Outbreak of Diseases
The Public Health sector represents a greater need to drive innovation for research to enhance the healthcare systems and create awareness. In this paper, we are going to illustrate the challenges faced in Public Health, their determinants in different countries, the strengths and limitations of these services under the Public Health sector, and the steps that practitioners would need to take to enhance access to these services.
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention states that the most common challenges facing public health both nationally and internationally including alcohol-related harms like accidents, diseases like HIV, teen pregnancies, nutrition, and obesity not forgetting drug abuse.
The greatest public health issue facing both the United States and other countries currently is the Outbreak of Diseases. The health of each individual can be affected by climatic changes and even one’s hygienic standards. In 2014, the Ebola virus broke out across the African state affecting majorly Nigeria. Another outbreak was the spread of H1N1 influenza in the United States and now the Corona Virus pandemic that began in 2019 from China.
Globally, the number of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases like heart diseases is on the rise while those caused by communicable diseases like tuberculosis are decreasing.
However, some countries face disparity in healthcare and this analysis can shift depending on one’s location. Therefore, such countries must face the burden of preventing and controlling diseases while they create awareness among different communities.
It is important to note that an outbreak of disease is uncontainable in countries that are experiencing a crisis or any form of conflict (Abimola S. 2015).
Such attacks can easily affect medical practitioners and destroy medical facilities plus equipment hence limiting access to health provision in a given area. According to Aljazeera, in 2018, Doctors Without Borders suspended their medical activities in Nigeria after two aid workers were killed by the BokoHaram in a place called Rann.
Implementing justice in Public Health will help make health care accessible to everyone regardless of their differences. With the general growth in diseases like cancer, mental health, injuries, and even drug abuse; the gap in health provision is increasing.
Even though it is crucial that Organizations like WHO should provide medical practitioners who will provide quality healthcare, the government is also needed to ensure these conflicts are contained.
Social Determinants in Outbreak of Diseases
Disease outbreaks that are determined by social factors can vary from one’s ethnicity to their education level, to their healthcare services and even policies put in school or the workplace.
In the United States;
Medical Practitioners prefer to focus on adjustable factors like poor access vaccination and healthcare, social policies, and lastly individual-neighborhood level factors.
Poor access Vaccination and Healthcare
To prevent the spread of diseases, it is often recommended that patients access healthcare immediately and acquire vaccination. However, like most countries, the United States is also subjected to inequalities. People from disadvantaged communities are considered more prone to infections through institutionalized or structural barriers.
These barriers make it difficult for these people to utilize pharmaceutical interventions like isolation and treatments especially when the medications are insufficient. As a result, people from this population can easily experience abrupt deaths.
A review by Lindley states that Whites can easily access vaccination compared to Black Americans and the Latino community. These differences persist even among those individuals who have a better education than others.
School and Workplace Policies
Disease transmission can easily be spread since these facilities provide free vaccination, sick leaves, and even school closures. Incase vaccination becomes scarce, organizations are requested to implement social distancing as a scheme to reduce transmission of the disease within the workplace.
In this regard, workers were given seven days of sick leave per year to care for themselves and their loved ones. However, this act, commonly known as the Healthy Families Act has not been implemented since most employees from disadvantaged communities still have no access to these benefits.
Neighborhood and Individual-Level Factors
The research that was conducted in 1918 about the Influenza crisis shows that people from marginalized communities in the United States experience high death and infection rates.
Exposure to the neighborhood-level disadvantages like unemployment, violence, and vandalism may lead to stress factors that heighten infections and illness. Individuals living in such neighborhoods and those who abuse drugs can easily develop detrimental behaviors that lead to the spread of infections
In Nigeria,
A proper understanding of determining factors of ailments like Ebola, often lead to deliberate changes in the efforts put in place to contain the spread of these diseases. To understand the transmission in Africa, social determinants have been categorized into Environmental Factors, Social Factors, and Behavioral Practices
Behavioral and cultural practices
These practices tend to occur at home, in the community, and also in the hospital setting. The scientific approaches of contending with the spread of this highly communicable ailments are normally ideal. However, the most recent trends in dealing with these outbreaks in Africa have proved that using only the scientific methods, without considering other factors, will not be enough to prevent the outbreak. Therefore, Nigerian communities tend to seek traditional healers to provide herbs since there is a shortage of resources.
Environmental Factors
The situation in most villages presents worst-case scenarios. Settlements are not well planned and most developed countries have created slums which are not conducive for human settlement
Social environment
Some social conditions like poverty, growth, poor infrastructure enhance human contacts. These circumstances repressed the formation of adequate public health facilities
Public Health Services
These services comprise of Assessment or Evaluation, Policy Development, and finally Assurance.
Assessment or Evaluation
Evaluate and monitor health statuses that will help classify health problems.
Through this assessment, practitioners will ensure that tools are properly utilized, public health records are well managed and health records are in good condition.
Organizations can implement this by forming a health profile and disease reporting system. For instance, every two years or more, some departments of health complete a survey that helps determine population data
Analyze and examine health hazards and complications
For practitioners to properly allocate these resources, this process ensures that the pattern of these diseases is monitored, the diseases are examined; the public health labs offer quick screening, and individuals are given access to testing and screening. For example, cardiovascular diseases are monitored through one’s Body Mass Index and High Blood Pressure
Practitioners must therefore prepare and be readily available to combat natural disasters and handle mass casualties
Development of Policies
Educate, Enlighten and Empower people
As soon as the crucial priorities have been noted, educational accomplishments that encourage better health needs to be circulated. This process will help in creating programs, availing health information, and providing educational resources. A good illustration is a campaign on obesity that had the slogan “Eat Well, Weigh Less”. In addition, practitioners can partner with schools and churches to provide education and programs that deal with health
Organize partnerships within the community.
