PLEASE RESPOND TO EACH STUDENTS DICUSSION POST. MINIMUM WORDS COUNT IS 100. PLEASE INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE PERSON YOU ARE REPLYING TO.

PLEASE RESPOND TO EACH STUDENTS DICUSSION POST. MINIMUM WORDS COUNT IS 100. PLEASE INCLUDE THE NAME OF THE PERSON YOU ARE REPLYING TO.

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Corey Nutini 

Week 4 Discussion 1

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            Controlling the spread of MRSA and Ebola, two regularly reemerging infectious diseases, is likely to be effective with individually focused monitoring measures put in place.  However, one area of significant note that could help reduce to spread of both illnesses is tied to the hospital setting and nosocomial infections. 

            Ebola infections could be reduced if more stringent monitoring was put in place for recovered individuals.  It is possible for these individuals to continue spreading the virus through contact of bodily fluids if they still have any remnant virus particles in their blood.  An effective intervention would be to educate these individuals are their risks as carriers for an extended period and to monitoring their blood work until samples come back free of the virus or any virus particles (WHO, 2020).  There are also vaccines in human testing trials that have high potential for helping to prevent future outbreaks (WHO, 2020). 

            For the spread of MRSA, it actually began as a nosocomial infection that later spread to the surrounding communities due to the antibiotic resistant bacteria (Street, 2010).  The most used method for battling he spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria is through the prescription of stronger antibiotics that these bacteria have not yet been exposed to however, this is only a band aid as eventually the bacteria will become resistant to those antibiotics as well.   

            How can we use the hospital setting to control and further reduce the presence of these infections?  When an individual is ill, especially with debilitating infectious such as Ebola and MRSA, they are likely to present to a hospital for care.  When these infected individuals show up at the hospital, the next people at greatest risk are the healthcare workers as the first line of defense for patient treatment.  The first area to focus on for reducing the spread of these infections is by providing proper education and protective equipment to the staff treating these individuals.  For treating individuals with Ebola or MRSA, it is recommended that the staff wear gloves, gowns, facemask, and some form of eye protection (WHO, 2020).  With more stringent active surveillance in place, potential patients could be identified faster, allowing the staff to take the proper precautions earlier. 

            While these strategies may seem minor, they can have substantial effects for highly contagious infections such as Ebola and MRSA.  The hospital setting provides a significant risk for spread since infected individuals will report for care as well as health individuals visiting family, or going to a doctors appointment.  By focusing on slowing and preventing the spread of these infections in the hospital setting can help dramatically lower prevalence rates if the infections are identified earlier and placed under the correct precautions. 

 

References:

Ebola Virus Disease. (February 10, 2020). World Health Organization. Retrieved July 28, 2020,

from https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/ebola-virus-disease

Street, C. (October 20, 2010). Emergence of MRSA – The Roots of the Problem. MRSA topic.

Retrieved July 28,2020, from https://mrsatopic.com/2010/10/emergence-of-mrsa-the-roots-of-the-problem/

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Kellie Sams 

Week 4 discussion #2

Although extensive efforts are going on in the world to eradicate HIV, its global presence is still ongoing. There are two other important diseases, namely tuberculosis, and malaria, that are also very important and cause numerous deaths every year, but they do not get as much media attention as HIV.

An epidemic is a disease that affects the population of a specific region of the world, and a pandemic is a large scale epidemic that occurs across the globe. According to a report issued by the World Health Organization, tuberculosis mostly affects children, women, and men in the developing regions of the world. Therefore tuberculosis and malaria are better described as epidemics, but they are epidemics that need urgent attention. 

Malaria has been reported by the World Health Organization to contribute to 405,000 deaths in 2018, and most of the fatalities are of African children under five years old. (The world malaria report at a glance, 2019) As far as tuberculosis is concerned, reports from the World Health Organization show that two million people died of the disease in 2018. (Tuberculosis, 2020) 

HIV caused 770,000 deaths in the year 2018, and that shows us that although the disease is usually termed as a pandemic, the mortalities that it is causing is either less or similar to tuberculosis and malaria, which are termed as epidemics.  Therefore it is highly essential to give a lot of importance to tuberculosis and malaria in order to combat these diseases. 

There is an immediate need to make the global citizenry understand how lethal the ongoing presence of malaria and tuberculosis epidemic still is in various regions of the world. More funding and resources should be directed toward the development of effective vaccines against these diseases, and the availability of such vaccines to the vulnerable populations should be ensured.

References

1. Tuberculosis (March 24, 2020). World Health Organization. Retrieved on July 29, 2020 from website https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tuberculosis

2. The world malaria report at a glance (December 4, 2019). Retrieved on July 29, 2020 from website https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/world-malaria-report-2019

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