The Definition of an Epidemic - Report Example

Disease Epidemics Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Quiz 1: The definition of epidemic. Epidemics are diseases that are caused by biological pathogens. For instance, diseases like influenza, sexually transmitted diseases, and measles that spread from one person to the other. Epidemics may pass aggressively affect population for short time, or prevail for long periods of time at low magnitude. They can experience sudden flare ups they can experience. In extreme conditions, a single disease epidemic considerably affects the whole society. , Generally, epidemic is an outbreak of an infectious disease affecting a large quantity of people, and spreads to many diverse places. Scholars argue that, an epidemic is affirmed when the number of victims at any one time surpasses 200 out of 100,000 people in a population. Simply put, an epidemic disease is bigger than an outbreak, but lesser than a pandemic. Quiz 2: Scientific classification: Epidemic infectious or contagious diseases results from direct contact with the ailing person. The disease can be acquired through physical contact with the individual suffering from it. Additionally, getting into contact with the sick person`s secretions or touching objects they have touched leads to transmission of disease (Bonnel 2000). According to a research by United Nations , 2011, non-contagious epidemic infectious diseases are those which require a special mode of transmission between persons. This means that a transitional vector species is required. For instance, malaria disease is transmitted into human through anopheles mosquito. Alternatively, a contact of body fluid of the infected and the healthy individual can cause non-contagious illnesses via transfusions, sexual intercourse, and sharing of needles. Quiz 3 & 4: Examples of global epidemics throughout history and their symptoms Birds Flu or Avian Influenza is an influenza resulting from viruses that are adapted to birds. Contractions of bird flu in human come through contact with infected fluids or handling infected dead birds. The main symptoms of bird flu are similar to those of any other kind of flue. These include fever from 38 C or higher, headache, tiredness, blocked nose, insomnia among others, and takes three to five days to show from the time of infection (Bhatia & Narain 2006). Swine Flu or novel influenza is influenza caused by viruses adapted to pigs. Initially, it resulted from direct contact with pigs, but in recent times swine flu spread through a person to another. Its major symptom is fever exceeding 38 C and at least two symptoms of any other type of flue such as runny or blocked nose, cough, headache, muscle and joint pains, and so on (Sinha 2009). Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is human respiratory disease caused by virus SARS Coronavirus. It is a severe type of pneumonia. Its symptoms include; shortness in breath, fever, coughs among others (Rothstein 2003). Malaria is an infectious disease of humans caused by microorganism known as protists. It is introduced into human circulatory system via saliva of an infected female mosquito after a bite. They are transferred to the liver where they begin to grow and reproduce. The disease is mainly found in tropical or subtropical areas. Its early symptoms begins about 8 days after infection and appear as flu like symptoms or conditions such as septicemia or viral diseases, accompanied by headache, vomiting, fever, and so on. At later stages paroxysm which is characterized by sudden coldness, followed by rigor after which fever and sweating are experienced. Cerebral malaria is evident through abnormal posturing, coma, neurological issues among other symptoms (Government of India 2009). Acquired immunodeficiency Syndrome well known as AIDS is a disease affecting the human immune system, and by infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is mainly transmitted through unprotected sexual contact, blood transfusions, mother to child at the time of pregnancy, delivery or even breastfeeding, and via hypodermic needles. Symptoms include flu like illnesses, on-painful enlargement of various groups of lymph nodes for 3 or more months. Last stage involves prolonged fevers, weight loss, weaknesses and proneness to other illnesses (WHO 2005). Another widespread epidemic disease is hepatitis. Hepatitis is condition of the inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis A is the most common of the seven viral types, hepatitis B is highly linked to chronic and permanent damage to liver, while hepatitis C is more persistent than A and B. It main symptom is existence of inflammatory cells in the organ tissues, common symptoms in flu, abnormal menstruation among other things. Quiz 5: The causes of epidemic and the inception: Disease epidemics result from various factors. To begin with, living condition such as refugee camps and crowding an area may render poor sanitation due to economic and living situations of individuals. The areas are therefore prone to epidemics such as cholera. Secondly, epidemics are caused by ecological factors like natural disasters. They cause disruption of facilities holding sewers and sanitations. Disasters like cyclones and floods offer breading sites for mosquitoes leading to malaria epidemic. Thirdly, epidemics occur as a result of economic conditions. Insufficiency of funds cannot be relied on to prevent epidemic. Moreover, biological