Disease Control and Prevention

There are three basic approaches to preventing and controlling transmission of diseases: a) vector control (if applicable), b) personal protection, and c) vaccination ("How Vaccines Prevent Disease"). The CDC has expanded existing domestic and international community-based control programs for preventing infectious diseases. New preventive projects are being evaluated, including preventives of antimicrobial resistance, food borne and water borne illness and others.

“Prevention is better than cure” – we always hear this statement whenever a new disease outbreak occurs to a community or a region. Disease prevention is indeed far more economical than treating the disease itself. One of the most practiced is the use of vaccines (Overturft). Prevention and control of all non-vaccine preventable diseases must rely on vector control and personal protection. Vector control however is seldom supported as a n independent program.

Rather, it is in general incorporated into a larger prevention program that engages active surveillance for the disease and the vectors, personal protection, diagnosis and management of the disease and vector control. The purpose of surveillance is to help prevent disease by providing a mechanism for early caution or epidemic action, thus allowing for public health action. This is more than ever true for vector borne diseases such as dengue that often cycle silently in an area with intermittent epidemics that may cause significant morbidity and mortality.

As a result, it is significant to have active laboratory based surveillance for infectious diseases to keep an eye on transmission even though there may be no evident disease in humans or domestic animals (Gersovitz and Hammer). To manage the condition, and the global nature of the diseases, the World Health Organization has responded by expanding its surveillance and other operations to meet the challenge of emerging and recurrent infectious diseases ("Infectious Diseases").

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Disease Control and Prevention. (2016, Aug 22). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/disease-control-and-prevention/

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