Essay on Infectious Disease and Zika Virus

A good example of an infectious disease is the Zika virus, which is transmitted to human beings through mosquitoes. From its first, that case reported in 1947 in East Africa, it was not a major problem until the year 2007 when it was identified in the Yap State in Micronesia Federal States where there was infection an infection of 73% among the population that was three years and above (Hennessy, Fischer & Staples, 2016). Next, the outbreak happened in Southeast Asia and parts of the West Pacific. It was not until May of 2015 when there was a confirmation of an infection in the America region and specifically in Brazil. By December of the same year, the Health Ministry in the country put the suspected cases estimates at over a million. The transmission cases had spread to other 19 countries in the region by end of January 2016. Even though there has been no documentation of the virus in the US, infections among there have been reports of infections among the travelers returning to the country and this number is likely to keep increasing.

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The infected persons that are coming from the other countries can easily spread the disease if the infected people get exposure to appropriate mosquito host, which are the Aedes aegypti or the Ae albopictus. These species of the mosquitoes are present in parts of the US, which makes the risk of transmission higher (Hennessy, Fischer & Staples, 2016). It is also important to note that the Zika virus infections can occur through an intrauterine transmission that usually causes congenital infection. The virus can also transmit during childbirth from a mother, who is viremic to the newborn, during the transfusion of blood, when having sexual intercourse and in case of exposure in the laboratory.

The problem with this infection is that it is largely asymptomatic as the human body only acts as a host of the virus. However, there is suspicion that the virus causes microcephaly in infants and it results in fetal losses among the expectant women. The symptom it emits are similar to those seen in case of infection of the dengue or chikungunya viruses which they coincidentally share the same geographical conditions for distribution. It therefore requires the health provider to be careful when diagnosing the infectivity, as it can easily get a misdiagnosis, as it does not have special symptoms from other common diseases such as malaria or even measles.

The causal agent, the susceptible person and the environment relate in various complex ways to result in an illness. The agent is a usually an infectious pathogen and it can be a virus or any other microbe such as a bacteria. It must be there for a disease to occur but sometimes the presence alone does not lead to ill health because other factors such as the ability to cause disease and the concentration of the microorganism in the body of the host. The susceptible person serves as the host of the disease causing pathogen. In some cases, the microbe can have more than one host although it may cause harm to one and fail to do the same on another. The environment in epidemiology refers to the external factors that have an effect on the agent and the prospect of contact with it. It includes geological aspects as well as climatic ones. It also encompasses biological factors like insects that act as transmitters of the agent and the social economic issues such as sanitation, availability of health services and the crowding in an area. Therefore, the environment allows the agent and the susceptible person to interact.

Nurses play a role in cases in case of infectious diseases by helping to reduce the level of incidence and assisting in the reduction of the deaths and morbidity associated with them. They are also vital in increasing the capacity to avert and control the disease and not forgetting the role they take in the hospitals, care homes and other locations where infection may be present(Lancaster & Stanhope, 2016). They do this trough carrying out health education, having clinics for provision of screening and immunization services, helping in managing disasters and preparing for emergencies. Infections which epidemic such as the Zika one need the skills set from nurses in order to plan execute and carry out evaluations on the programs to manage the spread of the illness. The holistic approach to nursing bridges the gap between care given to an individual and the one accorded to the community and the general population.

The nursing experts are involved in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data on the infections and control. Since they are in contact with the patients, then they are in a position to notify the authorities when new cases occur (Lancaster & Stanhope, 2016). They also plan and implement the activities that pertain to the prevention and the controlling of the epidemics that may involve the control of the pests or inspecting of the equipments used. As experts in the field, they establish standards that they deem acceptable and go on to implement and monitor them. It is their duty as a body to revise the guidelines and procedures on the control of the infection to ensure compliance with the set standards (Orlin, 2012). It is also their role to carry out investigations on the suspected cases and those confirmed, try to manage them and continue with surveillance to prevent new ones from occurring and if so, they are b there to respond. As professionals, nurses offer consultation on the strategies that are necessary for assessing the risk, preventing it and controlling it.

Some of the strategies that could have put in place to avoid the spread of the outbreak is having a robust mechanism to carry out surveillance of the disease since the first cases the reporting of the first case in order put the prevention strategies early(Lancaster & Stanhope, 2016). The carrying out of mass education on the risk of infection would also have been appropriate in order for people to be able control their environment and avoid infections. It could be important if the preventative measures were given integration the health care early enough in order to minimize the cases of occurrence. It would also have been helpful if the capacity to detect the infection were built globally since the it has the risk of being transmitted easily across borders.

References

Global Health | Healthy People 2020. (2017). Healthypeople.gov. Retrieved 2017, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/global-health

Olin, J. (2012). Nursing Plays a Major Role in Infection Control | RNCentral.com. RNCentral.com. Retrieved 29 April 2017, from http://www.rncentral.com/blog/2012/nursing-plays-a-major-role-in-infection-control/

Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2016). Public health nursing (9th ed., pp. 286-318). St. Louis: Elsevior.

Zika Virus Spreads to New AreasRegion of the Americas, May 2015January 2016. (2016). Annals Of Emergency Medicine, 67(5), 645-647. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2016.02.022