Essays on Infectious Diseases

Teen drug addiction is a major problem present in the society, and delinquent youth often end up relapsing into their addiction after they have been undergoing treatment and have stayed in a correctional facility. It is true to the extent that many youths who have been admitted to juvenile correctional facilities have faced educational, financial and family issues which have made them delinquent and residing to drugs. Amongst those in the facility and under judicial orders were those, who were regular drug abusers and were found guilty on multiple occasions. Relapsing into a former condition will have various factors ...

Introduction

The Ebola virus has existed for centuries. Like all life forms and viruses, it has been changing and adapting since the beginning of time to survive. Despite this the disease did not make itself known until the twentieth century. However, once the virus revealed itself only three major outbreaks have occurred. There were two in 1976 and one which took started in 2014 (CDC, 2015). The latest outbreak has been the longest and worst, effecting numerous countries such as, Mali, Nigeria, Liberia and Senegal in West Africa (CDC, 2015). This paper will look at the scientific aspects of the ...

Diagnosis

The diagnosis that can be made from the symptoms of the patient is community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). CAP is a severe disease of the lungs that occurs in people who do not have regular access to health care services. The risk factors of CAP include old age and medical comorbidities. CAP has been defined as comprising of chest pain, productive cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, fever, sweating and shaking chills (Musher, & Thorner, 2014). Bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumonia, atypical organisms such as Mycoplasma pneumonia, fungi, and viruses may cause pneumonia.

Gram Staining

The sputum taken from the lungs after a deep cough ...

Abstract

In the last century, the knowledge of molecular biology has increased, opening new opportunities for addressing different diseases that have been affecting all populations. Before, genome and proteomic studies were seen as complicated field due to inability to get significance understanding of disease components at the molecular level. However, with the expansion of molecular biology, different techniques and tools have been developed to aid diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this study, these tools have been investigated to understand how the knowledge on molecular diagnosis helps in detection and treatment of diseases. This study focused on the application of ...

The topic I have chosen for this assignment is “Home health care patients and safety hazard at home”, from the risk assessment topic. This teaching exemplar can be used to educated home healthcare nurse’s organization. Sollecito & Johnson (2013), identified clinical microsystem as the place where most of the errors and mistakes that affect health care quality and safety arise. The clinical microsystem is formed by healthcare personals who work directly with the patient and their families (Sollecito & Johnson 2013). Background: Home health care is a fast growing industry. All of the healthcare that is provided at home comes ...

Introduction

Zika virus also termed as ZIKV is a known to have gained worldwide attention, especially in the USA, South East Asia, and Australia. The Zika belongs to the Flaviviridae family which comes under the genus Flavivirus (Wikan & Smith. 2016). The Zika virus is spread though day time mosquitoes belonging to the Aedes family. Some of the most common mosquitoes to contain and spread Zika include A. aegypti and A. albopictus. The name of Zika originated in 1947 where it was first isolated from the Zika forest in Uganda. Based on evidence, the Zika virus was associated with varying viral ...

Q1: Prioritizing patient care will help to complete nurse’s shift duties without any adverse patient complication. Prioritizing will help to plan out the day and in managing the cases in the most effective way (Alfaro-LeFevre 2014). The best path to plan care for the patient with different medical and surgical priorities is to set timed objectives and meet the discharge goals based on the urgency of the medical or surgical condition. The handover from the staff of the previous shift provided the information for 4 patients, of which Lucy’s condition is more of an emergency that will ...

The purpose of this paper is to present a research proposal for nurse hand hygiene practices in a hospital setting. The paper will provide an introduction and literature review in order to identify gaps in the literature with respect to hand hygiene practice in hospitals. Finally, the paper will present a research project to address the issue. 1. Introduction The relationship between nosocomial infections and hand hygiene has long been understood and established with Larson’s publication in 1988. Although hand washing had been established as a cornerstone of nursing practice, by 2003 compliance in hand hygiene in hospitals ...

