Communicable Diseases of Global Health Problems - Case Study Example

Global Health Issues: Communicable Diseases Communicable diseases are infections that can be transmitted either from one person to another or from an animal to a person. These diseases have become a chronic problem globally as they cause death and may end up increasing the death rates in nations where the situation is devastating. Some of these infections are air bone, meaning they can be transmitted through air, others are transmitted through water, others are sexually transmitted, meaning people contract them through having sexual intercourse with infected people. Diseases transmitted by animals are in most cases contracted through consumption of products that are from an infected animal. Livestock especially have the greatest tendency of transmitting these diseases. Infected cows may transmit diseases to people who consume milk without caring to boil it well enough, others trough taking meat that is not well cooked before consumption. This is therefore very disturbing and is the responsibility of every individual to fight against the spread of these diseases, of course having being boosted by the government. This indicates that this topic requires special attention. The spread of these diseases is stimulated by different lifestyles and ways that people carry out their activities. One of the issues that stimulate the spread of these diseases is failure to care about living in a clean environment. Some people accommodate untidiness around them and do not bother to sweep the compound, dispose the waste in a healthy manner, washing their cloths often and even taking a bath every now and then. These kinds of people play the greatest role in stimulating transmission of infectious diseases. A person’s health is determined by the kind of air they breathe in, and what they consume. This is what gets to the blood directly and is circulated in all parts of the body. When one lives in an untidy environment, it means what they inhale is unclean air, and probably what they consume too is not healthy. The food people consume should be free from impure environments. Living in a dirty environment is likely to bring about fatal diseases such as cholera which is highly transmitted and can easily and quickly lead to death as its cure is very rare. Cholera is spread very fast especially among people that are in the same residence. Everyone should therefore get disturbed when any of their neighbors does not watch a healthy and clean environment as they may not suffer alone. Having so much litter and untidiness around one therefore only makes them and their neighbors prone to fatal diseases. The spread of a disease may start at lower levels such as amongst people in a town and quicker than people realize it, the whole nation ends up in great danger. It is therefore good to keep clean and tidy for the sake of one’s family, relatives, neighbors and entirely the whole nation (San Francisco Department of Health). Immigration of people into the nation may also stimulate the spread of infectious diseases. In most nations, foreigners are accommodated in the nation from other countries as refugees, business investors, ambassadors and others for special purposes such as tourism and studies. These foreigners are generally helpful to the nation, it is acceptable. They are accommodated with good and helpful motives. Some such as refugees, to be rescued from the agony of staying in their own nations, others such as investors, to be helpful in the growth of the economy through boosting business activities in the nation and tourists to provide the nation with foreign currency by visiting and paying to watch the beautiful sceneries in the state. However, with concentration to all these significant advantages, it is assumed and overlooked that these foreigners are likely and very capable of bringing in infectious diseases into the nation and making the diseases spread at alarming rates. Once a communicable disease starts somewhere in a town, the whole nation is threatened depending on how fast the situation will be taken care of. This may bring about additional expenses in the health care sector to maintain proper health to the citizens and especially children, whose immune systems are weaker as compared to adults. People whose immune systems are compromising may also fall victims of the threat such as the aged people and those that suffer from diseases that weaken the immune systems. Immigration therefore seriously contributes the spread of communicable diseases (Asgary et al. 991-994). Some economic activities also expose citizens to the risk and danger of contracting and spreading communicable diseases. The mostly affected people are those that rare livestock. These types of farmers may be affected especially when there are outbreaks of infections that can be transmitted from animals to human beings. Infections such as chicken pox, cow pox and small pox are more likely to be contracted by those who keep herds and do poultry keeping than any other individual. These people later on spread the infections to the society as they interact. In fact, these diseases are mostly spread through skin contact. It is very hard for people to adjust and fail to contact friends especially when they are unaware of the infections. Children are even worse in spreading the diseases. It is almost impossible to isolate infected children and prevent them from interacting and playing with their friends in the neighborhood. They will always find their way to link up and have fun together. In the process they get to contact one another and the uninfected carries the disease home. If this happens with several children from several homesteads, the disease becomes the order of the day in the whole town, from town wide to country wide. This is how dangerous communicable diseases acquired from livestock are. They may end up affecting a whole village and expenses increase in the process of health maintenance and cure for the diseases (Sernau 27-33). Citizens may also suffer from plagues that are transmitted by rodents and pests. Some times this condition may attack suddenly and generally. Rodents and pests may appear suddenly in an area in large scales and it happens that they infect the inhabitants of the area with plagues that are highly transmitted, and before attention is drawn, it becomes a national problem affecting the whole state. This is mostly found among agricultural farmers who plant and harvest in large scale and store grains and other products in huge amounts. These grains attract rodents that invade in the granaries in search of food and grains to feed on. These rodents bring diseases along with them and the farmers get exposed to the risk of contracting these diseases. Since these plagues are contagious, they may be easily transmitted within the neighborhood and slowly it becomes a problem affecting the whole nation at large. The grains attacked by rodents and pests also take part in transmission of infections if not well taken care of. Such grains should be sprayed with chemicals which again are not healthy if not well handled to take care of the infections and avoid transmission. In conclusion therefore, communicable diseases are part of the global health problems that should be taken care of and solutions be found with immediate effect. Some of these solutions include health evaluations on foreigners before they are allowed into the nation to find out whether they could be infected with any contagious disease. Any individual found to be carrying with them contagious diseases should therefore be restricted from entering the nation. Vaccination processes should also be well funded and supported with the best effectiveness possible. Citizens should have their immune systems boosted against the common communicable diseases that are well known in the nation. With these and many more solutions, cases of communicable infections will significantly reduce. Works Cited Asgary, Ramin, Naderi, Ramesh, Swedish, Kristin A.,Smith, Clyde L. "Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases among Recent Immigrants with Implications for Primary Care; a Comprehensive Immigrant Health Approach." Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 13.6 (2011): 990-5. Print. San Francisco Department of Health. Communicable Disease Control and Prevention. n.d. Web. 24 May. 2015. http://www.sfcdcp.org/germs.html Sernau, Scott. Global Problems: The Search for Equity, Peace, and Sustainability. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. 2013. Print. Read More