Question

What are 4 factors which contribute to the emergence & re-emergence of microbial mediated diseases? [8 marks]. Describe briefly how each of these factors influences the emergence & re-emergence of microbial mediated diseases. [4 X 3= 12 marks]

Answer 1

Factors that contribute to the emergence and re-emergence of microbial mediated diseases include anomalities in the climate,microbial adaptation and change,decline in the vaccine coverage,world population.

ANOMALITIES OF THE CLIMATE - Due to activities like deforestation, there is a green house effect.Due to this the earth is warmed up.This warmed up condition is favorable for many of the micro organisms and the and these micro organisms have the better chance to spread to the areas where they were not found.

Microbial adaptation and change - This happened naturally over a long period of time.Due to the alteration in the interaction of the human being with the environment the pathogens evolved and they started emerging.This mainly happened due to the increased population,movement of people to the urban area in large numbers.The ecology has disturbed due to the development of economy  and the use of land.

Decline in vaccine coverage - There are many people not agreeing to accept the vaccine due to certain reasons like religious belief,over confidence and just because they over look the medical advice to be vaccinated.Due to this there will be emergent and the re-emergent of the diseases .

world population.- Since the world population has increased in a drastic manner the human being start moving to new geographical areas ,where they need to be in close contact with the animals.In this case there will be a great chance for the diseases to spread to the human beings from the animals.Due to the increased population density the emerged disease spread to other people very rapidly.