Critical thinking

Explain what Mucor is and how a patient is likely to become infected with Mucor. Mucormycosis is a condition that is usually caused by mucor mycetes which are typically a group of molds. The condition is rate but in its prevalence it has been associated with high mortality and morbidity rates due to little knowledge of the condition and the fact that patients rarely present with this condition. Once identified rightly, the condition is very manageable and curable. Mucor mostly affects people with a compromised immune system and it may occur in any part of the body where the ...

Introduction

Biological attacks include the use of biological agents such as bacteria, fungus, and toxins from living creatures for intentional or threatened purposes to cause deaths or diseases to human populations, plants, and other animals. Therefore, biological agents can be considered as microorganisms, which affect the normal functioning of other living things by imposing diseases or even deaths. Biological agents attack continues to pose great threat majorly to the world population with majority concern being given to its ability to bring massive loss of lives to individuals. It’s, therefore, a major concern for the law enforcement agencies and medical ...

Paper 2

Ontario’s HPV Vaccination Program In this paper, I present arguments that are supportive of the ethical inappropriateness of the Ontario government’s HPV vaccination initiative. I also aim at revealing the ineffectiveness of the program as a public health strategy constructed to combat cervical cancer. The program is ineffective in combating cervical cancer because the interventions arising from the screening program poses risks on women and especially the ones of childbearing age. In addition, I will use the utilitarian approach to support my views. In September 2007, the Ontario Liberal Government began a Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination ...

2A. Appraising Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Quantitative Study One source of bias during data collection is the use of self-report data (Polit & Beck 2012). Chivers et al. (2001) obtained data through the SF-36 and Beck depression inventory which required the patients to answer questionnaires. If they failed to give accurate answers, it would have affected the validity of the findings. The study design also allowed patients to receive other clinically appropriate treatments that were beyond the study protocol (Chivers et al. 2001). Additional treatments are confounding variables but their influence on the study outcomes was not estimated in the statistical analysis. This reduces confidence in ...

Immune System

(Author, Department, University,

Immune System

Introduction

The human immune system is a complex system consisting of a network of numerous cells and cell types, tissues, and organs working together to defend the human body from foreign bodies such as invading microorganisms, infections, and tumors, while ignoring the normal working and healthy parts of the body.

Discussion

Working of the immune system The immune system has different ways of identifying problems, communicating with other cells, and performing their activities. The immune system has the ability to distinguish healthy cells from unhealthy cells as it can recognize a number of different “danger” cues ...

Abstract

Infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms. Various groups of microorganisms exists and include bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses. Ideally, infectious diseases can rapidly spread from one person to another, or from one animal to another. The signs and symptoms of these diseases vary from one individual to another, but majorly consists of coughing, fatigue, breathing difficulties. In addition, mild infections may sometimes depict responsiveness to rest and home assistance. The case discussed in this paper involves an individual who seems to have contacted some air bone infections while moving up using the lift. The most likely disease, in relation ...

Nutritional stress is one of the basic causes of a variety of diseases. Food processing industries across the world convert whole grains, vegetables, meat, and dairy products into convenient forms for the consumption of the end users. For instance, most of the processed foods individuals consume nowadays are loaded with sugar and other chemicals. Sugar does not contain any essential nutrients and only provides the body excess calories and energy. Studies have repeatedly proven the harmful effects of sugar to the human body as it affects the normal metabolism (Stanhope, Schwarz & Havel, 2013). Processed foods cause obesity which in ...

Ontario’s HPV Vaccination Program

In this paper, I present arguments that are supportive of the ethical inappropriateness of the Ontario government’s HPV vaccination initiative. I also aim at revealing the ineffectiveness of the program as a public health strategy constructed to combat cervical cancer. In addition, I will use the utilitarian approach to support my views.

The Ontario HPV Program Overview

In September 2007, the Ontario Liberal Government began a Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination intervention for female eighth-graders (Thompson, 2013; CIHR- IPPH, 2012). The federal government made an allocation of $ 300 million towards the intervention. Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, targets four subtypes of the virus. These ...

