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Global Health Assignment - PUBH6304 - Zika Virus in the United States

   

Added on  2020-03-04

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GLOBAL HEALTHZika Virus in United StatesName of StudentName of Institution

GLOBAL HEALTH 2Zika Virus in United StatesIntroductionStudies undertaken by different researchers describe global health as the measure of burden caused by disease across the world. The current globalization and interconnectedness implies that a major threat of disease in any country carries the possibility that the same can be spread globally. Strong public health systems globally can help in stopping the risk of spreading of such diseases across the world. The strong national public health systems work in synergy to improve the global health security. As of 1 January, 2017 there were more than 180 Zika virus cases reported in the US. Mitigating the spread of the virus in the US requires robust strategies and initiatives of communication that are undertaken to promote positive social change when combating its spread.Health indicators in the USSome of the health indicators include the expectancy of life span and mortality,specific causes of mortality and morbidity, selected diseases which are infectious and coverage of health to the population. The metrics that measure life expectancy and mortality include expectancy of life at birth and age 60, infant and under-five rates of mortality and adult mortality (between 15-60 years). The life expectancy was 79 years at birth and 23 years ay age sixty for the US in 2013 (WHO, 2015). The infant and under-five mortality rates was 5.9 and 6.9 years in the US during the same period (WHO, 2015). WHO (2015) data also shows that the adult mortality rate in the US was 76 years of age in 2013.The cause specific mortality and morbidity metric used by the WHO are the communicable, conditions which are non-communicable and injuries that cause deaths.. The morbidity measure was based on deaths arising from HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The mortality rate stood at 31 for communicable conditions, 413 for non-communicable conditions

GLOBAL HEALTH 3and 44 for deaths caused by injuries (WHO, 2015).There was no data from the WHO on morbidity rates for HIV/AIDS and malaria while the tuberculosis rate was at 3.3%. The aggregate for “other diseases” leading to deaths of children below five years stood at 23%.Several infectious diseases were used by the World Health Organization to measure the selected diseases indicator. These include diphtheria, leprosy, malaria, measles and meningitis. There was no reported case of diphtheria in the year 2013 while there were 188 reported cases of leprosy in the US for the same period (WHO, 2015). The World Health Organization (WHO) did not have any data available for reported cases of meningitis and malaria for the US during this period. The reported cases of measles stood at 187 during the year 2013 in the US. The Institute of Medicine, US (2013) states that the above figures need to be interpreted using epidemiological patterns and methods of collecting data within the US in order to arrive at meaningful results.Determinants of HealthThe determinants of health within the parameters of the WHO include the socio-economic environment, the physical environment and individual behaviors of a person (WHO, 2017). The US government uses the following different metrics as the determinant of health: policy-making, social factors, healthy services, individual behavior/genetics (Healthy People, 2017). The policies undertaken at the federal, state and local level affect the health status of the population and individuals. Policies such as the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act affect entire populations across different states. This Act resulted in increased safety standards for motor vehicles.Social factors are affected by determinants such as daily resource needs, social attitudes and norms, poverty, quality of education and residential segregation (Kronenfeld, 2013). These

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