
Killer Diseases Have No Respect for National or Political Borders
essayUnderst
andings that societies have about illnesses have social ramifications that extend beyond the physiological conditions alone. Cancer
and heart disease are major causes of death in North America.
AIDS, a new disease, is an epidemic with great lethal potentiality. All three diseases are experienced directly or indirectly by most of the population of North America. In a mass society, one significant source of information about disease, its nature, causes,
and treatment is the mass media.
Heart disease
and cancer have the highest mortality rates of all diseases in North America today. They are, respectively, the number one
and number two causes of death for men
and for women in Canada
and the United States. By 1983,
AIDS had reached the status of being one of the most talked
and written about diseases. Its rapid spread, coupled with the causes of its contagion
and its association with death
and virtual lack of treatability, has made it a very fearsome disease (Armelagos, 1998). Because of their importance to the health
and well-being of North American society, cancer, heart disease,
and AIDS have been chosen as diseases of significance for universal problems.