What public- and private-sector resources could be used to respond to the threat?

First of all, it is essential to be aware of the fact that the act of chemical or biological terrorism may range from the food product contamination to the aerosolized anthrax spores’ dissemination. That is why, it is almost impossible to make the forecasts regarding the time of occurrence of particular terroristic act as well as the place and method, used for this purpose. At the same time, it is obvious that the public- and private-sector should not ignore the probability of such forms of terrorism. This statement may be supported by increased rates of the frequency of such ...

In the last years of the 1970s, there was global concern over the discovery of a deadly virus that resulted in outbreaks of a hemorrhagic fever in West Africa (Peters & LeDuc, 1999). The high rate of death and the contagious nature of the disease was a cause of concern to the international medical community and researchers combined efforts to discover the cause, etiology, effective therapies, and methods of control of what would come to be known as the Ebola virus. Although there have been few cases reported outside West Africa, the potential for the spread of the disease prompts ...

NAMEUNIVERSITY

Emerging infections are defined by Friis and Sellers (2014) as infectious diseases which were just lately identified and classified taxonomically. The majority of them can cause strong and dangerous epidemics. The term is opposed to the term reemerging infections, which denotes “. . . some ‘old’ diseases, for example, tuberculosis or syphilis, that were renewed because of changed conditions in the chain host-agent-environment (Friis and Sellers, 2014). Beltz (2011) describes such emerging diseases as HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, Lyme disease, Respiratory distress syndrome, Lassa fever, Cholera and others. In most cases emerging infections are not caused by mutations in a pathogen (Beltz, 2011). Lashley ( ...

Introduction

Antibiotics are a class of drugs that are mostly used to treat infections caused by bacteria. Uncountable bacteria live in various parts the human body. These include the gut, skin, mouth and throats (Gelband et. al, 2015). Some of these bacteria are harmless. However, there are others that are pathogenic (disease causing) and can cause infections. These infections are known as bacterial infections and doctors prescribe antibiotics as mode of treatment. Antibiotics were introduced in 1940 and since then they have been significant to modern medicine. The core role of antibiotics was to treat infections caused by bacteria. However, ...

Focusing solely on the map and two graphs that contain data for Colorado, the most feasible research proposal to develop would be one that answers the question “is there a correlation between health, level of income, and the prevalence of cardiovascular disease among various population based on income groups in Colorado”. When developing a research question, narrowing it down based on several criteria is among the hardest steps to accomplish. However, this was made easier in this case thanks to the defined availability of data. So far, three groups of data were already available and so the most sensible ...

I can remember some things about my childhood, yet many others are very fuzzy. After asking my older sister, many things came to mind. For example, I was a picky eater, something that probably came from my father. Furthermore, I did not suffer from many infectious diseases because I liked to wash my hands a lot. Finally, I did sustain many injuries because I liked to play outside a lot and was very energetic; fortunately, none of them were serious. As a child, there were many things I did not eat. What was most complicated was that I did ...

Every person is obliged to the right to eat for a healthy living. However, some people especially children do not get enough food to eat, or when they do, they eat without necessarily wondering about the kind of foods they eat, something that can result to malnutrition. Malnutrition is a body condition that develops when the body fails to get balanced nutrients as well as minerals and vitamins required for body development. Malnutrition can also refer to as poor nutrition, falling under either over nutrition or under nutrition. Over-nutrition is a condition where people get more nutrients than the ...

Analysis of Diseases

Overview Chikungunya (CHIK) refers to a re-emerging arboviral disease transmitted by the mosquitos Aedes aegypty and Aedes albopictus (Pialoux 318). The virus belongs to the genus Alphavirus and family Togaviridae. The word chikungunya derives from Makonde language (spoken in Tanzania and northern Mozambique), where it means “to walk bent over” (Halstead 557). This name refers to the main feature of both chronic and acute phase of the disease a change in posture causes by the arthritis and arthralgia (Charrel, Lamballerie and Raoult 769).

History

The disease gained its name after the outbreak in Tanganyika, the modern Tanzania in 1952. However, ...

