Mod 7-8 Quiz Flashcards
Burden of Disease Caused by communicable diseases
- Caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites
- Used to be leading cause of death and disability
- Last half of 20th century showed brief respite due to vaccines and elimination programs
- Turmoil in 2000s due to antibiotic resistance and failure to sustain elimination programs
- Potential of pandemic (COVID)
- Solutions: public health management and interventions
Koch’s Postulates: 4 Conditions to Establish Contributory Cause
- Evidence of an epidemiological association between the organism and disease
- Isolation of organism from most infected cases
- Ongoing transmission, establishing pathogen is contributor cause of disease
Identify the routes of communicable diseases transmission
- Route of transmission: anatomical and physical methods for transmission from person to person and from animal species to humans
- Asymptomatic Transmission: ability to transmit the disease while humans or animals are free of symptoms (carrier)
What is R0?
- Reproduction ratio
- Measure of inherent transmissibility
- Measure average # of infections produced by infected person exposed to a susceptible population
- Depends on route of transmission and presence of asymptomatic transmission
What are the public health tools that are available to address burden of disease and prevent communicable diseases?
- Barrier protections
- Vaccinations
- Screening and case finding
- Contact Treatment
- Efforts to maximize effectiveness of treatments and prevent resistance to treatment
Barrier Protections
- Insecticide: decrease malaria transmission
- Condoms
- Masks
- Isolation and quarantine
Vaccinations
- Strengthen immune system to prevent disease
- Passive immunity
- Inactivated and live vaccines
- Create herd immunity
Screening and case finding
- Screening controls spread of infections, contract tracing
- Linked with case finding
- Confidential interviewing of those diagnosed with disease
- Key to control syphilis and TB before and affect effective treatment
Contact Treatment
prevention of contact with disease
Efforts to maximize effectiveness of treatments and prevent resistance to treatment
- Treatment of symptomatic reduce risk of infectivity
- Epidemiological Treatment: treatment of contacts, effective in controlling the # of people with disease
What does it mean if R0 is greater than 1?
Indicates infection can increase over time -> produce epidemic
What are the big 3 communicable diseases?
- HIV/AIDS
- TB
- Malaria
Causes of Drug Resistance
- Overuse of prescribed antibiotics
- over the counter sales of antibiotics
- Widespread use in agricultural animals
What is DOT?
- directly observed therapy
- Effective even in presence of drug resistance
- ensures complete adherence to treatment by observing individuals taking treatment at certain intervals
Agent
Factor, like microorganism, who presence, excessive presence, or relative absence is essential for occurrence of disease
Anthroponoses
Diseases that can transfer human to animal
Carrier
- A person or animal without symptoms who can spread an infectious agent to others.
-It can be short or long term, occurring during different stages of illness.
Disease Control
Reducing the # of new infections, # of people currently infected, and # who become sick/ die from disease in local settings
How can malaria be controlled?
Bed net, mosquito control and treatment
Elimination of a disease
Reduction to zero of incidence of a disease in a specific area from deliberate efforts taken to eradicate it, still need to take intervention measures
Endemic
Disease is constantly present at certain geographical location
Epidemic
large increase in new cases of disease in certain geographical area
Eradication of Disease
Like elimination of disease except intervention measures no longer needed
Incidence
Number of new cases of a disease
Pandemic
Significant global increase in prevalence of a disease, COVID
Reservoir
Habitat where infectious agent lives, grows, multiplies
- Human, animal, or environment
Reservoir host
- Host serves as source of infection and potential reinfection of humans or animals
- means of sustaining a parasite when not infecting humans
Vector
an animate intermediary in the indirect transmission of agent that carries the agent from a reservoir to a susceptible host
Zoonoses
infectious disease that is transmissible under normal conditions from animals to humans
Environmental Risk Assessment
examines environmental risks that may pose a threat to animals, people or ecosystems
Scope of Environmental Health
- Impact of the environment on human health
- Influences all aspects of our lives
Scope of morbidity and mortality caused by physical environment
- DALYs -> report impact of environmental factors
- Air pollution has greatest environmental impact on health
Significance of DALYS
- May not see real impact when measured only in terms of mortality without disability
Interactions between humans and environment
- Route of exposure (can determine impact): skin, lungs, GI track
- Timing of exposure: short or long, low or high dose
- Stage of life: age, pregnant
- Other diseases
- Special sensitivities: allergies
Risk Assessment
Aims to measure the potential impact of 1 known hazard, focuses only on health impacts on humans, assumption each exposure stands on its own
Public Health Assessment
Goes beyond risk assessment by including data on actual exposure in a community, boarder than risk assessment, only on basis of human health
Ecological Risk Assessment
Follows impacts of pollution on plants and animals in a natural ecosystem
Interaction Analysis
- Takes into account exposure of two or more containment, 2nd exposure can exastribute the first
- Smoking and radon example -> increase chances of lung cancer
Intentional Injuries
injuries that are brought about on purpose, whether the injury is self-inflicted or meant for others
Unintentional Injuries
More common than intentional, injuries not done on purpose like car crashes, drowning, falls, etc.
Environmental Justice
- Environmental risks are not uniformly distributed across groups of people
- Age, poverty, social status
WHO 3 main objectives
- Promote actions that both reduce carbon emissions and improve health
- Build better, more climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health systems
- Protect health from wide range of impacts of climate change
