Epidemiology of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases Assignment Sample

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1. Introduction - Epidemiology of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases Assignment Sample

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria that characteristically affects the lungs, although any part of the body may be involved. It is propagated by droplets in the air when someone affected by it coughs or sneezes. Tuberculosis, though preventable and curable, remains a major global public health challenge (CDC, 2020). For students seeking help with writing assignments related to this field, this Epidemiology of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases Assignment Sample provides valuable insights into the epidemiology, control, and prevention of TB

TB remains one of the most common causes of death from infectious diseases in the world. In 2022, globally, 10 600 000 people developed TB, of which 1 600 000 died. Though the disease is more prevalent in developing countries, developed countries like Canada are not exempted from inimical factors. TB rate per 100,000 population in Canada is still moderate and amounts to 4.5. Nevertheless, lower rates apply only to some categories of the population, including Indigenous people, immigrants from TB-endemic countries, and people with low SEP. The result of TB is not just the loss of our health, but also an economic and sociological problem.

This project will involve surveying the risk factors for TB and its impact and efficacy on the existing and/or proposed prevention as well as the control measures in Canada.

Epidemiology of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases Assignment Sample

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2. Identification and Analysis of Risk Factors

The Epidemiology of Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases Assignment Sample highlights that understanding risk factors is crucial to evaluating the spread and control of tuberculosis (TB). In this section, both modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors are explored to determine how they influence the burden of TB in Canada. Factors such as age, genetics, comorbidities, and substance abuse contribute significantly to disease susceptibility. Additionally, social determinants like living conditions, access to healthcare, and socioeconomic status further complicate TB prevention and control. By assessing these interconnected factors, it becomes clear that effective disease management requires a comprehensive, evidence-based approach rooted in the principles of epidemiology and public health.

Non-Modifiable Risk Factors

Age: According to TB trends in the population, not only young people but also the elderly are at a higher risk of disease. As a result of the constant and vigorous development of their immune systems, children below five years are at a higher risk of getting severe types of TB including TB meningitis. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (2021), TB in children under 15 represented approximately 3% of all TB cases in Canada. However, the index rate happens to be significantly higher in older adults, especially those who are aged 65 years and above, because the immune system of such patients is considerably compromised by age and exacerbated by comorbidities (Dheda et al., 2020).

Genetic Factors: Tuberculosis is principally influenced by factors concerning genetic heritability. Genetic research has also revealed that people, with a particular genetic makeup, are at higher risk for acquiring the disease and developing the active form. For example, some genes make the body more susceptible to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This is why some people after exposure to TB bacteria may never get the disease even if exposed for years (Esmail et al., 2022).

Modifiable Risk Factors

Comorbidities: As earlier pointed out, HIV infection, diabetes Mellitus, and immunosuppressive therapy for example corticosteroids significantly raise the risk of contracting TB. The WHO (2022) stated that people with HIV are at a higher risk, 20 times more likely to have active TB than those with negative HIV status. It was found that tuberculosis risk is 3-4 folds higher in diabetic patients of Canada since diabetes has negative consequences on the immune system; thus, TB should be diagnosed and treated at the earliest.

Substance Use: Some of the main correlates of TB include alcohol and drug dependency, especially among those who indulge in drug injections (Government of Canada, 2022). According to the WHO people who inject drugs are at a higher risk of being infected with TB since they work, live, and spend time in places where they have little access to healthcare and a high risk of transmission of TB. In Canada, TB is seen more commonly among people in risky and disadvantaged sort of communities like homeless people and alcohol, and drug abusers. Information based on the Canadian Tuberculosis Reporting System (2021) shows higher rates of the disease in some metropolitan areas where homeless people live in overcrowded, substance-abuse environments contribute to the dissemination of the disease.

Social Determinants of Health and TB Risk

The Socioecological Model focuses on the societal-factor approach for the development of TB with factors including SES, healthcare accessibility, literacy levels, and environmental factors. Poor people are at higher risk of contracting TB because of their poor diet and shelter and little or no access to health care. As in some other developed nations such as the United States and other parts of Europe, Canada also vitally affects the homeless and Indigenous people with a high level of TB. A paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (2021) found that men living in low-income urban settings had a higher TB rate but low access to screening and subsequent treatment. People have also come from countries with high TB prevalence which also puts them at high risk in Canada as well. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada (2021), the refugees especially those coming from countries in India, the Philippines, and some parts of Africa have higher incidences of TB despite having been screened upon arriving in Canada. This is particularly true if the patients do not seek their follow-up within the shortest time possible or they lack adequate health insurance coverage (Zwerling et al., 2020).

