Attiya Rehman

The causes, transmission and global impact of disease

Health can be defined as your physical, mental and social wellbeing. If you are in good health you are free from disease, well fed with a balanced diet and suitably housed with proper sanitation. A disease is a malfunction of the body or mind which causes symptoms which could be physical, mental or social. There are many different types of disease which can be grouped into different categories depending on their cause. A wide range of organisms can cause disease. For example a parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host. Parasites can cause harm to the host by taking their nutrition from the host and can live all or part of their life in or on the host. Parasites that live on their host are called external parasites whilst parasites that live inside their host are called internal parasites. Parasites can cause disease in humans. They can cause damage that allows other organisms to invade the host and cause secondary infections. Some parasitic diseases are easily treated and some are not. Pathogens are also organisms that can cause disease. The human body creates a good habitat for microorganisms to survive. As a result there are many types of microorganisms that live on or in our bodies. They also live by taking nutrition from their host and also cause damage in the process. Animal-like protoctista (protozoa) can cause a number of diseases. Amoeboid dysentery and malaria are 2 examples. These organisms usually cause harm by entering host cells and feeding on the contents as they grow. The malarial parasite plasmodium has immature forms that feed on the contents of red blood cells. Malaria is transmitted exclusively through the bites of Anopheles mosquitoes which is the vector. The female Anopheles mosquito carries the plasmodium from an infected person to an uninfected person. The mosquitos feed on the blood and have mouthparts which are adapted as a fine tube or proboscis which can be used to penetrate a blood vessel and withdraw blood. Malarial parasites live in the red blood cells of the human host and feed on the haemoglobin. The intensity of transmission depends on factors related to the parasite, the vector, the human host, and the environment.

Attiya Rehman Athletes foot and ring worm are caused by fungi which can cause a variety of different diseases. There are many different species of fungi that can cause skin diseases e.g. Microsporum, Trichophyton and Epidermophyton. The fungus lives in the skin and when it sends out reproductive hypae, these can grow to the surface of the skin to release spores. Bacteria can also cause disease by damaging cells or by releasing waste products which are toxic to us. Bacteria are prokaryotic cells, which are smaller than our cells but they can reproduce rapidly. In the right conditions (provided by the human body) some types of bacteria can reproduce every 20minutes. Once in the human body they can multiply rapidly. Cholera is caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. Tuberculosis is caused by two different species of bacterium mycobacterium tuberculosis and mycobacterium bovis. TB is usually found in the lungs and is transmitted by droplet infection. The bacteria are contained in the tiny droplets that are released when an infected person coughs, sneezes, laughs or talks. A person can become infected by inhaling those droplets however its not that easy to contract TB. It takes close contact with an infected person over a long period of time to contract the disease. Overcrowding, poor ventilation, poor health, poor diet and homelessness can make contraction and spread of TB more likely. A lot of well-known diseases including the common cold and influenza are caused by viruses. Viruses invade cells and take over the genetic machinery and other organelles of the cell. They then cause the cell to make more copies of the virus. The host cell eventually bursts releasing many more viruses. HIV/AIDs are also caused by a virus along with the widespread plant disease tobacco mosaic virus which affects many plants including tomatoes. HIV/AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus. HIV can be transmitted by exchange of body fluids such as blood-to-blood contact, unprotected sexual intercourse, unscrewed blood transfusions, use of unsterilized surgical equipment, sharing hypodermic needles and from mother to baby during breast feeding. HIV/AIDS is a worldwide disease and continues to be a major global public health issue having claimed more than 25 million lives over the past 3 decades. There were approximately 45million people living with HIV/AIDS by the end of 2005 and 34million people living with HIV in 2011 with sub-Saharan Africa being the most affected region with 1 in 20 adults living with HIV.

Attiya Rehman Every year around 5million people are newly infected with HIV and by 2007 was spreading rapidly in China, Russia and other Eastern European countries. Predictions show the number of people with HIV/AIDS in China will soon exceed the number in any other country. TB is another worldwide disease and is the second biggest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent after HIV/AIDS. TB is a leading killer of people living with HIV causing one quarter of all deaths. Approximately 1% of the world population is newly infected each year and 10-15% of those go on to develop the disease. The percentage of the worlds population struck by TB peaked in 2004 and held steady in 2005. In 2005, around 8.8million new cases of TB were recorded and approximately 1.6 million died. Estimates show 30% of the worlds population may be infected by mycobacterium showing it is still a great threat however the estimated number of people falling ill with tuberculosis each year is declining, although very slowly, which means that the world is on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal to reverse the spread of TB by 2015.

The 22 countries shown on the map below account for 80% of the tuberculosis cases in the world.

Attiya Rehman Malaria is a life threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted people to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes, killing about 3million people each year. Around 300million people are affected by malaria worldwide and the number is increasing.

In 2010, malaria caused an estimated 660 000 deaths mostly among African children, where a child dies every minute from malaria. Of those people with malaria, 90% live in sub-Saharan Africa. This is because malaria is limited to the areas in which the vector mosquito -Anopheles can survive. This is shown by the map above. Due to increased global warming, the vector mosquito may be able to survive further north, even in parts of Europe however, Malaria mortality rates have fallen by more than 25% globally since 2000.