Hepatitis C is a significant public health problem in Australia and one of the most common diseases reported notified. Hepatitis C is a blood borne virus that infects the liver. Over time, the disease can potentially advance to causing permanent liver damage as well as cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure. It is considered a highly serious public health issue due to its high prevalence and incidence and due to the fact that the infection can spread quite easily through contact with an infected person’s blood. Hepatitis C is mainly transferred via sharing injecting equipment such as needles; these transfers account for approximately 90% of new infections and 80% of current infections.
For the purpose of this report we will refer to the Hepatitis C Virus as HCV.
Data sources and statistics could not be found for the age group of 15-24, however the prevalence of HCV amongst the population aged between 18 and 24 years of age was 61 per 100,000 people. This alone conveys the significant amount of the young population of Australia who are infected with the virus and the seriousness of this public health issue.
The latest estimates suggest that nearly 299,000 Australians are living with Hepatitis C. The same data suggests that there are 9,700 new infections per year. The incidence of Hepatitis C was estimated to be 8 cases per 100,000 in 1995. The incidence is now calculated to be 43 people per 100,000 in 2014.
Hepatitis C related morbidity is estimated to be quite significant; a total of 37,800 quality adjusted life years were lost in 2005.
The mortality rate for young Australians aged 15-24 was zero in 2012, but of significant amount for higher aged populations.
PART 2
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...e GP should ask patients in regards to drug use, sexual activity, and encourage HCV testing during the visit. This “diagnosis and screening” recommendation is an effective early detection method.
A second recommendation is to increase knowledge and awareness about HCV amongst health care providers and the public. Increasing education services to the public will result in higher awareness; for example, if an injecting drug user shared needles previously, but then became aware of the risks associate with sharing needles, he or she would be more inclined to stop doing so.
There is a third recommendation for those young Australians who have already contracted the virus; studies prove that if carriers of HCV avoid drinking alcohol, eat a well-balanced low-fat diet, and exercise regularly, then the symptoms of HCV will lower and one’s condition can greatly improve.
Thus, the high incidence rate is of great public health importance, as it puts increasing strain on the health system and wider sectors, and generates considerable morbidity.
The purpose of this essay is to indicate how the needle and syringe program in prisons will benefit the Australian government as well as the wider Australian community. As well as the maintenance of NSPs can be maintained while acknowledging concerns of those against it. Needle and syringe programs (NSP) are aimed at intravenous drug users, so as to prevent and limit blood borne diseases like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis. These NSP programs help drug addicts by supplying needles and also through referrals and provide education among other services. All these efforts are made to control the spread of blood borne diseases like Hepatitis and AIDS in Australian population with 872 Blood Borne viruses reported 4th quarter 2013(Quarterly Surveillance Report Notifiable Sexually Transmissible Infections and Blood-borne Viruses in Western Australia, Government of Western Australia, Department of health period ending Volume11(1) 31st of December 2013). Blood borne diseases being a major concern all around the globe and prisons being a hub for these diseases its best that NSPs are introduced in prisons.
middle of paper ... ... More awareness about valley fever among the general community and among healthcare providers is needed. Increased awareness can help avoid missed diagnoses. For example, one study showed that valley fever patients who knew about the disease before visiting a doctor were more likely to ask to be tested and were diagnosed sooner than patients who didn’t know about the disease.
For example, those who travel to or live in countries where Hepatitis A is common, have sexual contact with someone who has Hepatitis A, men who have sexual encounters with other men, those who use recreation drugs, have clotting-factor disorders, or are household members or caregiver of someone who is infected with the virus. Other risk factors include intermediate and high endemicity areas include poor sanitation and regulations and lack of safe water. Also, residents from regions with low endemicity for the Hepatitis A Virus infection often remains susceptible in their adulthood. In areas where the virus is wide spread, most Hepatitis A infections occur during early childhood because children tend to ingest everything. As mentioned earlier, adults have signs and symptoms of illness more often than children. The severity of the disease and its fatal outcomes are higher in older age
HAV is known to be an infectious disease that usually occurs in children and young adults .The disease is usually transmitted from person to person through contaminated food, liquids or oral fecal route. An example would be when someone is carrying the virus and doesn’t wash their hands after using the restroom and then puts food in their mouth. HAV is most common in developing countries because of the living conditions and inadequate water, poor sewage facilities and sanitary conditions. The highest HAV levels in the world are from India,” Earlier reports suggest that India is hyperendemic for HAV infection2,4-6 with very high infection rates,” (Sowmyanarayanan). Most HAV are without severe complications, “Virus HAV infection rarely causes fulminant hepatic failure in people…,” (Vento,p.1) . The symptoms for HAV are high fever, nausea, vomiting and jaundice...
