Social and Economic Bases for Infection Prevention

 Social and Economic Bases for Infection Prevention

Introduction

‘Infection’ is the term used to denote the entrance and development of an infectious agent in a human or animal body, whether or not it develops into a disease. In common parlance, prevention is defined as the promotion, preservation and restoration of health while minimising suffering and distress. Infection prevention is a must for a brilliant future.

Social factors

Socially, infection is inhibitory to the natural flow of human life. Even a minor infectious ailment such as the common cold can disrupt one’s life. When it comes to a society, infection can alter traditional roles in a matter of days - jobs might be lost for both the affected and their caregiver. In the life of a child - infection, malnourishment and poverty constitute a vicious cycle - entrapping entire societies in states of social weakness.  

Economic factors

While a social analysis of poverty as a factor in infections helps us rationalise why an infection free society is achievable at least to a degree, economic factors further unravel the need for an infection mitigation. As an overview we can draw directly from the adage – “Prevention is better than cure”. Whereas infection itself maybe a state that can be prevented, the various ramifications of infection - abscesses, visceral infection, cancer and malnourishment are all inventible distressing and financially taxing. Indirectly, rampant infection disrupts hospital activities and alters resource allocation for other kinds of treatment such as maternity and cancer care. Ultimately, infection hinders economic growth by causing loss of productivity and any attention assigned to it is only a reparative measure.

Antibiotics

Antibiotics are available in various concentrations and dosage forms. Rampant infection causes antibiotic abuse and drug resistant microbes. For many reasons, practitioners rampantly prescribe antibiotics without considering various antimicrobial resistance guidelines. Further, patients purchase antibiotics over the counter from India’s poorly regulated pharmaceutical industry. Ultimately, the health care system is forced to resort to higher antibiotics - many of which are expensive and side-effect laden.

The Past

Historically, declines in the prevalence of Pulmonary Tuberculosis have been demonstrated far before the invention of BCG vaccines. This has been attributed to increases in public health awareness and sanitation. This shouldn’t be taken as an argument against vaccines - indeed, they are most important for an infection free future; but should serve as a guiding light for two reasons - infection is indeed preventable and such prevention has been achieved in the past.

The Future

While looking towards the future, we must consider two final reasons why infection must be prevented through public health measures, dietary changes, sanitation and behavioural etiquette. Firstly, pathogens have proven instrumental in even non-communicable diseases such as obesity and cancer. Secondly, rapid deforestation and climate change have caused changes in pathogen patterns and infectivity, heralding a bleak future if not for immediate action.  With this in mind, we must resolve to prevent infection for a healthy future - the only future worth working for.