Gonorrhea

A close examination of a single communicable disease can provide a good framework for understanding many diseases. The method by

which a disease is acquired, how it is transmitted, identified, treated, and tracked are all major concerns in public health. As

budding scientists, health-care workers, or researchers, it is of great importance that we study the similarities and differences of

diseases so as to identify and understand the nuances that can be the difference between effective treatment, an individual’s death,

or the start of an epidemic.

The Assignment:
1. Pick a communicable disease of interest to you (Gonorrhea in this case) It can be bacterial, viral, or parasitic.
2. Your paper should address
a. the manner in which the disease is transmitted (oral-fecal route, inhalation, casual contact, sexual contact, vector-transmitted

ex. Tick, mosquito, kissing bug, Tsetse fly, blackfly, snail, etc.,)
b. as well as the causative agent (bacteria, virus, worm, protozoan, prion).
3. You should also discuss a brief history of the disease (including the infectious part of the lifecycle if it is a parasite),

where it is endemic (always found) and where it has spread, the general symptoms and stages of symptoms if there are such stages.
4. Mention if this disease is currently on the WHO website or CDC watch list. Several diseases may be classified as potential

biological weapons, which you should mention if that is true for your disease. You might want to cite (or hypothesize) the reason

your disease is considered a potential weapon, which might include communicability, death rate, or some other quality.
5. When discussing treatment, you can mention (brief) historical treatment, but should focus on vaccines (if there are any), the

most recent drugs available and the method of action of such drugs.
6. Finally, discuss if there is an outbreak in the world at the moment, how long it has been a concern, and what is being done to

slow or stop this disease.

*References for this paper may follow scientific format or MLA format, but be consistent. Citations need to be of proper reliability

and authority; peer-reviewed journals, CDC or WHO websites, or college, university research, or hospital programs. Wikipedia is NOT

AN ACCEPTABLE SOURCE! Any person can edit this kind of source and as such there is no way to verify credibility. Blogs are likewise

unacceptable. Please think about the source you are using before you give credence to what it states… there are a multitude of

acceptable, credible, reliable, reviewed sources for this kind of information.

***Citations are important and should be found in the body of the text, as well as on a “Works Cited” page. A mere listing of

references is NOT ACCEPTABLE for a research paper, EACH FACT needs to have a cited source so I can track where you got your

information. You do not need to cite each sentence, (though most research articles do, and may have multiple citations per sentence)

but can likely use a citation for every TWO sentences.