According to Mittal, and Vikas (330), a business continuity plan is an outline that an enterprise develops about the core activities to undertake after an emergency or disastrous event happen to the organization. Let us take for instance when a company is faced with fire outbreak, the plan that it would write down to follow after the incident is a business continuity plan. It involves planning for the essential goods or services that the company can continue to offer for the market. It also sets up the departments that need to be operational as the company recovers towards the ...

This refers to moulds of a particularly microbial genus commonly found in the digestive system, decaying vegetable matter, plant surfaces, and soil. Depending on the route of infection, mucor can result in two types of infection (Ibrahim, Spellberg, Walsh, & Kontoyiannis, 2012). In the case of pulmonary exposure, the victim inhales fungal spores found in the environment which may cause an infection to develop in the sinuses, face, eyes and lungs. During cutaneous exposure, the fungus enters the skin via puncture wounds, cuts, or scrapes. Mucormycosis, though rare is an infection attributed to the organisms belonging to a group of ...

India and China Economic Conditions

The economic conditions of India and China are among the largest economies in the world. Economic conditions refer to the various economic indicators used to define the state of the economy of a nation such as the GDP, GDP per Capita, Population, poverty headcount and headcount ratio, poverty index, measures of health and Gini index. The differences in size, composition and other qualitative and quantitative factors stand stark contrast when comparing India and China (Barnes, 44) India has a smaller economy, about a fifth, compared to China. It imports are a fraction of Chinas, as are the exports. India’ ...

Introducing the Microorganism

Candida albicans is a human microbiome member. It is opportunistic in nature and exists as a non- harmful resident of the genitourinary tract in 70% and of oral cavity in 75% of humans. It has shown opportunistic behaviour leading to infections in case of individuals whose immune system is compromised (immunocompromised). C. albicans is mainly responsible for 2 types of infection: superficial candidiasis like vulvovaginal or oral infections and systemic life-threatening infections. C. albicans has been observed to cause vulvovaginal candidiasis in approximately 75% of women. C. albicans is an obligate and diploid organism possessing 8 pairs of chromosomes, ...

Flu is a viral disease that influences for the most part the nose, throat, bronchi and, once in a while, lungs. Disease typically goes on for around a week, and is portrayed by sudden onset of high fever, hurting muscles, cerebral pain and extreme disquietude, non-beneficial hack, sore throat and rhinitis (WHO, 2016). The name "flu" started in fifteenth century Italy, from a plague ascribed to "impact of the stars." The principal pandemic, or overall pestilence, that unmistakably fits the portrayal of flu was in 1580. No less than four pandemics of flu happened in the nineteenth century, and ...

Tuberculosis is a disease, which was known for mankind since ancient times. There are often suffering symptoms of tuberculosis in Egyptian mummies. Information about it is remained in the Indian Vedas, the ancient Babylonian clay tablets in the Greek manuscripts. Even Hippocrates knew how dangerous tuberculosis disease of the lungs is. In the eighteenth century every seventh inhabitant of Europe died because of tuberculosis. Infectiousness of tuberculosis has been already known for a long period of time. German scientist Robert Koch, bacteriologist was the first one 1882 to discover mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1882. This is the microbe that under ...

International Comparison of Data

International Comparison of Data Health indicators are defined by health scientists as quantitative features used to define health status of a population. Health indicators have direct influences on the health of a community and the indicators are used to characterize the health quality of the community. The United States and most of the European countries have favorable health indicators compared to other developed counties. The research paper is going to compare the health indicators of three countries including United States, Denmark and Ethiopia. Health indicators are used by the governments and other health agencies in guiding the healthy policy ...

Abstract

Handwashing is an important process in controlling microorganism transmission and infectious diseases. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effectiveness of different antibacterial hand cleaners (soap, alcohol hand sanitizer and ethanol soaked wipes) on killing bacteria. Hands were sampled without cleaning with antibacterial hand cleaner (control), and after cleaning with antibacterial soap, alcohol sanitizer, and ethanol soaked wipes. Samples were taken with a sterile cotton swab and inoculated on agar plates. Each experiment was done three times. Colonies were counted, mean values and standard deviation were calculated, and data was reported. Alcohol and sanitizer and ethanol soaked ...

