Reasons for communicable diseases

When someone contracts a communicable disease, it can spread very quickly to other people around then if precautions aren’t put into place in order to protect you and the people around you. There are three reasons that communicable diseases are spread from one person to another, the three reasons are;

•Ignorance
•Economic cost
•Lack of education
One reason that communicable diseases spread from one person to another is because of ignorance. Many people that get a communicable disease usually try and ignore it and hope it will go away on its own. However whilst they are doing this the disease will be spreading to more people. A person who has contracted a communicable disease may chose to ignore the symptoms because they don’t want to take time off work, this means that the communicable disease could also spread to their colleagues. Also a person who has caught a communicable disease through sexual activity may chose to ignore the fact that they have a disease and they may think that it is the other person’s job to wear a condom, this will cause the communicable disease to spread to the person who is involved in the sexual activity.

If a person does finally decide to visit their doctor he may suggest that the infected person has an incubation period; however the infected person may chose to ignore the advice and carry on socialising around people, this will result in the communicable disease spreading to even more people. Another reason why communicable diseases spread from one person to another is because of the economic cost. Economic cost is a major reason for communicable diseases still existing; this is because in order for a communicable disease to stop spreading, there are certain methods which include; vaccinations, mosquito nets and condoms. However all of these methods cost the government a lot of money, this means that it is hard to provide person in the world with the protection they need in order to stop them contracting a communicable disease.

For people in the UK it is easy for them to become protected against communicable diseases because of the NHS service, however in other countries this service is not available and this means that they need to pay for their own health care and protection. This means that countries like Africa the people won’t be able to afford vaccinations or they won’t be able to pay to protect themselves against communicable diseases if they don’t have an income. The final reason for communicable disease is lack of education. When someone contracts a communicable disease they will suffer from a number of different symptoms, they will be ways of treating it, ways of controlling it and ways of preventing it. However if a person has never been taught about these things then they won’t know if they have actually got the disease and they may not recognise the symptoms, this may mean that they won’t go to the doctors and get it treated. This will mean that the disease will have chance to spread further.

If a person doesn’t know about vaccinations that are used to prevent certain communicable diseases then they won’t actually get the vaccination and they could go on to develop the communicable disease. Once a person has developed a certain communicable disease and they, or the people around them, don’t know how to control it then it is likely to spread further if the people stay close to them. Some types of communicable diseases can be spread through sexual activity, if people aren’t taught about the importance of using condoms in order to stop these communicable diseases from spreading then they may not use them. This could result in the communicable disease spreading to even more people.