The Public Health Impact of Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases in the United Kingdom

This report discusses the impact of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases on public health in the United Kingdom, with a focus on the current health protection issue of COVID-19. It explores the challenges faced by the government and healthcare professionals, as well as the physical and mental health impacts on the population.

The public health impact of a
specified health protection
issue
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Current health protection related issue – “Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases”. 3
Impact of Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases on public health in United Kingdom
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CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
The infectious diseases constantly to impose unpredictable burdens on the economics and
health at global level. It is a subject which needs constant research and updates. Therefore,
proper surveillance of the diseases as well as preparation for potential pandemics and epidemics
is important to meet the impact of future outbreaks. This report is based on the current health
protection related issue, i.e., "emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases" in the selected
geographical area "United Kingdom". The project discusses about the issue along with its impact
on health of public in UK.
MAIN BODY
Current health protection related issue – “Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases”
Emerging infectious diseases are referred as outbreak of previously unknown diseases or
persistence of infectious diseases which cannot be controlled. These emerging diseases includes
SARS, HIV infections, dengue fever, Lyme disease, zika virus, West Nile virus etc. The re-
emerging diseases are those diseases which reappear after they have been on a particular decline.
The disease re-emergence occurs due to breakdown of public health measures that were once
under control. These diseases include tuberculosis, influenza, pneumococcal disease, malaria,
cholera etc. Currently, coronavirus disease is one among the infectious diseases which is caused
due to newly discovered virus called covid-19. Most individuals infected with this virus will feel
mild-to-moderate respiratory illness. The individuals who have underlying medical issues like
chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes etc. and the older individuals
are more possibly to develop serious illness. In the situation of global spread of covid-19
pandemic, Public Health protection becomes a serious issue in front of government. Although,
various measures are taken by government to deal with pandemic situation effectively including
social distancing, keeping rooms well ventilated, wearing mask, movement restrictions,
lockdowns etc., still the risk of infection is high. People with underlying medical conditions are
at high risk of severe illness.
According to the public health registrars in United Kingdom, the main cause of current
challenges associated with covid-19 involves historical decisions regarding policy that have
affected the systems and health workforce of United Kingdom involving laboratory capacity.
Nevertheless, the spread of pandemic caused due to novel highly pathogenic virus will prove
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profoundly complex in any context. Apart from this, scaling up testing, increasing the capacity of
hospital and sourcing personal protective equipment are problematic all over the world and are
exacerbated through global shortages (A view from UK public health registrars on the challenges
of COVID-19, 2020). The transmission dynamics of SARS coronavirus 2 make it challenging for
government to control through all these measures alone as well as despite of these efforts, the
cases proportion went under the radar. In addition to this, executing all the strategies like
improved testing capacity, setting up care homes etc. there are several ethical and practical
challenges faced by care professionals and government in United Kingdom.
Impact of Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases on public health in United Kingdom
Currently, the whole world is suffering from an unprecedented pandemic caused due to new
strain of coronavirus called COVID-19, which is a highly infectious disease. After decades of
decline, the infectious diseases threats are again at forefront of public health. The pandemic
killed around 20 to 40 million individuals and it remains the significant civil risk experiencing
the United Kingdom. Health protection is the set of functions in order to protect people and
populations by an integrated approach to chemical hazards, environmental hazards and infectious
diseases. The system emerged in United Kingdom from various system failures, involving 1980's
Stafford Hospital Legionnaires disease outbreak and 2001's foot and mouth disease outbreak. In
England, the health protection was formalized in year 2003 by amalgamation of chemical
functions, microbiology and radiation (Current and emerging health protection issues, 2018).
Over the years, the health protection challenges that have emerged are increasingly become
global, challenging and interdisciplinary.
Public Health United Kingdom leads management and surveillance of infectious diseases
and threats to health by provision of specialist health protection, microbiology and epidemiology
services as well as aims to detect the possible disease outbreaks and epidemics as quickly as
possible. Spread of covid-19 pandemic has been profound impact on the health of people. It not
only impacts on the physical health of people, but on mental health also. Number of daily cases
of infection exceeded three figures in March which app is on 1st May. The cases of covid-19 in
United Kingdom were 313,798 by 12th August. The death proportion in the United Kingdom up
to 12th August was 15 percent (COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, 2020). The people
with underlying diseases are at high risk and the quality of life of people impacts highly. Many
of the people had lost their lives during the spread of virus. The lockdown and social distancing
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measures imposed by government make people unable to attend hospital during visiting hours as
well as distractions are also placed on funerals. This had emotional influence and mental
influence on the families. Social care workers, health care workers, care home residents
involving other workers like delivery personal, bus drivers and retail staff are at higher risk of
spread of infection. The survivors of covid-19 have pressing physical and mental health needs.
Many of them have been living with depressive disorder and anxiety prior to hospitalization, that
will be exacerbated through trauma of been diagnosed with corona virus as well as admitted to
Intensive Care unit or respiratory ward for ventilation. Apart from this, the individuals without
pre-existing mental health issues are at higher risk of developing depressive disorder and anxiety
with post Intensive care syndrome. All these are the health impacts facing by population in UK
due to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases like coronavirus.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that the emerging and re-emerging
infectious diseases has profound impact on the health of population. Covid-19 has huge impact
on the lives of people and their life quality. This leads them towards increasing mental health,
anxiety and stress related issues which directly impacts on their physical health.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Chowell, G. and Hyman, J.M. eds., 2016. Mathematical and statistical modeling for emerging
and re-emerging infectious diseases. Springer.
Tong, M.X., Hansen, A., Hanson-Easey, S., Xiang, J., Cameron, S., Liu, Q., Liu, X., Sun, Y.,
Weinstein, P., Han, G.S. and Mahmood, A., 2019. Public health professionals’
perceptions of the capacity of China’s CDCs to address emerging and re-emerging
infectious diseases. Journal of Public Health.
Green, M.H., 2020. Emerging diseases, re‐emerging histories. Centaurus, 62(2), pp.234-247.
Wang, Q., Vlasova, A.N., Kenney, S.P. and Saif, L.J., 2019. Emerging and re-emerging
coronaviruses in pigs. Current opinion in virology, 34, pp.39-49.
Online
A view from UK public health registrars on the challenges of COVID-19, 2020. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-
6736(20)31058-8/fulltext>
Current and emerging health protection issues, 2018. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/health-profile-for-england-2018/chapter-
7-current-and-emerging-health-protection-issues>
COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7451057/>
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