Communicable Diseases
Communicable diseases refer to the illness that get transmitted from one individual to another or from an animal to a person or to another animal through contamination. Mainly they spread through air, water, food, transfusing instruments or blood transfusion or other bodily fluids. Reducing the level of contamination and practicing good hygiene can stop the spread of such diseases.
Factors involved in the transmission
Transmission is a process by which several events happen one after the other in a pattern of a chain. The process is called a chain of transmission. The following six main factors are identified; mode of transmission can be either direct or indirect examples are given in the previous slide, route of entry could be through contaminated hands or food, susceptible host is an individual who is at risk of developing the communicable disease after getting exposed to the agents, infectious agent includes the protozoa, virus and bacteria; reservoir of the infectious agent; they can live animals, human beings, water, food and soil and lastly the route of exit which can be through the skin, respiratory tract among others.
History
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, In 1900, the three leading causes of death were tuberculosis, diarrhoea and pneumonia. This nearly brought one third of all deaths. The most fatal epidemics in human history happened by the 20th century known as the influenza that led in 20 million deaths. HIV also emerged in 1981, which brought a pandemic which is still threatening the humankind and causing deaths. All these events depict the volatility of communicable disease death rates and the unpredictability of disease emergence.
Global Health Problems: Malaria
Malaria is caused by parasites that enters the body through mosquito bites as per Talapko et al., 2019. Malaria is prevalent in tropical areas where temperatures are hot and humid including areas like Africa, eastern Europe, centra and South America and Southern Asia. Signs and symptoms include fever plus sweating, headaches, fatigue, chest pains, chills. After diagnosis, the health care provider will offer medications to kill the malaria parasite. Some drugs are offered in combination with other drugs. They involve quinine, chloroquine, atovaquone, mefloquine among others
Global Health Problems: HIV/AIDs
According to Fauci and her colleagues, HIV is a virus that kills the immune system, if untreated it affects and damages the CD4 cells. It is transmitted through bodily fluids like semen, breast milk, blood, and vaginal fluid. AIDS develops within individuals having HIV and only if the CD4 count is found to fall below 200 per cubic millimetre. Early symptoms of HIV are usually similar to common illness like flu, though after the first month after it enters the latency stage it shows the following symptoms; headaches, vomiting, night sweats, recurrent fevers, swollen nymph nodes, pneumonia, skin rashes among others. The main treatment for HIV is antiretroviral therapy, usually a combination of daily medications that stop the virus from multiplying.
Global Health Problems: Covid-19
According to Tufan et al., 2020, Covid-19 is also a communicable disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus. It can be transmitted from an infected individual’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they sneeze, breathe, cough or speak. Individuals infected with the virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory diseases. To avoid transmission, the infected people should practice respiratory etiquette like coughing into a flexed elbow, self-isolation and staying at home until recovery. Additionally, everyone should take an initiative of protecting themselves by staying at least one metre from others, wearing well fitted masks, thoroughly washing hands and also taking vaccinations.
Control of Communicable diseases
Sanitation and hygiene: The national, state and local authorities made efforts to improve sanitation and hygiene by providing clean water, proper waste disposal, food safety, water treatment and public education about hygiene.
Vaccination: Campaigns regarding strategic vaccination have clearly eliminated illnesses such as measles, covid-19, diphtheria, mumps, rubella, tetanus, small pox and poliomyelitis. The success of vaccination programs inspired the 20th century concept of disease elimination- this concept aimed at eradication of a selected disease from the human population through a global cooperation
Antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines: Penicillin was discovered to offer a quick and complete treatment of previously incurable bacterial ailments. Antibiotics have saved peoples lives with syphilis, gonorrhoea and other infectious diseases. Drugs have also been developed for treatment of viral diseases like HIV and herpes; fungal disease like candidiasis; and parasitic disease like malaria
Technological Advances in Detecting and Monitoring Infectious Diseases
Serological testing came into use for diagnosis and control of many communicable illnesses like gonorrhoea and syphilis.
Viral isolation and tissue culture methods came into use at the turn of the century. They involved straining infected tissue through successively smaller sieves and vaccinating test animals or plants to show the purified substance retained disease causing activity. The initial filtered was tobacco mosaic virus.
Molecular techniques has offered strong tools for detecting and characterising infectious pathogens. The application of nucleic acid hybridization alongside sequencing methods has made it achievable to characterize the causative agents of previous unknown ailments like hepatitis C, AIDS among others.
References
Communicable Diseases | List of High Impact Articles | PPts | Journals | Videos. (n.d.). Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (n.d.). Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999: Control of Infectious Diseases. Web.
Fauci, A. S., & Lane, H. C. (2020). Four decades of HIV/AIDS—much accomplished, much to do. New England Journal of Medicine, 383(1), 1-4.
Talapko, J., Škrlec, I., Alebić, T., Jukić, M., & Včev, A. (2019). Malaria: the past and the present. Microorganisms, 7(6), 179.
Tufan, A., Güler, A. A., & Matucci-Cerinic, M. (2020). COVID-19, immune system response, hyperinflammation and repurposingantirheumatic drugs. Turkish journal of medical sciences, 50(9), 620-632.