The risk factors for TB in Canada are complex which includes several behavioural patterns, genetic makeup, and the community and environmental factors. Age and genetics define susceptibility; however, comorbidities; substance use; and living conditions are synthesized, which can be manipulated. Socio-demographic factors including status, migration, and health care access underpin the TB burden, especially among the poor. By relying on the Socioecological Model one can identify all the previous factors and stress that TB prevention and control require a multilevel approach (Houben & Dodd, 2019).

3. Relationship Between Risk Factors and Health-Related Outcomes

This literature review examines risk factors associated with TB concerning health-related outcomes and causal pathways linking risk factors with TB health outcomes. Factors like HIV/AIDS, diabetes, malnutrition, and substance abuse cause immunosuppression which in turn compromises the ability of the body to suppress Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This results in a transition from subclinical or asymptomatic TB infection to clinical TB disease. HIV is one of the most efficacious among them, with epidemiological data from WHO indicating clients who are positive for HIV are likely to develop active TB by twenty-thirty folds, a causal link. In the same way that diabetes works in enhancing the risk of TB through immune responses, several authors in Canada show that diabetes increases the odds of developing TB threefold; indicating a positive correlation. The sum of individual risk factors similarly magnifies the health outcomes in what is known as risk factor clustering. For instance, in the homeless community, factors such as poor hygiene, alcoholism, smoking, vitamin deficiencies, trichomes fray as well and restricted access to healthcare present a compounding factor of TB cases and accelerate their nature (Khan et al., 2020). Different researchers have captured the relation between TB incidence and effective sub-risks that act on an individual; when two or more risks aggregate on an individual, the probability of an increase in incidence, as well as a worsened outcome, is evident; for example, immunocompromised individuals staying in overcrowded places have higher risks of TB incidence. Direct health consequences of TB include cough, persistent night sweats, fever, and profound weight loss that leads to hospital admission. When left with no treatment a patient will develop diseases like pulmonary fibrosis, respiratory failure, or extrapulmonary TB which is an infection of other organs including ones in the head and spinal column. Secondary endpoints are also important and TB can lead to chronic physical and psychiatric impairment negatively affecting the global health-related quality of life (MacIntyre & Nguyen, 2021). They may even have stigmatized social lives and suffer from the ability to reintegrate into society, which only makes mental disorders worse. It also has extensive socio-economic impacts as a disease. Indirect costs, such as loss of productivity because the patient is unable to work during the period of his/her illness, result in poor household financial capacity. In particular, such vulnerable groups of people as Indigenous peoples and immigrants in Canada experienced systemic barriers that made those challenges even worse. Long courses of treatment and associated health expenses give rise to another problem – people are unable to escape poverty and disease (WHO, 2021). There are thus both direct links between many of the TB risk factors and improved health those that are more mediately associated with improved health outcomes involving social determinants of health. Managing these risks involves a systemic approach that involves both tackling the actual pathophysiological processes of the disease and addressing the social determinants that account for the disease burden (Pai et al., 2022).

4. Preventive and Control Strategies

Tuberculosis (TB) is a significant public health problem that needs a primary, secondary, and tertiary-level approach to elimination. To achieve implementation, comprehensive public health policy, community approach, and strong health systems are essential; however, the underserved populations remain poorly addressed.

Primary Prevention entails the prevention of TB infection by elimination or reduction of factors, behaviours, or conditions that can be changed. The use of the BCG vaccine for protection against serious forms of TB disease in children has been made one of the basic interventions. Smoking control campaigns, enhancement of taken diet, and avoiding overcrowded living have already been approached (Stop TB Partnership, 2021). For example, according to the WHO, the prevention of indoor air pollution and malnutrition should be widely used as measures in TB-prone areas. In Canada, interventions such as addressing poor living conditions in indigenous people populaces that increase the prevalence of the TB disease are intended to help reduce transmission. Nonetheless, low vaccine effectiveness together with low efficacy only in adults should be a wake-up call to develop better vaccines and expand access to primary prevention interventions (PHAC, 2021).

