Communicable Diseases

Communicable diseases are very interesting to me. It is also a very important topic that I think everyone should be aware of. Communicable diseases have accounted for about 40% of the disease burden in low and middle income countries (Skolnik, 2012). I thought I knew enough general information about communicable diseases, however there is always something new to learn.

In this specific case I was amazed to discover that 75% of tuberculosis infections and deaths occur among 15-54 years old; another impressive number is the amount of infected people around the globe is about 2 billion globally, with 2 million deaths in 2004 (Ruxin, 2005). Like many diseases the communicable ones have a great effect on poor and vulnerable populations. I think rich countries- and rich people in particular -should be more aware of the situation and know that they can help prevent many of these deaths. I believe a big factor why the help is not offered in the right amounts is because of misinformation and lack of information on the subject. For example, I thought that malaria was an old, almost extinct, disease.  It is incredible that even though it is a preventable disease it still causes over 1 million deaths each year, especially in children under 5 years of age (Ruxin, 2005). I hate thinking that children are the ones that suffer from this disease; it is not fair for them, their family and communities.

I think society should be aware of all the ways they can help and prevent such diseases, and should know about; the tools that are in their hands in order to decrease these rates of communicable disease. We as a society should think always of the best approaches we can take to help our world no matter distance or ethnicity. We should know that even just by covering your mouth when sneezing and washing your hands frequently could prevent the spread of many communicable diseases. On the other hand where HIV is transmitted in a different way it is our job to inform people about the risks they encounter and ways to prevent infection. I believe that many of these diseases rates can decreased if everybody would become aware of them. One way is by starting to inform ourselves that way we can teach our kids since they will be in charge of the future of our world.

By Joselyn Azuaje

Works cited

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Skolnik, E. Global Health 101. 2do Edition. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning

Ruxin, Josh, Joan Paluzzi, Paul Wilson, Yesim Tozan, Margaret Kruk, and Awash Teklehaimanot. (2005). Emerging consensus in HIV/AIDS, Malaria, tuberculosis, and access to essential medicines. Millennium Project. 365: 618-621.