Question

What are various public health measures which you would suggest as safeguard against infectious diseases?

Answer 1

Following are the public health measures that should be taken to safegaurd against infectious diseases:

Education: The general public should be educated regarding infectious diseases so as to protect themselves against infections.

Sanitation: Maintanence of personal and public hygiene leads to prevention of infectious diseases. Personal hygiene is maintained by keeping the body clean, having clean drinking water, eating healthy and nutritious food.

Public hygiene can be maintained by disposing human waste and excreta in a suitable manner and regular disinfection of sources of water.

Vaccination: People should get vaccinated so as to protect themselves against infectious diseases. Vaccines are available against several diseases such as cholera, typhoid, measles, mumps, polio, etc. Vaccines result in the generation of passive immunity agaist the pathogens.

Isolation: The person suffering from the infectious disease should be kept isolated from others so as to prevent the spead of the infection to the healthy population.

Vactor eradiation: Eradiation of vector is done in case of diseases which are spread by vectors such as malaria, filaria, chikungunia, dengue. Breeding of mosquitoes should be prevented by not allowing stagnation of water.