I need to condense them so that they get right to the point. This would also help for reducing the word count for my essay. Also, I plan on improving my naysayer paragraph and relating it back to the thesis at a higher degree. To do this, I plan on adding a personal connection like my peer’s suggested to help achieve this goal. I think that this will be my biggest challenge because I felt that this paragraph was weak because it goes against my overall view and might be difficult to relate something personal into the opposing argument. If this is too challenging, I will reach out to my friend in another English 110 class to read over my essay and provide feedback for how I should fix this problem. If this doesn’t work, then I will reach out to Professor Emerson and ask for advice for how to connect this naysayer paragraph with my overall thesis.

Peer Review 3

April 12, 2019 / upatel / 1 Comment

Peer Review- 150 Word Note Writing Prompt 3

Overall, I think that your essay was very strong, and your body paragraphs were clearly addressed by your detailed claim sentences that related back to your overall thesis. One of the things that I thought you should work on improving is fixing is the second body paragraph which related Luke Bryan’s song with Beck’s article. Although the purpose of the paragraph was good, the relationship between the sources could be strengthened. Also, after fixing this, it could help relate back to the thesis which would improve your paper. Something else that you could fix to strength your essay is improving the connection with an individual’s autobiographical reason with music. Besides this, I enjoyed the different multimodal elements you added to your paper like bolding and italicizing sentences, adding hyperlinks and different images to help the reader interpret your essay in the way that you intended. Overall, your ideas in the rest of your paragraphs maintained a good connection to your thesis and by fixing the issue that I mentioned would help improve your essay.

Multimodal Statement

April 9, 2019 / upatel / 0 Comments

Multimodal Statement. This includes how you plan to incorporate other media into your final essay. Include links and/or descriptions of media that you hope to use in your final essay and describe how these choices will work with your alphabetic text to better communicate your overall idea.

In my multimodal essay, I chose to include various pictures that will help support my overall idea of how memory plays a role in forming a narrative about our lives. One of the images that I chose to use in my essay is this image from this magazine article titled, “How the Brain Creates a Timeline of the Past”https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-brain-creates-a-timeline-of-the-past-20190212/.

I feel like this image can have many different interpretations, but the way that I interpret it as is that the bird represents the memories that we are currently making and the path that it leaves behind shows past memories. Also, it shows how people remember episodic memories, which are usually autobiographical events or experiences in a person’s life. These episodic memories are often different for each individual and often involve inaccurate facts. I included this image where I was mentioned episodic memories in the second paragraph of my essay because the paragraph related a study done by Donna Bridge and Julie Beck’s article, “Life’s Stories”.

Also, I used an image of my Dad in my essay because I used the interview I did about him for evidence in my paper and inserted an image of him into my essay. This picture helped my overall argument because it shows how my Dad remained determined and achieved his goal of obtaining a higher education, despite the comment that he heard about him in high school.

Lastly, I want to use this image in my essay to help support the overall idea of our memories being tied to the way that your brain can categorize the different types of memories and how Strawson mentioned how having a poor memory could affect the way that you remember your life stories. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/11/04/663668407/neuroscientists-debate-a-simple-question-how-does-the-brain-store-a-phone-number Also, the image shows how the brain contains many different ways that we can store our memories and can use our memories to form connections with past events or experiences in our lives to create an idea overall theme.

Using these different multimodal elements like bolding certain words, changing the size of the font and using pull quotes in my essay could help evoke emotions in the audience while reading the essay and can help strengthen my overarching argument.