The process helps in building alliances that will help utilize the available assets; assist partners and communities to solve health problems; and facilitate partnerships that will embark on clear advancing projects.
It also helps in identifying possible investors who will fund and gain from the communal wellbeing accomplishments. For instance, groups involved in planning the urban regions may be important in enhancing the wellbeing of their residents by enhancing duties within the population.
Improve policies and strategies that support individuals in community efforts.
Policies can be actual in adjusting the human performance and reducing undesirable health results by aligning the resources and approaches used during the health programs, developing policies that will guide the exercise of awareness, and creating policies that will direct the community’s health development. For example, to tackle obesity and the increase in cardiovascular diseases, a ban was placed on the sale of sugary drinks like sodas and any other sugary drinks at streets and restaurants (Johnson and Finegood,2015).
Besides, laws can also decrease damaging health results. As such, the Dram Shop Liability Suit is a regulation that holds the owner of a restaurant accountable for any damages or losses incurred as a result of alcohol consumption in that specific premise.
Assurance
Enforce laws and regulations that protect the public
Individuals must observe the prevailing laws to safeguard the general safety of the community. This process helps practitioners educate and encourage both people and organizations about the enacted laws so as to improve compliance. Secondly, practitioners can enforce actions that defend the safety of the people.
It also helps them in reviewing, revising, and evaluating the laws and regulations put in. For example, enforcing laws that ban the sale of intoxicating products to minors.
They can also associate people with desirable personal health hygiene and convince them of the facilitation of these services in case they become unavailable.
This process helps people avoid inappropriate medical costs and prevent negative health issues. Locally, its mechanisms include: finding communities that encounter barriers when accessing health services, assuring people from these populations of the provision of best health services, and employing intercessions that tackle these obstacles.
At the government level, this process helps practitioners in partnering with the public, the private, and the non-profit sectors to provide a synchronized scheme of health care; developing a continuous expansion process that will ensure the unbiased supply of resources to those who require these services; gang access to the available state health facilities. This strategy has been adopted to this service as a measure of achieving access to health care for those with HIV.
Guarantee a capable personal and public workforce.
Competent practitioners who are well trained are more likely to provide better services that are more effective and efficient as compared to those who are not. This process helps ensure that the workers meet the standards of the population, sustaining these standards through licensing, adopting endless quality enhancement approaches, and training any other upcoming public health workers
In 2002 it was recommended that certificates be provided after examinations as a measure to ensure minimum competency in public health. Online teaching tactics may be suitable in providing educational opportunities that many health workers plus students need
Assess efficiency, availability, and quality of services provided
Due to the insufficiency of resources, practitioners are advised to monitor the results of their programs. This process helps in evaluating the efficiency of services and the programs; it provides information that will be useful to policymakers; and it also improves services given within the population.
Analysis cost has been suggested as one possible approach for notifying policymakers on how best to assign the resources
Find innovative solutions to health problems.
Through research, the health problems faced by individuals can be addressed, given the evidence provided is factual. This process helps in forming research and higher learning institutions that will encourage cooperation and effort among team members. It also ensures the systems allocated are in good shape and can accomplish timely health policy analysis.
Benefits
The benefits of these processes are well acknowledged by the CDC and they help practitioners in :
Collect baseline data that will reflect on the performance of the public health system.
Recognize the strong points that can be handled when improving these services by using a recognizable tool.
Improve communication and partnership by bringing partners together
Educate members about public health, its essential facilities, and the merger of activities.
Limitations
Despite the advantages, there are limitations related to these processes, and they can be categorized as tools used data collection methods and general results. These limitations include:
Several representatives will not show up for the process
The format to be used during assessment and its commitment level may prevent some participants from engaging in the process.
The time required from each person may inhibit the ability of some participants to attend due to conflicting urgencies.
The tools to be used might be comprehensive and cumbersome
The results will depend on the participants’ opinions hence biases and opinions
Although eccentric reports will be documented, the common vote will not reflect the viewpoint of many members.
The results of the assessment will be based on a group process during a specific period
RECOMMENDATIONS
To decrease the transmission of these infections, policies should focus on eliminating existing vaccination barriers and supporting reasonable social strategies. For example, to combat the harmful health behavior’s observed in disadvantaged neighborhoods, efforts should be aimed at increasing vaccination coverage, improving health behaviors, and addressing specific underlying health issues.
Some nations are establishing programs that will address these issues. For example, Africa as a state has been implementing programs that will deal with violence prevention and road safety
According to DeSalvo(2017 ) Improving worldwide health can increase health in the United States and support global safety benefits by adopting diplomacy, growth of the economy, and political stability.
Investments placed for the purpose of improving health in developing countries may be responsible for significant public health welfares within the United States. Many international health issues can directly or indirectly impact on the health of the United States.
Health organizations within the United States can use the strategies of other states that have better health results than the United States, to identify more ways of improving the nation’s health
Even though states are required to develop suitable response teams that will help address these health concerns, all of these issues will require an alliance with other countries to protect and promote better health for all. To make this possible, countries must be willing to set aside 1% of their gross domestic product for primary health care services.