conditions encourage epidemics. At instances of organism mutation, pathogenic increases causing diseases (Nadu 2012). Quiz 6: Global Effects of Epidemics: Economically, economic structures are disrupted and impede development in the epidemic affected areas. Other countries or communities may restrict travel from and to countries with an epidemic. Accordingly, imports of certain foods from the country may be restricted, which causes interrupted work schedules and huge losses. Also, epidemics introduce new costs for the government. Available funds are employed in handling the epidemic rather than for economic development. Also, epidemic causes loss of expertise through disability and death of people. This scares away investors in that country leading to a stunted economy (Bonnel 2000). Social effects are also evidently manifest in case of epidemics. Firstly, on seeing the deaths or suffering of people individuals suffers psychologically. Epidemic situations scare the available resources as they have to be diverted to controlling and management of the same. Huge demand on health services systems poses a threat to further aggravation of other medical cases. Additionally, epidemics negatively impacts households in regard to income. There is increased expenditure due to medical care, and indirect costs of absenteeism from schools or work to take care of the suffering individual. Death of an individual as well changes the composition of the family structure (Crafts & Markus 2003). United Nations, 2003 observes that epidemics that prevail for long time lowers birth expectancy. This impact is then felt through population size. Enviromental effects of epidemics are manifest when individuals overuse natural sorroundings, and espousing unsustainable land use and exploiting protected resources to generate revenues to cater for the ailing. Oramasionwu et al, 2011 asserts many people attempt to cope with epidemics through a dependence on physical enviroment for a livelyhood. For instance, depletion of forests to provide firewoods for households caring for the sick, charcoal burning, uncontrolled fishing and gathering of prohibited plants, as well as generation of coffins to bury others leads to infertile enviroment. Quiz 7: The extent of the spread of the epidemic: Models that control high infectious diseases locally, small-world, scale free world, are always considered with fractional information accessible concerning the status of the people and their connections. In this case, we consider individuals who become infectious before symptoms generation and before detection (Dybiec et al 2004). Most of the epidemic diseases are spread through contacts between infective individuals’ people carrying the diseases) and the susceptible individuals (people with no disease, but can get it). In this case, two different cases are distinguished by the models of the epidemic. One is whereby the state of a person changes from susceptible to infected and from recovery again to susceptible. Secondly is the state change that evolve from susceptible to infected and then to recovered with presumptions that recovered person cannot again be infected (Bokharaie et al 2010). Global diffusion of epidemic is a case where an epidemic poses a risk in interconnected and interdependent world. Here, the model combines a stochastic local infection dynamic between people with stochastic network transport worldwide, accounting on national and international aviation traffic. Quiz 8: Factors affecting the spread of epidemics Transport networks such as air, land and sea transport continues to expand in reach of volume of passengers and goods carried, and the travelling speed. One of the consequences of the global transport network expansion is spreading of the epidemics, since people can now move faster and in great numbers than before. The efficiency, reach and speed of current transport networks pose a risk of infecting familiar diseases to populace, or totally infecting new diseases (Tatem et al 2011). On the other hand, lack of the right information on how to protect yourself and the people around in regards to the diseases, is another major factor that contributes to the spread of the epidemic. Some people spread the diseases without their knowledge, since they show no signs or symptoms, hence others spread in recovery time. This increases the epidemic, since people have no reason of taking the precautions in preventing transmission. Lack of information by health providers concerning the disease transmission, the host and environmental factors that starts, sustain and spread the epidemic is another challenge in epidemic spread. Poverty also contributes in spreading epidemics; the factor limits people in accessing health care and medication that help in preventing the spread. Climate plays a great role in spreading epidemics. After heavy rains, floods results in overflow of sewage and widespread of contaminated water. Additionally, pathogens can be spread through airstreams or wind from one region to another. Quiz 9, Therapy, vaccines and solutions by governments: Before the epidemic strikes, government and the populace are always on high alert. It is the responsibility of a government to provide the necessary facilities for prevention and treatment of the suspected disease. With this in mind, vaccinating people before the disease strike is important. In America, vaccination starts immediately after the arrival of the influenza vaccines. Kids