Discussion: The Public Health Burden of Infectious Disease
Control of infectious disease remains a major focus of many public health efforts. Today, less-developed countries often bear the brunt of many of the world’s infectious diseases, including those caused by mosquitoes, worms, and other tropical parasites. However, there are many types of infectious disease that are not limited to geographic boundaries and have been known to cause world-wide pandemics, including plague, smallpox, and influenza. In this Discussion, you have the opportunity to discuss a few of the overarching themes that relate to infectious disease.
To prepare for this discussion:
After reviewing the resources for this module, reflect on the following items before responding to the discussion prompts in the next section:
Think about a challenging aspect of parasitic disease that interests you, such as reducing morbidity (illness), reducing mortality (deaths), or preventing new cases. How are poverty and parasitic infections related and how does infection vary by geographic location? How might your tactics differ based on geographic location? If you had 20 million dollars to allocate to a poor country, what would you do with it in order to achieve the greatest impact on the parasitic disease burden in that country? What are the most effective control strategies? Are there any positive health aspects to certain types of parasitic infections? How might cultural competence factor into achieving your goal(s)?
Think about a challenging aspect of a particular infectious disease that interests you and about the challenges for prevention and control of this disease. For example, does this disease already have a vaccination, and if so, is the challenge in getting people to get vaccinated, or in creating a vaccine, or something else? How does the biology of a virus (for example, influenza or HIV) or bacteria (for example, TB or MRSA) present a challenge for its control? How can/do some organisms cause pandemics and how are different species (humans, animals) involved in that process? What do you think may be the next infectious disease pandemic, and why? What organisms do you think are most at risk for bioterrorism use, and why? What efforts are in place to prevent infectious disease related bioterrorism, and are they sufficient?
Think about the role of antibiotics for control of infectious disease today. What are the primary public health concerns for antibiotic use today? Should there be a ban on certain antibacterial products? Why or why not? Who is responsible for prevention and control of multi-drug resistant infections and is enough being done to curb them? Are we at risk of running out of effective antibiotics in the future? Why or why not?
Respond to the following points in your initial posting, using section headers to organize your responses:
Select and describe one challenge for either prevention or control of a parasitic disease (e.g. malaria, helminths) and describe two examples of how this challenge is currently being addressed in public health practice. In your response, explain the issue and the particular barriers, and support your ideas with resources. Try to choose a topic that has not already been posted by others to expand the knowledge set.
Select and describe one challenge for either prevention or control of a particular infectious disease and describe two examples of how this challenge is currently being addressed in public health practice. In your response, explain the issue and the particular barriers, and support your ideas with resources. Try to choose a topic that has not already been posted by others to expand the knowledge set.
Select and describe one challenge for prevention or control of a particular antibiotic resistance situation and describe two examples of how this challenge is currently being addressed in public health practice. In your response, explain the issue and the particular barriers, and support your ideas with resources. Try to choose a topic that has not already been posted by others to expand the knowledge set.
RESOURCES
Battle, C. U. (2009). Essentials of public health biology: A guide for the study of pathophysiology. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Chapter 21, “Soil-Transmitted Helminths: Worms Are the Most Common Pathogens of Mankind” (pp. 287–298)
Chapter 22, “Malaria: The Challenge of Scaling-Up Multiple Effective Tools” (pp. 301–307)
Chapter 23, “Tuberculosis: The Deadly Comeback of an Old Infectious Disease” (pp. 311–318)
Chapter 24, “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS): History and Time Line” (pp. 321–331)
Chapter 25, “HIV: Biology, Transmission, and Natural History in Humans” (pp. 335–341)
Chapter 26, “Afterword: The HIV/AIDS Epidemic” (pp. 345–346)
Chapter 27, “Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA): A Deadly Superbug” (pp. 347–356)
Chapter 28, “Meningococcal Meningitis: It Strikes Without Warning” (pp. 359–367)
Chapter 29, “Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Infection and Immunization” (pp. 371–375)
Chapter 30, “Helicobacter Infection and Peptic Ulcer” (pp. 379–384)
Chapter 31, “Avian and Seasonal Influenza” (pp. 387–394)
Chapter 32, “Bioterrorism: Medical and Public Health Implications” (pp. 397–406)
Campeau, L., Degroote, S., Ridde, V., Carabali, M., & Zinszer, K. (2018). Containment measures for emerging and re-emerging vector-borne and other infectious diseases of poverty in urban settings: a scoping review. Infectious Diseases of Poverty, 7(1), 1-16.
Perez-Rodriguez, F., & Mercanoglu, T. B. (September 06, 2019). A State-of-Art Review on Multi-Drug Resistant Pathogens in Foods of Animal Origin: Risk Factors and Mitigation Strategies. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10.
Princess, I., & Vadala, R. (2018). Pleuropulmonary parasitic infections of present times-A brief review. Journal of Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, 8(4), 165–180.
Resources for Assignment
National Institutes for Health (NIH). (2017). Clear Communication, Cultural Respect. Retrieved from https://www.nih.gov/institutes
Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA). (2017). Culture, Language and Health Literacy. Retrieved from https://www.hrsa.gov/cultural-
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Outreach Activities & Resources. (2017). Multi-Cultural Resources for Health Information, Cultural Competency. Retrieved from https://sis.nlm.nih.gov/outrea
Administration for Community Living (ACL). (2017). Diversity and Cultural Competency. Retrieved from https://www.acl.gov/programs/s
