Control of Diseases
Disease Control
- Disease control primarily refers to ‘Primary and Secondary Levels’ of prevention
- Sequence of Disease Control :
– Disease Control
– Disease Elimination
– Disease Eradication
Concepts of Control of Disease
- Disease control is s reducing the transmission of disease agent to such a low level that it ceases to be a public health problem.
It aims at reducing :
– Incidence of the disease
– Duration of the disease
– Effects of infection
– Financial burden to the community - Disease elimination is complete interruption of transmission of disease in a defined geographical area, but the causative organism may be persisting in environment.
Disease elimination is a ‘geographical term’, i.e. can be used only for a country or a region.
India has eliminated 3 diseases till date:
– Guineaworm (Dracunculiasis): February 2000
– Leprosy : December 2005 (Elimination criterionQ: <1/10,000)
– Yaws : Sep 2006
– Next diseases likely to be eliminated from India : Poliomyelitis, Neonatal tetanus, Kala azar, Lymphatic filariasis - Disease eradication is complete ‘extermination’ of organism.
– It is ‘tearing out by roots’ of a disease
– Exhibits ‘All or none phenomenon’
– Disease eradication is a ‘global term’, i.e. can be used only for whole planet. World has eradicated ONLY 1 disease till date : Small pox (declared eradicated on 8 May, 1980)
– 3 next target diseases for eradication, globally : Polio, Measles, Guineaworm
Surveillance
Surveillance is the ongoing systematic collection and analysis of data and the provision of information which leads to action being taken to prevent and control a disease, usually one of an infectious nature.
Surveillance is of many types:
- Passive Surveillance : Data is itself reported to the health system e.g. A patient with fever coming on his own to the PHC, CHC, Dispensary, Private Practitioner, Hospital
- Active Surveillance : Health system seeks out ‘actively’ the collection of data, i.e., goes out to community to collect data e.g., Health worker goes house to house every fortnight to detect fever cases, collect blood slides (under malaria component of National Vector Borne Disease Control Program).
- Sentinel Surveillance : Monitoring of rate of occurrence of specific conditions to assess the stability or change in health levels of a population, It is also the study of disease rates in a specific population to estimate trends in larger population e.g., Use of health practitioners to monitor trends of a health event in
a population.
Monitoring vs Surveillance
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