CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
PUBLIC HEALTH
Public health is the severe art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting human health through organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private communities and individuals. Analyzing the health of a population and the threats is the basis for public health. The public in question can be a small group of people, an entire village or it can be as large as several continents. Health is said to be the physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease. Public health aims to improve the quality of life through prevention and treatment of disease including mental health. It is done through surveillance of cases and health indicators, also through promotion of healthy behaviours.
PUBLIC HEALTH PREVALENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE
The focus of a public health intervention is to prevent and manage diseases, injuries and other health conditions through surveillance of cases and the promotion of healthy behaviours, communities and environments. Many diseases are preventable through simple non-medical methods for example; the simple act of hand washing with soap can prevent the spread of much contagious disease. In other cases, treating a disease or controlling a pathogen can be vital to preventing its spread to others either during an outbreak of infectious disease or through contamination of food or water supplies. Public health contamination programmes, vaccination programmes are common preventive health measures. Public health plays an important role in disease prevention efforts in both developing world and developed countries through local health systems and non-governmental organizations. The World Health organization (WHO) is the international agency that coordinates and acts on global public health issues.
Parasites
A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a host and gets its food from or at the expense of its host. Parasites can cause diseases in humans. Some parasitic diseases are easily treated and some are not. The burden of these diseases often rests on communities in the tropics and sub-tropics but parasitic infections also affect people in developed countries. Parasitic organisms get their food from or at the expense of their host. There are three main classes of parasites that can cause diseases in humans.
Protozoa
These are microscopic one celled organisms that can be free living or parasitic in nature. They are able to multiply in humans which contribute to their survival and also transmit serious infections. Transmission of protozoa that lives in a humans intestine to another humans intestine typically occurs through a fecal-oral route .Example is contaminated water or food or person to person contact. Virtually all humans have protozoa living in or on their body and many persons are infected with one or more species throughout their life. Some species are considered commensals i.e. they are not harmful whereas others are pathogens and normally transmits disease.
Helminthes
They are large multi-cellular that is generally visible to the naked eyes in their adult stage .Like protozoa, helminthes can either be free living or parasitic in nature. In their adult form, Helminthes cannot multiply in humans, There are three main pathogen groups of helminthes that are human parasites.
Flat worms (platyhelminths)
Thorny-headed worms (acanthocephalins)
Roundworms (nematodes)
Ecto-parasites/Endo parasites
Although this could broadly include blood sucking arthropods such as mosquitoes, it is generally used more narrowly to refer to organisms such as tick, fleas, lice, and mites that attach or borrow into skin and remain there for relatively long periods of time.
Endo-parasites
These are parasites that live inside their host. They are of two forms; the inter cellular and intra cellular parasites are those that inhabit the spaces of the body of the host, they live within the cell of the host the intra cellular parasites.
Aim
To determine the prevalence of parasitic eggs and cysts on Naira Notes from Food vendors in Thinkers ‘corner Enugu State.
Objectives
- To swab Naira Notes and identify the parasite and cyst on Naira the notes.
- To determine denomination that are carriers of parasitic eggs/cysts.
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