| Where have you traveled? |
Mrs. Manzey has traveled to many places that include Kenya, Australia, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Peru, England, Scotland, and Mexico.
Back to Top |
| What sort of vaccines have you had to get for all of your traveling? |
She had to get the yellow fever vaccine (which you have to update every seven years), typhoid, tetanus, polio, and smallpox (she got this when she was young but needed it to travel).
Back to Top |
| Have you had any first hand experience or knowledge of our diseases? Where? |
Mrs. Manzey actually had the measles; she knows a lot about it. She also knew many people in her childhood and her husband who had polio. Mrs. Manzey knew a lot about TB because her cousin from Miami has contracted it. Mrs. Manzey’s cousin works with a lot of immigrants who may have had tuberculosis. She understood that the treatment must last for eight months. When she has traveled, she has noticed high mortality rates and especially, infant mortality rates from diarrhea that is a result of poor sanitation in some countries. She stated that average life expectancy in the United States is around 75, but in some of the less developed countries the life expectancy is around 48 years of age. She has observed that Peru is especially bad in some of these areas.
Back to Top |
| Do you have any ideas on how to vaccinate more children? |
Mrs. Manzey said that foundations and organizations are a great way help people. However, she explained everything comes down to money and the doctors that are willing to go over to countries and help to vaccinate the children. Also, she has heard of an idea called GMO [Genetically Modified Organisms]. GMOs are crops that contain vaccine genes that may help to vaccinate the children that eat them. However, it only works with vaccines that have are oral; so not all vaccines are eligible.
Back to Top |
| When you teach does our topic ever relate to you lessons? |
Some do relate, but she wished more would.
Back to Top |
| Do you think students are aware of what is happening in other countries? |
Most students are probably not aware of what is happening in third world countries. She said “I don’t know how many [television, etc.] programs focus on health.”
Back to Top |
| How do you think students can become aware or more aware of what is happening? |
There are many things that can make students become more aware of what is happening. There could be reports, issue days, and speakers that could talk to teens about what is happening.
Back to Top |
| What can children do to help? |
Mrs. Manzey said that there are many things that kids can do to help. They can sponsor a clinic or volunteer at health clinics. They can put together mission opportunities and help organizations. Kids with connections can really help with anything. Vaccines are not that pricey, so a little donation can go far.
Back to Top |
| Do you have any stories to share with us? |
Sanitation is a huge problem in developing countries. Peru, in particular, has a very bad water system. She also said the sanitation is so hard to help and fix because it would cost a lot of money. The country's old culture made the sanitation so bad because people would just dump waste into ditches and that would come back through the water systems.
Back to Top |
| Anything else you want to add? |
When she travels, she tries to never drink the water in developing countries. It is not only the drinking water that she avoids, but also anything that is washed with water such as fresh lettuce and fruit, forks and plates. She tries to peel her own fruit, but she does try to eat a lot of soup because it is boiled. Protein bars are a good food to pack.
For the drinking water, she explained it is a good idea to buy a water purification system. Another way to ensure that your water is clean is to boil the water before drinking it or bring iodine to clean the water. Mrs. Manzey explained that chlorine does not kill everything, for example, hepatitis.
Back to Top |
