Question

Preparing for Future Health Threats

Identify one potential public health threat that may impact a population of interest. Locate two credible, authoritative sources that discuss the selected public health threat. Examine factors related to the initial cause of the public health threat, include source, mode of transmission, and communicability. Explore the early signs and symptoms of morbidity and mortality, essential personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, treatment for people affected, and the means of preventing further spread of health threat.

Answer 1

Future Health Threats:

Pollution or environmental change:

Environmental Pollutin is the major health thearts in future its may increase the Asthama and heart disease and cancer in future. soley an environmental, scientific, or technological issue, according to James Orbinski, a founding member of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Dignitas International. In August 2016, Andre Picard of The Globe and Mail reported that Dr. Orbinski told the general council of the Canadian Medical Association that climate change is the “greatest global health threat of the 21st century.

Climate change can therefore affect human health in two main ways:

1.by changing the severity or frequency of health problems that are already affected by climate or weather factors;

2. by creating unprecedented or unanticipated health problems or health threats in places where they have not previously occurred.

The influences of weather and climate on human health are significant and varied. They range from the clear threats of temperature extremes and severe storms to connections that may seem less obvious. For example, weather and climate affect the survival, distribution, and behavior of mosquitoes, ticks, and rodents that carry diseases like West Nile virus or Lyme disease. Climate and weather can also affect water and food quality in particular areas, with implications for human health. In addition, the effects of global climate change on mental health and well-being are integral parts of the overall climate-related human health impact

Mode of effects on humans:

• Exposure is contact between a person and one or more biological, psychosocial, chemical, or physical stressors, including stressors affected by climate change. Contact may occur in a single instance or repeatedly over time, and may occur in one location or over a wider geographic area.
• Sensitivity is the degree to which people or communities are affected, either adversely or beneficially, by climate variability or change.
• Adaptive capacity is the ability of communities, institutions, or people to adjust to potential hazards, to take advantage of opportunities, or to respond to consequences. A related term, resilience, is the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events.

2.Obesity

Obesity is another significant global health threat, with worldwide obesity rates more than doubling since 1980, according to the World Health Organization. It noted that most of the world’s population lives in nations where carrying excess weight kills more people than malnutrition does. Obesity affects developed and underdeveloped areas, with the World Health Organization commenting that the number of overweight and obese children in Africa has nearly doubled since 1990. Obesity is now the biggest preventable health threat, according to the Australian Medical Association.

The World Health Organization notes that obesity can cause numerous health complaints, including cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, cancers, and diabetes.

The problem may go beyond obesity, too. In January 2017, Medicines Sans Frontiers posed a new classification of “over fat,” a descriptor denoting people with enough excess body fat to impair their health. As well as overweight and obese people, people of normal weight with a high risk of chronic and metabolic diseases are classed as over fat. According to its research published in Science Daily, 5.5 billion people, more than three-quarters of the world’s population, are “over fat.”

The Australian Medical Association is one organization taking steps to curb the threat of obesity and excess weight within its nation. It has lobbied the Australian Government for a sugar tax and restrictions on junk food ads to help Australians make healthier choices. It has also encouraged the government to build more walking and cycling paths and increase physical education classes in school. Childhood obesity and early intervention programs for pregnant mothers are also among the Australian Medical Association’s recommendations. If these measures are implemented and proven to get results, we can expect other nations to follow Australia’s lead.

Australia’s proposed sugar tax is similar to the soda tax implemented in Mexico in 2015. One year after its introduction, Bloomberg editors reported soda purchases had dropped by 12 percent in the South American nation, which has the second-highest obesity rate in the world.

Obesity in patients causes a number of complications in medical treatment that health care professionals will need to be prepared for. For instance, there are several negative effects on respiration caused by obesity, such as higher pulmonary blood volume, which can lead to a thicker airway wall, and can cut down the size of the airway.

Also, it is vital that health care professionals have available a suitable blood pressure cuff to fit obese patients. More training will be needed in colleges and universities for health care students, which we can see is occurring due to the use in some colleges of obese patient mannequins for training

• Child obesity impacts the our future generations greatly
• if efforts not taken to stop the spread of the disease the health of the future generations at risk

Controlling measures for obesity:

To alter the food environment such that healthy choices are the easier choices, and to alter the physical activity environment to facilitate higher levels of physical activities and to reduce sedentary lifestyle, are the key targets of obesity prevention policies. There are a wide range of policy areas that could influence the food environments. These areas include fiscal food policies, mandatory nutrition panels on the formulation and reformulation of manufactured foods, implementation of food and nutrition labeling, and restricting marketing and advertising bans of unhealthy foods For instance, some studies have demonstrated that food prices have a marked influence on food-buying behavior