Concepts of Health and Disease: Influenza, Essay Example

The influenza disease is still commonly well-known amongst many cultures throughout the world.  The negative consequences of influenza have resulted in it being one of the top ten communicable diseases that are often fatal throughout the world.  It is believed that this disease is directly caused by the bacteria pathogen Haemophilus influenzae, but can also be caused by viral pathogens and other disease causing agents.  Influenza is often a precursor for much more serious diseases such as pneumonia.  Due to the influenza epidemic throughout the world, many public health approaches attempted to control the outbreak and overall impact of the disease.  Much advancement in the medical field saw antibiotic breakthroughs, but in the early 20^th century an epidemic of influenza was responsible for killing over 40 million people worldwide.  It became clear that much more public health approached would need to be made to help reduce the risk of contracting influenza, especially since viral pathogens and viral vaccines were fairly new concepts in medicine.

Today, public health approaches offer viral vaccines in the form of a flu shot that help fight the viruses that would case influenza.  These vaccines are not available everywhere in the world, but they help reduce the risk of influenza and eliminate many of the cases of death where the vaccines are available.  Hand-washing is also an excellent way to reduce the risk of contracting dangerous diseases, and a promotion campaign for hand-washing has been in existence by the American government for several decades.  Today, hand sanitizer products are available as a public health approach to kill most bacterial pathogens and even viral pathogens that live on skin tissue and underneath fingernails from contact with infected persons or objects within an individual’s environment.  Many of these approaches have helped reduce the occurrence of influenza, but still have not eliminated the disease as a worldwide cause of fatality.