diseases and pathogenesis

Pathogenesis is the process by which morbid diseases develop; more precisely, the biological events and relationships, as well as other pathological processes that arise during disease growth (Shigemitsu and Hiroaki, 2017). In this post, I’ll talk about blood-borne infection as pathogenesis. Blood transmitted infection may be characterized as an infection that is caused by a virus that persists in a human’s blood vessel. Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 (HIV-1) the main disease is AIDS, Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 2 (HIV-2) the main disease is AIDS, Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV). These viruses causing infections have caused concern among occupational specialists worldwide due to their increased spread among ordinary people and from health practitioners to patient (CDC 2016).

Within the health-care setting, rapid transmission of blood-borne virus has increasingly become a concern of public interest especially to health practitioners. For a number of years, effort has been made to avert the spread of these viruses. Various treatments have been taken to these effects; however, each virus has been dealt with independently as far as treatment is concerned. Treatments for these infections vary depending on the type of virus causing the infection. HIV for example, has no cure nor do we have a vaccine against it. After exposure to HIV, antiretroviral drugs can be administered to the patient to help to boost the immune system against opportunistic infection. For HBV, Hepatitis B vaccine is recommended. There is no vaccine against hepatitis C and no treatment after an exposure that will prevent infection.

Difference between hazard and risk

Hazard can be defined as the source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effects on something or someone. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is an example of a hazard that can cause harm (Tuberculosis). Risk on the other hand can be defined to mean, the likelihood of a person being harmed or experiencing an adverse health effect if exposed to hazard. For example smoking is a hazard may result into lung cancer which is a risk.

References

Centers for Disease Control National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention Viral Hepatitis C July 2016 webpageshttp://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/c/index.htm

Shigemitsu,Y. and Hiroaki, H. (2017). Common molecular pathogenesis of disease-related intrinsically disorder proteins revealed by NMR analysis.