Hepatitis B is a DNA viral infection that causes damage and inflammation to the liver. It was first discovered in 1965 by Dr. Baruch Blumberg. The HBV virus is very contagious and is even thought to be the most serious form of viral hepatitis and the most common viral infection on Earth. “HBV is 100 times more infectious than HIV.” (Green, 2002, pg. 7) The virus can survive for about one week outside the body on a dry surface. According to Green (2002, pg. 7), “One in twenty Americans has been infected with the virus at some point in their lives.” Between the ages of 15-39 is when 75% of new HBV infections occur, according to Green (2002, pg.8).
The signs and symptoms of blood borne pathogens vary based on the type of disease it is and the ability of a person’s immune system to fight it off. In most cases hepatitis B does not need to be treated and the body can fight it off on its own. However a long-term infection can develop in some people that can cause liver damage. There is a vaccination available to prevent acquiring the disease. The signs and symptoms for hepatitis C are usually mild. It can take two weeks to six months after contact before signs begin to show, or there may not be any symptoms at all. Hepatitis C typically becomes is a long-term infection and after many years will cause liver ...
Acute HBV infection is the most common type of infection in low endemic countries. The incubation period, from transmission to clearness, ranges from 40-180 days. The infection is either symptomatic or asymptomatic/ fulminant hepatitis. Children under the age of 5 years rarely experience symptomatic infection (10%), where’s about 30-40% infected adults and children above age 5 experience a symptomatic infection with yellowing of skin and teeth, vomiting, fatigue, laxity and abdominal pain [1].
Hepatitis A is a usually short-acting virus that occurs in humans and monkeys. It is caused by the Hepatovirus and the species is Hepatitis A Virus. There are two major ways in which hepatitis A can be transmitted. One way is from person to person. This transmission occurs when the fecal matter of an infected person gets ingested by another person.
Influenza is a major public health problem which outbreaks all over the world. Resulting in considerable sickness and death rates. Furthermore, it is a highly infectious airborne disease and is caused by the influenza virus. Influenza is transmitted easily from one person to another person which has a great impact on society. When a member of society becomes sick, it is more prone to spread to other people. In the United States, every year between 5 to 20 percent of the population is affected by influenza. As a result of this, between 3,000 and 49,000 deaths have occurred per year (Biggerstaff et al., 2014). Therefore, the influenza vaccine is the most effective strategy to prevent influenza. This essay will examine two significant reasons for influenza vaccination which are the loss of workforce and economic burden as well as one effect regarding herd immunity.
...e, create a fair and provide public information via the internet. An example would be La Salle University prescription drugs addiction awareness that was held earlier last month. I thought the five panelists provide information about drugs addiction were informative and mind opening. It created awareness among college students that overdose on prescription drugs are extremely dangerous and could cause death. I also think that awareness should be made to teens while they are in middle school because the earlier the prevention, the more information they will gain.
There is a disease spreading out in the world called Hepatitis C. It affects the liver and may cause the liver to fail. This disease is caused by a virus called Hepatitis C virus which is also known as HCV. About 32,000 people are affected with this disease per year only in the United States area. Some It’s a disease with many symptoms and many causes. of these symptoms are easy bruising, upset stomach and fever. These are just some of the many symptoms that come from the virus. Hepatitis Cs nature of the causative agent is determined by many things. The biological data of this disease is filled so much information. It is estimated that over 180 million people have gotten Hepatitis C and it is growing.
Hepatitis B, an infectious disease caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV, a DNA virus), was formerly called serum hepatitis, inoculation hepatitis and post-transfusion hepatitis. Infection with HBV may result in acute, fulminant or chronic hepatitis, sometimes even resulting in a chronic asymptomatic carrier state, apart from hepatocellular carcinoma and liver cirrhosis (Davis 179). The disease is transmitted when an individual comes in contact with infected blood or objects. It may also be transferred from an infected mother to her infant either during or after birth (Zuckerman et al. 211). Transmission may also occur by accidental inoculation from infected needles and hospital equipment, intravenous drug abuse, body piercing, tattooing, and mouth-mouth kissing (Zuckerman et al. 210). The risk of Hepatitis B is particularly high in individuals with multiple sex partners, and in homosexuals. The HBV virus occurs in morphologically different forms in the serum of infected individuals. HBV infection has an incubation period of about 75 days. Systemic symptoms of the disease include fatigue, fever, dyspepsia, arthralgia, malaise, and rash, while local symptoms include hepatomegaly, jaundice, dark urine, and pale stools (Davis 179; Zuckerman et al. 210).
Infection control is very important in the health care profession. Health care professionals, who do not practice proper infection control, allow themselves to become susceptible to a number of infections. Among the most dreaded of these infections are: hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Another infection which has more recently increased in prevalence is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These infections are all treated differently. Each infection has its own symptoms, classifications, and incubation periods. These infections are transmitted in very similar fashions, but they do not all target the same population.
In Australia in the last ten years more then 137 known people have died and many more fallen very ill from contagious and infectious disease. Diseases such as diphtheria; tetanus, pertussis, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps rubella and Haemophilus influenzae, This is a great tragedy considering all these diseases are easily preventable by immunisation.