The study of infectious diseases has always been crucial to mankind because of the devastating effects it has had on the human race. The influenza epidemic, for example, occurred repeatedly in the 20 th and 21st century, spreading across large regions and multiple continents. Influenza in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people world wide. This was higher than the amount of people that died in World War I. About 500,000 fatalities occurred in the US which was approximately 28% of the US population at that time. The number of deaths that took place in 1957 and 1968 ...

Question One: Quarantine and Isolation

In the early stages of the emergence of infectious diseases, isolation and quarantine are in most cases the only and last resort used to control effectively and manage the conditions (Al-Ateeg, 2004). These methods are usually handy when there is a limited knowledge of a newly identified or an occurrence of a previously contagious disease that poses a serious public threat. While these methods are used to respond to emerging and re-emerging public health threats and protecting the public by preventing the exposure of the population who have or may not have contracted a contagious disease, there are significant ...

Vaccination is the process by which the immunity of an individual is stimulated to develop protection against pathogens by the use of antigens called vaccines. Vaccination has been in use for a long period and has seen prevention and reduction of communicable and infectious diseases. The use of vaccines to prevent diseases was commonly used in children aged between 0 and 6 years; however, after scientific developments and discoveries it gained traction among adults (Habakus & Holland 2011). To protect the weak, elderly and the immune compromised individuals versus an individual’s right to say no to a vaccine is ...

Management is important in nowadays health care environment. Like any other organization, transparent management is essential in nursing to ensure rendering of services in the right manner. Several management styles are being used in nursing with some being more effective than others are. Participative management style also referred to as democratic management, is one of the commonly used styles in nursing. It allows involvement of all the employees in every level of decision making. In return, the employee productivity and morale are boosted (Smith, 2015, p. 49). The employees own the decisions made and hence take their responsibilities and ...

Childhood Immunizations

Spring - 2016 Vaccination is a medical manipulation during which certain antigen of the infectious agent is being administered into the organism to induce the primary immune response. The first contact with the antigen is being accompanied by activation of the immune system and the emergence of a subpopulation of lymphocytes, which are able to specifically recognize the antigen. As a result, during the contact with the infectious agent, the immune system is able to react faster. While the purpose of vaccination is the prevention of disease, it can still occur, but in less severe form and with minimal ...

The current Ebola outbreak has been termed as the largest outbreak in West Africa posing a threat to the public health not only locally, but also internationally. The latest outbreak began in late 2013 in Guinea and later dispersed in Liberia in March 2014. By August 14, 19 case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported in Liberal, which was 12 percent of 810 cases of the diseases reported globally (Arwady et al. 2015). In 1976, the outbreak was associated with 318 cases. However, the prevalence of the disease throughout 2014 revealed the lack of preparedness procedures and ...

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates all employers to provide a safe, healthy and accident free workplace. The objective of OSHA is to ensure healthy workplaces by setting up standards for employers, which they accomplish by training the employers, education and assistance. The mission of the OSHA is to save lives, prevent injuries, and protect the health of America’s workers, and as a part of the Department of Labor, OSHA promotes worker safety and health in every workplace in the United States . OSHA requires employers to act in accordance with the General Duty Clause of the ...

1.  Select which category [in parentheses] this documentary fits into and explain why you think it best fits that classification. Awareness/social concerns The documentary film fits into the ‘awareness/social concerns’ because it encourages the viewer to think about social issues such as the possible outbreak of communicable or infectious diseases. While typhoid outbreaks were a thing in the past in countries such as the United States, there are other infectious diseases that raise public concerns. 2. Discuss at least three major themes within this documentary, using examples from the film to support your choice. Your discussion should consist of ...