are vaccinated as they attend their appointments and the patients with the high risk are reached out (asthmatic and cardiac patients) and parties are organized to for the sake of vaccinating a big number of people. Treatments of some epidemic diseases depend on indentifying the cause. Government should also organize a hand wash campaign in prevention of spreading diseases (Mercoka 2013). Quiz 10, Preventive solutions and preparedness plans processed before the epidemic: The health providers should alert the government on possible epidemic and guide them on what measures to be taken. The situation should be monitored through collecting reports, which may serve as a required assessment during epidemic. Implementation of a routine laboratory that is fully installed is necessary for sampling and controlling the clinical infections through the distribution of the ones that exists already. Risk of spreading the disease should be reduced during sampling and transporting. Additionally, safety laboratory requirements and health care assessment is necessary to prevent spreading of the diseases in health workers and also spreading in the environment. A research and study done on an epidemic helps in identifying the patterns on which the disease travel, how contagious the disease is, network structures in the affected population, the duration of infection and the curative method to be used. According to the Government of Serbia, (2005) successful preventive and preparedness process starts with planning and coordination. Ministry of health with other competent group initiates a harmonized plan which is implemented to protect the people from the diseases. Secondly, the situation is monitored and assessed according to how the disease spreads both locally and internationally. In the third step, prevention and containment measures are put in place, whereby facilities are provided in case of epidemic outbreak. On the other hand, the health system responds by providing adequate necessary conditions treatment and isolation of people suspected of infection as outbreak begin. Lastly, communication between the concerned groups is established as well as informing the media about the plan. Conclusion Conclusively, epidemics are disastrous and noticeably impacts people`s life. After an epidemic, people face critical and complex issues. From this perspective, reviewing historical records of epidemic diseases can help further outbreaks. This will help curtail the possibility of spreading the virus, which lead to epidemic level. Additionally, many of these diseases such as malaria and aids are entirely preventable due to the fact that they are not airborne. Virus carriers ought to be provided with right medication and education on the disease. Moreover, transmission of various infectious diseases is impacted by climatic conditions. Considering that pathogens spend better part of their life outside human body is climate susceptible. In this regard, issues on climate change should be considered to aid in advancing control interventions. Therefore, understanding how to prevent and control an epidemic is greatly significant. References Bhatia, R. & Nairan, J, P 2006, Preventing Avian Influenza in Humans: The Role of Simple Public Health Interventions. Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, Vol 37, NO 6 , 1229-1236. Bokharaie V. S et al 2010, Spread of Epidemics in Time-dependent Networks, Budapest,: MTNS. Bonnel, R 2000, HIV/AIDS and Economic Growth: A Global Perspective. South African Journal of Economics, Vol 68. , 820-855. Crafts, N. & Markus, H 2003, Welfare implications of HIV/AIDS. IMF working paper. Washington D.C.: International Monetary Fund. Dybiec, B. K et al 2004, Controlling Disease Spread on Networks With Incomplete Knowledge, Cambridge: University of Cambridge, Cambridge. India, G. F 2009 New Delhi: National Institute of Malaria Research. Mercoka,D2013,n.d.Mercola.com.[Online] Availableat:http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/01/22/flu-epidemic.aspx [Accessed Wednesday February 2013]. Nadu, S 2012, What are the main causes of Epidemic diseases ? Retrieved 03 27, 2013, from http://www.preservearticles.com/201101072771/main-causes-of-epidemic-diseases.html Oramasionwu, C. U 2011, The Environmental and Social Influences of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Focus on Rural Communities. International Journal of Environ Res Public Health Vol, 8 No, 7 , 2967–2979. Rothstein, M. A 2003, Quarantine and Isolation: Lessons Learned From SARS. Louisville: University of Louisville School of Medicine. Serbia, G 2006, Influenza Preparedness Plan before and durind Pandemic of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade: Government of Serbia. Sinha, M 2009, Swine Flu. Journal of Infection and Public Health , 157—166. Tatem, A, J et al 2011, Global Transport Network and Infectious diseases Spread. Pmc. United Nations 2003, The HIV/Aids Epidemic anD Its Social and Economic Implications. NewYork : Population Division, United Nations Secretariat. United Nations 2011, Non-communicable Diseases Deemed Development Challenge of Epidemic Proportions in Political Declaration Adopted During Landmark General Assembly Summit. New York: Department of Public Information • News and Media Division . WHO 2005, Interim WHO Clinical Staging of HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS Case Definations For Surveillance: Africa Region. Geneva: Department of HIV/AIDS. Read More