Define endemic, epidemic, and pandemic, and provide an example of each. Describe a current epidemic. Describe one example of each of the prevention types (primary, secondary, and tertiary) that could be applied to control the epidemic.
Endemic, Epidemic and Pandemic Diseases
Introduction
Health is an important sector in every society. The docket is, however, challenging due to the many types of diseases that affect human beings. Diseases can be classified in various ways. The various types of diseases according to the effect and occurrence in society are discussed below.
Endemic diseases are diseases that are always present in a population. At any point in time, there are a number of people suffering from it. It may be rare; a good example being malaria in most parts of Africa and some parts of South America. An epidemic disease is a disease that rapidly spreads in a given area of infection. It only takes a short time and the disease is found to be present in a given area, a good example being Ebola. A pandemic disease is a new disease that spreads all around the world. A new disease pops up and finds its way to most parts of the world with no prevention measures or cure for the disease.
Pandemic influenza, for example, occurs if a new virus emerges and hits almost all parts of the world. As established by Deen et al (2017), Ebola has affected most parts of West Africa over the past few years having started in Guinea before finding its way to other West African countries. The bleeding involved was the most frightening symptom of the disease leading to the deaths of many individuals over a short period of time. Other signs included vomiting and diarrhoea. A primary prevention measure is taken to curb Ebola was coming up with a vaccine for the disease by the World Health Organization. The vaccine was put to test to minimize the rapid spread of the disease. A secondary measure taken involved moving around the areas affected and running tests to ensure the rest of the people are safe. An example of a tertiary measure taken to prevent the situation from getting worse was the isolation of Ebola patients to reduce the spread of the disease to the rest and also wearing of protective clothing by nurses and doctors.
All people working in the health docket have a big role to play in ensuring that diseases are dealt with at early stages to ensure the society is safe. New diseases have to be looked at before spreading to larger areas and striving to find a lasting measure to stop their infection.
Reference
Deen, G. F., Broutet, N., Xu, W., Knust, B., Sesay, F. R., McDonald, S. L., … & Liu, H. (2017). Ebola RNA persistence in semen of Ebola virus disease survivors. New England Journal of Medicine, 377(15), 1428-1437.