How to Prevent and Control the Spread of Communicable Diseases

It is true that the kind of health care you give yourself can make the difference in preventing a disease and reducing the severity of its occurrence. Many disease symptoms can be made worse by the kind of health practices you develop. You can stay healthier by developing good health practices and eliminating poor ones from your life.

1. A Balanced Diet
Diet is important for a healthy body. Proper nutrition prevents certain diseases such as rickets, scurvy and kwashiorkor. You should also select the right amount of food from each of the food groups. You should also develop the practice of eating at regular times and not skipping meals. This will help you avoid over eating at meals and eating between meals. In turn, you will find it easier to control your weight.

A diet that is unbalanced, added to a lack of regular exercise, can lead to obesity or being extremely overweight. Obesity contributes to diseases of many kinds.

2. Exercise

This can be accomplished by doing strength, flexibility and endurance exercises regularly.

Running, walking, and taking part in vigorous sports can help you build endurance to improve cardiovascular fitness. With regular exercise of this kind, the heart pumps more efficiently, more blood is delivered to the tissues and the risk of heart disease is reduced.

3. Recording your Health History

Another good health practice is to keep an accurate record of your health history. This could include changes in your height and weight, a record of vaccinations and childhood diseases to be used as a model of comparison.

An accurate health history can help your physician determine and treat current health problems.

4. Health Check-Up

Even when you feel well, you should have periodic health check-up. In addition to health check-up, you should seek prompt medical attention if you are having any severe problem or if a disease persists over a long period of time.

PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF DISEASES

This can be accomplished by the segregation of the reservoir or source of infection by the process of isolation and quarantine.

1. Isolation - the process of segregating a sick person or a carrier until all dangers of conveying the infection has passed.

2. Quarantine - refers to the limitation of the freedom to be in contact with persons who have come sufficiently near or have been exposed to a source of infection

3. Reducing communicability which means treatment of cases

4. Eradication of animal reservoirs

5. Controlling the means of spread such as sanitation of food, milk, water and air, proper sewage, garbage disposal and disinfection of excreta of sick people.