ZOONOSIS: A MENACE IN THE HEALTH SECTOR GIVEN LESS ATTENTION AND SENSITIZATION.
The world has really developed and a lot of things has improved especially in the health sector but it still saddens my heart when I see how much people talk about drug abuse, self medication, STDs etc but pay little attention to the recent killer that continue to claim the lives of many people especially in the developing countries. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to sensitize people about this General problem and how easy it is to spread.
So I will talking about ZOONOTIC DISEASES which I refer to as a thin line between humans and animals health in sustaining ONE HEALTH CAMPAIGN.
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Zoonosis is the term given to diseases or infections that are transmitted between humans and animals. This area needs a lot of attention now because many people interact with Animals during their daily lives and billions of households in the world population keep pets and other people come in contact with animals, (both food animals and pets) through their works, for example livestock farming, wildlife workers, abattoir workers, veterinarians all have high risk of getting this zoonotic diseases. Some of these diseases could be mild, severe, fatal or even Life-threatening.
Common zoonotic diseases are as follows:
Toxoplasmosis
Brucellosis
Tuberculosis
Rabies
Avian influenza (bird flu)
Colisepticemia
Salmonellosis
Pox
Typhoid fever etc
Transmission could be DIRECT OR INDIRECT.
Direct contact is one of the major causes of spread of zoonotic diseases, it involves simply coming in contact with bodily fluids of an infected animals such as saliva, urine, blood, feces etc. This can happen because of mere touching or petting of infected or carrier animals or through their bites or even ordinary scratch. You're surprised right, it sounds unbelievable but that's how easy it is to pick up this life threatening diseases.
Indirect contact includes vector borne, food borne and some other routes of transmission.
I'll be talking about just four(4) diseases usually transmitted through the direct contacts, their severity and the threat they pose to humans health so as to prevent this article from being cumbersome, jam-packed and hard to comprehend.
Transmission through indirect contact will be analysed and explained in subsequent article on my blog.
-TOXOPLASMOSIS is a zoonotic disease from cats caused by a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii and can be contracted from cat feces, undercooked meat, especially venison, lamb and pork. Most times this disease does not come with noticeable symptoms but when it does, swollen lymph nodes of the neck, fever and sore throat are seen. It could be fatal and life threatening causing encephalitis (brain inflammation), eye and lung damage in which there is blurry vision.
It is however very severe and fatal in pregnant women as it gives the unborn innocent fetus congenital defects especially brain damage or retardation.
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-BRUCELLOSIS is also a zoonotic disease caused by a dangerous bacteria called brucella. It is transmitted even through the simplest routes you may think of such as through breastmilk, skincut, undercooked meat, contaminated air. Can be gotten from almost all the food animals ranging from sheep, goat, pig, cow and even dog. Its symptoms are also general such as fever of unknown origin, severe headache, pain all over the body etc.
When fully established fatal signs such as joint pain, heart disease, abortion, infertility in both men and women, and birth congenital defects are experienced.
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- TUBERCULOSIS is one of the diseases called wasting diseases because of the effect they have on the patient which is weakness, loss of weight and dullness. It is caused by mycobacterium bovis from cattle mostly through contacts with blood, infected carcass, breathing of contaminated air and consumption of infected carcass.
Veterinarians, butchers, abattoir workers and meat inspectors are directly at high risk of getting this disease.
It affects the lungs mainly and damage it by the presence of the Caseous nodules it produces on it (destroys air sacs, bronchioles etc) it can also affect other organs such as liver, heart, spleen and even the skin. It is difficult to treat or even maintain because even the common drugs used such as isoniazid, rifampicin etc does not get to the bacterial organisms because of the Caseous nodules surrounding it.
It is fatal and usually result to death especially in pregnant women and hiv/aids carriers.
-AVIAN INFLUENZA also known as bird flu is a zoonotic disease of poultry birds, it is a viral disease and kills a great number of birds when present on a farm and can also infect humans when the meat or eggs of these chickens are consumed. It results in fever, headache, anemia and could result to death if not properly managed.
GENERAL WAYS TO PREVENT OR REDUCE THESE INFECTIONS.
Maintain Good hygiene and wash your hands after handling animals before touching food items.
Always wear protecting clothing especially hand gloves and nose mask before touching your pets and their faeces, urine, bedding etc
Pregnant women should be prevented from these hazards and the animals so as to protect the unborn children and safeguard human race from congenital defects.
Vaccines that can protect human beings against this diseases should be produced and given worldwide.
Cook all meats very well especially in developing countries where the meat processing quality is bad, boil, cook, and fry if possible.
Bio-security should be emphasized.
Please resteem for many people to read and be aware
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Thank you... I remain @tuppence.