HSCI 130 Week 4

Biomedical Model: Central Ideas

• Mind-Body Dualism

• Physical Reductionism

• Specific Etiology

• Machine Metaphor

• Individualized Regimen and Control

Mind-Body Dualism

The mind and body are treated as separate, so medicine focuses solely on the physical body while ignoring social and psychological determinants of health

Physical Reductionism

Health is understood by breaking the body into smaller biological parts examined in isolation, overlooking broader social and psychological factors

Specific Etiology

Every disease has a specific cause (e.g., pathogens), and identifying it leads to targeted treatment, but ignores how social conditions create biological vulnerability

Machine Metaphor

• The body is viewed as a biological machine made of biophysical processes: a Western cultural assumption that reduces human health to mechanical function

• objectives a human

Individualized Regimen and Control

• Individuals responsible for maintaining their own health through diet, exercise, and self-care

• victim-blaming by ignoring structural factors that constrain personal choice

Lyme Disease

Bacterial infection: borrelia burgdorferi

Discovered in the US in → Connecticut, 1970s

Symptoms include →

rash (primary symptom), headache, localized/general pain, redness, swelling, fatigue, poor appetite, arthritis, neurological symptoms, cardiac symptoms, eye swelling/redness

• most common vector-borne disease in US

• more prevalent than aids

• co infection, ticks containing multiple diseases

Lyme Disease: Canadian Government Responses

• Federal Framework for Lyme Disease Act (2014)

• May 15-17, 2016 conference to develop a federal framework on Lyme

Case Study Erythema migrans (EM) rash

• occurs in 70 to 80% of infected persons

• Begins at the site of a tick bite after 3 to 30 days (average= 7 days)

• Expands gradually up to 12 inches or more across

• warm to the touch but rarely itchy or painful

• Sometimes clears as it enlarges, resulting in a target or “bull’s-eye” appearance

How is LD transmitted?

through a tick bite.

infected nymphal tick can either bite human or turn into adult tick, then bite human or infect more hosts.

Main reservoir of Lyme Disease

inside the deer tick

What are the most influential factors for I.scapularis spread in Canada?

• Warmers temperatures

• Dispersion of ticks on animal hosts

• Climate change

Onset of Illness

greatest during warmer season (summer)

Borrelia burgdorferi

• Looks like syphilis under the microscope

• spiral/corkscrew shaped (spirochetes)

• Their shape aids in their motility and ability to invade host tissue

Deer ticks

• sensitive to dryness

  • active in damp weather