Running head: INFECTIOUS AND COMMUNICABLE DISEASES 1

Infectious and Communicable Diseases

Student Name
Institutional Affiliation

Infectious and Communicable Diseases

Description of the Health Issue
Today, infectious and communicable diseases are a significant threat to public health.

Worldwide, government reports indicate that infectious diseases are among the leading cause of

ill health and death in populations. The primary cause of these diseases is microscopic

organisms, which, after penetrating the body’s natural protection, proliferate to create mild to

deadly symptoms. While governments and other agencies have been at the forefront of devising

ways of eradicating or controlling infectious and communicable diseases, human beings are still

vulnerable across various contexts. Global statistics indicate that these diseases accounted for

approximately 14.9 million deaths in 2002, which represents about 26 percent of the total global

mortality rate (Tokars, Olsen, & Reed, 2017). These statistics indicate that infectious diseases are

a global public health problem. In the United States, about 52.2 million cases of the common

cold affect Americans aged 17 and below each year, according to data from the Centers for
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Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (American Public Health Association, 2006). What this

indicates is that elementary school students are an at-risk population for infectious and

communicable diseases. On average, about five percent to 20 percent of the U.S. population

acquires influenza each year, with young children being the most at-risk population group for

serious flu complications (Tokars et al., 2017). Indeed, both adults and children are at

considerable risk of acquiring communicable infections, an aspect that makes a case for uniform

non-pharmacological interventions. Evidence shows that diarrhoea is responsible for

approximately 25 lost school days in every 100 school-going children each year in the United

States (Neuzil, Hohlbein, & Zhu, 2002). What this means is that when it comes to elementary

school students, infectious diseases are not only disastrous to health, but also school attendance

and possibly academic outcomes. Data from the Halton Region Department of Health indicate

that the top 10 commonly reported diseases among Halton residents accounted for 81 percent of

all cases of infections reported to Public Health (Aubin, 2019). These included influenza,

hepatitis C, Giardiasis, Chlamydia, syphilis, salmonellosis, and campylobacter enteritis among

others. As such, it is critical for elementary schools in this region to implement effective

preventive measures to protect students against contracting and transmitting these infections.
The effects of infectious and communicable diseases on the human body are as varied as

the diseases themselves. Infections like malaria and measles affect the entire body while others

like flu and tuberculosis affect one organ or body system (Infectious Diseases Society of

America, 2019). Common sites of infection include the respiratory system, the digestive tract,

the reproductive system, and the urinary tract. The extent to which an infectious affects the

human body depends on the number of microscopic organisms in the infecting inoculums, the

virulence of infectious agents, and the response initiated by the immune system (Infectious

Diseases Society of America, 2019). Diseases like AIDS and cancer treatments compromise the
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human immune system, thereby allowing ordinarily harmless organisms to multiple and cause

life-threatening illnesses. There are multiple ways in which infectious agents carrying infectious

diseases find their way into the human body. These include skin contact, ingestion of

contaminated food or water, inhalation of airborne microbes, sexual intercourse, and bites from

vectors that carry and transmit organisms, such as mosquitoes (Infectious Diseases Society of

America, 2019). What this means is that there are various contexts within which an individual

can contract or transmit infectious disease. It is with this understanding that health care systems

have embraced education and awareness on the prevention of infections and diseases as a critical

path to controlling the spread of infectious and communicable diseases. Central to these efforts is

the creation of health awareness about infectious diseases and the control measures that can help

to reduce the risk of transmission. It is natural for people to interact daily in different settings,

including workplaces and schools; hence, the risk of being infected with an infectious disease is

always high for populations. The main conduits of transmission include hands, nasal secretions,

objects (such as needles), excretions (faeces and urine), and body fluids, particularly blood

(Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2019). As such, when interacting with a person infected

with an infectious and communicable disease, it is always essential for one to take precautions.

These precautions vary in their scope, and the setting plays a critical role in determining which

precaution to take in the immediate.

The school environment is one of the social settings that facilitate the transmission of

infectious and communicable diseases from person to person. The clinical literature likens the

spread of a disease to a chain, where individuals come into contact, and that contact leads to an

individual or individuals becoming infected (Ridenhour, Braun, Teyrasse, & Goldsman, 2011).

Since clinicians consider the transmission of diseases among school children to be a primary
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mode of disease propagation, school closure has always been an appealing intervention

(Gemmetto, Barrat, & Cattuto, 2014). Unfortunately, this form of intervention only propagates

the adverse effects of disease on students- lost school days. The CDC (2019) recommends that

students should adopt the practice of washing hands with soap and running water for about 15 to

20 seconds before eating and after using the bathroom. Therefore, as residents of Halton remain

exposed to various infectious diseases, elementary schools in the region should adopt

handwashing as a non-pharmacological intervention against infections and transmissions.

Indeed, such an intervention would avoid the case of students losing important school days due

to severe outbreaks diseases like influenza in the student population.

References
American Public Health Association. (2006, November 8). Hand Hygiene in PreK-12 Schools
and Child Care Settings. Retrieved from https://www.apha.org/policies-and-

advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2014/07/07/11/15/hand-

hygiene-in-prek-to-12-schools-and-child-care-settings
Aubin, C. (2019). Infectious Diseases in Halton: 2018 Annual Infectious Disease Report.
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Retrieved from https://www.halton.ca/Document/Health-Statistics/Halton-Infectious-

Disease-Report/Halton-Infectious-Disease-Annual-Report
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2019, October 8). Handwashing: Clean
Hands Save Lives. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/index.html
Gemmetto, V., Barrat, A., & Cattuto, C. (2014). Mitigation of infectious disease at school:
Targeted class closure vs school closure. BMC Infectious Diseases, 14(695).
Infectious Diseases Society of America. (2019). Facts About ID. Retrieved from
https://www.idsociety.org/public-health/facts-about-id/
Neuzil, K. M., Hohlbein, C., & Zhu, Y. (2002). Illness among schoolchildren during influenza
season: Effect on school absenteeism, parental absenteeism from work, and secondary

illness in families. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 156(10), 986-991.

Ridenhour, B. J., Braun, A., Teyrasse, T., & Goldsman, D. (2011). Controlling the spread of
disease in schools. PloS One, 6(12), e29640.
Tokars, J. I., Olsen, S. J., & Reed, C. (2017). Seasonal incidence of symptomatic influenza in the
United States. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 66(10), 1511-1518.