HIV/AIDS

December 1, is World’s AIDS Day. At the initiative of the World Health Organization, for the first time, this date was marked as World AIDS Day on December 1, 1988. At that time, around 7 million people were infected with HIV. In 5 years there were already 14 million, today more than 36.9 million people in the world are living with HIV (“Global Statistics”). The first notice of new disease was placed in 1981 in the American weekly newspaper “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report”. According to some scientists the human immunodeficiency virus derived from green monkeys immunodeficiency virus. ...

Centers for Disease Control, FDA & Medicaid/Medicare Services

Introduction The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to impact millions of lives in the United States. Over sixty fiver percent of HIV diagnoses are African American individuals ages 13-24(Zanoni and Mayer, 2014). Additionally, 15-24-year-olds comprise 50% of recent HIV infection rates, which are 7-20 times higher among youth of color (CDC, 2013). The mortality rate among these groups is also higher(Fedeli et al., 2015). Currently, there is no medical treatment to cure HIV/AIDS, nor a vaccine for HIV contagion (Kurth, Celum, Baeten, Vermund, & Wasserheit, 2011). Thus making it very challenging for both community and public health leaders ...

Summary of the case study

The case study “Leadership Development for Health Service Delivery: Making the Most of Limited Resources in Afghanistan” describes the implementation of LDP (leadership development program) in Afghanistan’s healthcare system (Alliance for Case Studies for Global Health, 2012). In addition, the study analysis the health benefits that accrue from the program and sustainability of the program. Over the years, the Afghan healthcare system has been faced by numerous challenges such as increased mortality, poor immunization and endemic episodes of infectious diseases particularly due to resource constraints as well as persistent warfare. However, the country has recently witnessed tremendous improvements ...

Abstract

Measles starts with fever, runny nose, and watery eyes, and a rash may develop after a few days. The illness is not serious but can get serious if the infection spread to other parts of the body and spread to the community. The patient can develop a lung infection, ear infection and may even die. There is no medicine as of yet that can kill the measles. What adds to the gravity is that it is a highly communicable disease that can easily spread. The essay discusses the epidemiological determinants of the outbreak of measles and the risk factors ...

Abstract

In today's world, there are hundreds of developments that are taking place in medicine and nursing. These advances are made possible through thorough research and verifications using clinical projects. The steps in propelling forward the field of medicine are made upon identification of an individual problem that gives researchers a basis for their research, or rather a problem statement. One of the problems that have been identified is the CLABSI (Central Line Associated Blood Stream Infections). Many patients suffer severe infections that arise during treatment of an initial infection. Most of these infections, especially when not handled appropriately lead ...

Question 1

Cultural leveling describes how people from different cultures approach each other and try to reach common grounds regarding communication and interaction. This process is evident in Lee’s ethnographic fieldwork. Coming from white society, the researcher exhibited arrogance and considered himself superior, both intellectually and culturally, to the !Kung bushmen. He did this by extending to or cutting off the supply of tobacco from the Bushmen since he was the only source of the commodity in 1000 square miles (Lee). Besides, he neither shared his food with the Bushmen nor participated in their food-gathering activities. For this reason, the ...

Developed countries have free, secure and healthy atmosphere for one to live. These countries are more industrialized with higher per capita levels of income. They have an economy that is highly developed, with advanced technology and infrastructures. The form of government is democratic and no corruption cases whatsoever. They depend more on manufacturing than agriculture. The available technologies and resources in the developed countries control the environmental pollution by industries. Most people in developed countries have fewer disease cases due to poor hygiene. The sewage and drainage system of these countries is well maintained and natural disasters such as ...

Human papillomavirus (HPV) includes over 150 viruses that affect the skin and moist membranes lining the body. It can be transmitted through intimate skin contact and sexual intercourse (Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccines - National Cancer Institute, 2015). The epidemiologic triangle is a model developed to help study health problems. It helps develop an in-depth understanding of infectious diseases and how they spread. The triangle expresses a correlation between three aspects; agent, host, and the environment. In the context, an agent is defined as the cause of the disease, in this case, the Human Papilloma Virus. The host, on the ...