Infectious diseases are a significant burden on the public health and the economic stability of societies all over the world. For centuries there have been among the leading causes of death and disability and presented growing challenges to health security and human progress. The threat posed by infectious disease is further deepened by the continued emergence of new unrecognized and old infectious disease epidemics of global impact. Nursing assignment help, In the last three and half decades thirty new infectious agents affecting humans have emerged most of which are zoonotic and their origin has been shown to correlate significantly with socioeconomic, environmental and ecological factors. As these factors continue to increase putting people in increased contact and the disease-causing pathogen there is concern that infectious diseases continue to present a formidable challenge. Constant awareness and pursuance of effective strategies for controlling infectious disease and disease emergence thus remain crucial.
A disease is any condition that impairs the normal function of the body organ or system of the psyche or the organism as a whole which is associated with specific signs and symptoms. Factors that lead to organ system function impairment may be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic factor arises from within the host and may be due to the genetic features of the organism or any disorder within the host that interfere with the normal functional process of a body organ system. An example of a genetic disease is sickle cell anemia characterized by pain leading to organ damage due to defect in the hemoglobin of the red blood cells which occur due to result in a change of single base-pair thymine to adenine in a gene responsible for encoding one of the protein chains of the hemoglobin. Extrinsic factors are those that access a host’s system when a host contacts an agent from outside. Nursing assignment help Australia, An example is the bite of anopheles mosquitoes that transmits the plasmodium falciparum parasite which causes malaria. A disease that occurs through the invasion of a host by a foreign agent whose activities harm or impairs the normal functioning of the host’s organ or system is referred to as an infectious disease. Infectious diseases are generally caused by microorganisms. They derive their importance from the type and extent of damage their causative agents inflict on organs or systems they gain entry into the host. Entry into the host is mainly through such as mouth eyes genital opening nose and skin. Damage to tissues mainly results from the growth and metabolic process of infectious agents intracellular or within body fluids and within the production and release of toxins and enzymes that interfere with the normal function of the organ and systems. This product may be distributed and cause damage to another organ system such that pathogens consequently invade more organs or systems. Naturally, the host elaborates the defense mechanism, the immune system fights infectious agents and eliminates them. Thus all infectious diseases emerge at some point in time in a given population and in a given context and environment. By understanding the dynamics of disease and means of contracting its methods of fighting, preventing, and controlling are developed. however, some pathogens after apparent elimination and a period of dormancy are able to acquire properties that enable them to reinfect their original and new host usually in increasing alarming proportion.
The concept of the emerging disease appeared over time but began to receive attention in the late 1960s and mid-1970s with the sudden appearance of viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever, or ebola fever. Nursing assignment help Australia Emerging Infectious Disease received greater attention with the appearance of another severe syndrome in the 1980s during which big epidemic of HIV/AIDS occurred. The term emerging and reemerging disease is used to refer to diseases of infectious origin who incidence in human has either increased within the past two decades and threaten to increase in near future.
Emerging Infectious diseases thus fall under two major categories newly emerging and reemerging infectious disease. Newly emerging refers to diseases that have been discovered in the human host or population for the first time reemerging infectious disease may be defined as infectious that reappear usually in the more pathogenic form in rapidly increasing incidence or new geographic locations after apparent control or eradication. Emerging infections have featured prominently in the course of human history, they have caused great harm to humanity. They represent a great threat to humanity, therefore, deserve awareness and preparedness at all times.
Major causes of infectious disease emergence
Emergence or reemergence of the infectious disease occurs over time, prior to causing an epidemic infectious disease agent to go through different stages of adaptation to access or acquire pathogenic characteristics in a new host. Specific processes such as gene mutation gene recombination or reassortment as well as factors that affect microbial agents to change reservoir hosts constitute opportunities for the infectious agents to evolve, adapt to the new hosts in the new ecological niches,s, and fuel microbial adaptation to the human hosts. Sociodemographic factors such as the increase in population density, falling living standards, the decline of infrastructure, human travel, conflict, social instability, the killing of wild animals for meat all lead to increasing host-microbe contact which facilitates infection in humans, which facilitates infection in human. Nursing assignment help, there are also some pathogens whose emergence is as a result of deliberate human action, these are employed as biological weapons for destruction and their emergence is deliberate.
Besides host environmental factors changes or mutation in the genome of the pathogen result in exposure to the chemical and antimicrobial agent and lead to gene damage and the emergence of drug-resistant pathogen variants that could cause new disease. Thus, microbial and environmental factors constitute major causes of infectious disease emergence and virulence or pathogenic potential depends on the complex combination of these factors. Infectious diseases constitute a significant proportion of all human diseases known.60 million death occur worldwide is due to infectious disease. Neglected infectious diseases cause the death of half-million of people worldwide and rendered 1 billion people chronically infected. There are myriad examples that underscore the gravity of the impact infectious diseases have had on humans. In the middle ages, the Black death killed 30-60% of Europe’s population.