Secondary Prevention aims at recognizing a disease at an early stage so that it does not progress to another stage. In Canada, population-specific targeted TB screening for high-risk populations such as immigrants from high TB prevalence countries and Aboriginal people has been only moderately successful. For example, the guideline from the Public Health Agency of Canada to screen LTBIs in non-endemic countries suggests employing IGRAs. For those in at-risk categories, early detection and screening do decrease the rate and chances of developing the disease – however, follow-up treatment can be difficult due to logistical and system-related issues (Reid & Arinaminpathy, 2019).

Tertiary Prevention is aimed at preventing the progression of TB and its effects on the affects person’s quality of life. In Canada, the DOTS strategy has been a central tool in the achievement of patient compliance with TB treatment regimens. This approach known by WHO reduces defaulting rates significantly and also hinders the development of drug resistance (Stadelman et al., 2022). Furthermore, programs in the fields of rehabilitation of patients having post-TB complications like lung abnormalities are important to enhance a better quality of life. Still, the topic of tertiary care is limited, particularly in rural areas. These prevention strategies are carried out through health promotion and prevention interventions and public health policy has a central role in the planning and coordination of such measures. Canada’s National Tuberculosis Elimination Strategy is also designed to achieve the target of reducing the TB rate using combined strategies; and better funding for Indigenous people’s health services. Special efforts, including culturally appropriate health promotion and outreach programs and transportable clinics, help fill the service misses. The role of the healthcare system is conspicuous in the delivery of TB care but there are disparities have been observed in the availability of the service in northern and rural regions (Saha & Mandal, 2020).

5. Conclusion

Therefore, tuberculosis continues to present a public health issue in Canada with modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors; social factors such as poverty and overcrowding. Preventive and control initiatives, primary, secondary, and tertiary demonstrate potential but suffer from access problems and cultural constraints, especially with vulnerable groups. These shortcomings can be filled by relevant policies, community-based prevention and control, and advanced international model experience can enhance health care and reduce the disease incidence rate. Subsequent studies need to build on manufacturing new vaccines and improving the recognition of grouped risk factors Further practical public health measures should reflect more on access and culturally competent care.

References

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2020). Tuberculosis (TB): Data & Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/tb/statistics/default.htm
• Dheda, K., Barry, C. E., & Maartens, G. (2020). Tuberculosis. The Lancet, 395(10233), 1642–1656. 
• Esmail, H., Barry, C. E., & Wilkinson, R. J. (2022). Understanding latent tuberculosis: The key to improved diagnostic and novel therapeutic strategies. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 10(5), 392–407. 
• Government of Canada. (2022). Tuberculosis in Canada – Surveillance Report. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/tuberculosis.html
• Houben, R. M. G. J., & Dodd, P. J. (2019). The global burden of latent tuberculosis infection: A re-estimation using mathematical modelling. PLoS Medicine, 16(10),
• Khan, M. S., Fletcher, H., Coker, R., & Kranzer, K. (2020). Preventing tuberculosis among high-risk groups in low-burden settings: A review. Journal of Infection and Public Health, 13(2), 139–147. 
• MacIntyre, C. R., & Nguyen, P. (2021). Strategies to prevent tuberculosis transmission in vulnerable populations. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 72(5), e293–e298. 
• Pai, M., Behr, M. A., & Dowdy, D. (2022). Tuberculosis. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 8(1), 1–19. 
• Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). (2021). National Tuberculosis Elimination Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/national-tuberculosis-elimination-strategy.html
• Reid, M. J., & Arinaminpathy, N. (2019). Assessing the impact of interventions to control tuberculosis in high-burden settings. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 68(8), 1355–1364. 
• Saha, S., & Mandal, A. (2020). Tuberculosis and the socio-economic burden: A comprehensive overview. International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 24(7), 672–682. 
• Stadelman, A. M., Rathod, S. D., & Pinnock, H. (2022). The role of community-based interventions in tuberculosis management: A global perspective. BMC Public Health, 22(1), 1–12. 
• Stop TB Partnership. (2021). Global Plan to End TB 2023-2030. Retrieved from https://www.stoptb.org/global-plan
• World Health Organization (WHO). (2021). Global Tuberculosis Report 2021. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/
• Zwerling, A., Behr, M. A., & Schwartzman, K. (2020). Current strategies for latent tuberculosis infection screening and treatment. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 202(6), 832–846.