Introduction
Public health refers to a science aimed at improving the health of people in the community. This is through the provision of health education and conducting research for upcoming diseases and ailments and seeking ways in which they can be prevented. Public health professionals conduct an analysis of the effect of genetics on health and the environment (Friedman, Furberg and Demets, 1998).
This enables them to come up with programs that protect the health of the community and solve the existing health issues. In line with public health and education, biostatistics, which involves the use of statistical methods in scientific research in public health helps in the identification of the causes of diseases and injuries. It involves studies on the environment and genetics as well as clinical trials and observational studies.
Resistance of Drug-Defying germs in India
Drug-Defying germs from India may be reported to speed the post-antibiotic era. This is according to the World Health news published on 1st June 2012 by Jason Gale Narayan. According to the article, $12.4 billion which represents a third of the world’s antibiotics get manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry.
These become liberally used to the extent that the bacteria develop immunity to the drugs. Some of these resistant bacteria have entered the water and sanitation systems, while the super bacteria have taken up in hospitals. Here, they pose a threat to patients as their care and attendance become compromised a fact that has put India’s image at risk as it gets known to be one of the best medical tourist destinations. The drug-resistant bacteria spread wildly and cause about 25,000 deaths in Europe.
The bacteria also tend to be multiplying rapidly due to a gene NDM-1, which stands for New Delhi metallo-beta-lectamase-1, which gets carried on mobile loops of DNA referred to as plasmids. These spread easily and fast across many types of bacteria and infiltrate most of the species of bacteria. Germs empowered by NDM-1 also muster a number of ways of destroying the world’s most potent antibiotics.
Use of Biostatistics in Drug Resistance
Biostatistics is essential in this case as it offers knowledge to clinicians and other medical staff about medical services before they get into the market. This helps in demonstrating the effectiveness as well as safety of products on human health before they can be released for use by humans.
Biostatistics is an essential aspect of the clinical research process as it assists in the designing of protocol and its development, recruitment of patients, allocation of treatment, measuring differences in treatment and analyzing the rate of treatment response (Wang, & Bakhai, 2006). This helps an immense deal as the doctors, researchers and clinicians are able to monitor the cause of an illness and hence devise ways of handling it.
Researchers are also able to discover ways of dealing with resistant drugs and bacteria in order to provide a cure for given diseases. This saves the community and population at large from suffering from diseases that have no cure at all, leading to massive deaths across the world.
Use of Biostatistics in educating people on Public Health matters
To educate the public about this issue, I would use biostatistics to explain to the public how treatment can be allocated. This is in reference to recorded statistics on the spread of the disease, how it gets transmitted and ways that may be used to control and eradicate it (Kirkwood and Sterne, 2003). It also helps in measuring the difference in treatment which enables the audience to know the effectiveness of certain drugs on given diseases.
Conclusion
Public health is vital as it provides information to people about upcoming health issues. This helps them to protect themselves from exposure to certain diseases. This can be made possible and easy by biostatistics which provides details concerning diseases and ailments and how they can be prevented and cured. As a result, people should be concerned about public health matters and implement the use of biostatistics in public health education.
References
Friedman, L. M., Furberg, C. D. & Demets, D. (1998). Fundamentals of clinical trials, (3rd ed.). New York: Springer Verlag.
Kirkwood, B & Sterne, J. (2003). Essential medical statistics, (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Wang, D. & Bakhai, A. (2006). Randomization. In: D Wang & Bakhai, (Ed.), Clinical Trials: A Practical guide to design, analysis and reporting. London: Remedica. 81.