Prevention and Treatment Consequences of Infectious Diseases (Essay Sample)

Prevention and Treatment Consequences of Infectious Diseases
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Prevention and Treatment Consequences of Infectious Diseases
As identified by Bowers et al. (2013), the list of causal agents of infectious diseases includes bacteria, viruses, nematodes, arthropods, fungi, and other microparasites. These can gain access to the body and cause contamination in the form of urinary and respiratory tract, vaginal, skin, odontogenic, and intra-amniotic infections. There are four major anti-infective curative medicines used in treating infectious diseases. These comprise of antivirals, antifungals, antibiotics, and antituberculars. Additionally, there are applicable preventive measures used in mitigating infectious diseases through immunizations. The prevention and treatment consequences of infectious diseases are both positive and negative in a number of ways. While application of preventive and curative medication commonly leads to elimination of the causal organisms and ultimate healing from infectious diseases, other issues like increased causative agent resistance, virulence, and immunopathology may arise from preventive and treatment procedures.
An analysis by Pinner and Teutsch (1996) indicated that the death rates due to infectious diseases were constantly on the rise between 1980 and 1992. Categorizing age groups and different considerations, this study emerged with results proving that there was a rise in the number of those aged above sixty-five years that died from infectious diseases by at least 25% within twelve years. In the age group 24-44, the ratio was 6.3 times more than before while respiratory tract oriented deaths rose by at least 26%. A later review of trends in 1999 by Armstrong, Conn, and Pinner (1999) proved that the enhancement of prevention and treatment strategies culminated into reduced prevalence and number of deaths caused by infectious diseases. Elimination of infectious diseases is a positive and the most outstanding consequence of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.
The first considerable consequence of prevention and treatment that is negative to humans and other animals is resistance developed by causative agents against medication technologically advanced for transmissible ailments. As explained by Bowers et al. (2013), this is the selective ability of causal agents to thrive even in the presence of chemicals or drugs, which would customarily eliminate them. Armstrong et al. (1999) enumerated the common causes of this kind of resistance to encompass selective pressure, mutation, gene transfer, inappropriate use of drugs, and inefficient diagnostics.
Additional negative consequences of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases include virulence and immunopathology. Defined as an increasing amount of relativity in pathogenic ability in relation to disease causation and evasion of body defense, virulence can also be increased by the process of disease prevention and treatment. In a research carried out on Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Marquina-Castillo et al. (2009) pinpointed different strains of virulence in relation to transmissibility, pro-inflammation, and macrophage or innate immunity. They also listed the causes of virulence and immunopathology as selective pressure, mutation, gene transfer, unsuitable use of drugs, and incompetent diagnostics.
Infectious diseases remain among the most harmful to human beings and other animals. Over the years, a number of preventive and curative mitigations have been developed for them. According to Armstrong et al. (1999), most of these have proved to be effective in eliminating the diseases. However, a number of negative ...