Health epidemiology & statistics - Essay Example

Hepatitis C as one of the emerging infectious diseases       Hepatitis C as one of the emerging infectious diseases Despite the numerous researches that have been conducted in relation to the prevention of the spread of diseases, there are still other forms of infectious diseases that have recently emerged. One of these is Hepatitis C. In this paper, the emergence of this infectious disease will be discussed at length. Other factors that contribute to its spread and rate of prevention will also be considered.

Hepatitis CHepatitis C is one of the communicable diseases that are part of the neoplastic or chronic disease. Together with Hepatitis B and Human Immunodeficiency virus, they are some of the exogenous transmissible agents that cause diseases.   Therefore, it is an infectious disease that primarily affects the liver. It results from the Hepatitis C virus or the HCV. Although the infection is usually asymptomatic, its chronic phase is characterized by a scarred liver and the subsequent development of liver cirrhosis.

This takes place after many years (Butt et al., 2010).Some of the key methods through which it is spread include blood-to-blood contact that may result from poor sterilization of medical equipment, intravenous use of drugs and transfusions. About 150 to 200 million people are infected with Hepatitis C all over the world. It is known to infect only human beings and chimpanzees. The virus is persistent in the liver of 85% of those who have been infected. Although there is no immunity against the disease, it can be treated and cured.

However, there is still a high and increasing morbidity, co-morbidities, and mortality of the disease (Sweeting, De Angelis, Ades, & Hickman, 2009).How the epidemiologic triad facilitates interventions at all three levels of prevention.The main factors that are associated with this are people, place and time, which form a significant part of the transmission mechanism. In relation to the people, there must be a susceptible host, who must have the necessary conditions of host defenses to enable disease prevention.

There is also an important component of place, which refers to the availability of a conducive site for the microbial agent to adhere, enter and infect thus causing the disease within the susceptible host. In terms of time, the natural settings provide a favorable environment for the agent to multiply and survive within the reservoir (Panduro et al., 2010).APN affects the primary, secondary, and tertiary interventions of hepatitis C in the sense that it provides both individual and population prevention methods.

Different strategies can be applied in the counselling, screening and therapeutic methods.TermsIncidence refers to the measure of a disease that provides the probability of a person to be infected by the said disease within a certain period. Prevalence is the ability to measure a condition and determine the likelihood of the person to get the disease.An Epidemic is the disease that affects more people than is usual or spreads to other uncommon regions.A Pandemic is used to refer to an epidemic that affects different populations worldwide (Butt et al., 2010). References Butt, S.

, Idrees, M., Akbar, H., ur Rehman, I., Awan, Z., Afzal, S., Hussain, A., Shahid, M.,        Manzoor, S., & Rafique, S. (2010). The changing epidemiology pattern and frequency    distribution of hepatitis C virus in Pakistan. Infection, Genetics & Evolution. Vol. 10 (5):          p595-600.Panduro, A., Roman, S., Khan, A., Tanaka, Y., Kurbanov, F., Martinez-Lopez, E., Campollo, O., Hernandez-Nazara, Z., & Mizokami, M. (2010).  Molecular epidemiology of hepatitis C           virus genotypes in West Mexico.

 Virus Research. Vol. 151 (1): p19-25.Sweeting, M. J., De Angelis, D., Ades, A. E., & Hickman, M. (2009). Estimating the prevalence  of ex-injecting drug use in the population. Statistical Methods in Medical Research. Vol. 18 (4):  p381-395.