Environmentally linked diseases
Introduction
A common misconception about diseases is that they are mostly synthetically produced in laboratories, a product of poor inherited genes or a set of genes we were born with, i.e., mutations. However, this is not usually the case as the environment can play a major role in the diseases that occur on a local and global scale. Before discussing the impact of environmentally linked diseases, it's of importance to be able to define what it encompasses.
The impacts of these diseases are not readily displayed in individuals, as they usually are delayed, occurring either in adulthood or seniorship (elderhood?).
This article aims to inform those who are not aware of the cause-and-effect relationship of environmental change (may it be a result of natural or anthropogenic change) on people and animals as well as how it impacts the demographics of a country such as South Africa. South Africa is a developing nation with relatively little impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions but because of its high population density and poverty status, people are prone to contract all kinds of diseases, regardless of whether it is environmentally induced or not. Therefore, the prevalence of environmentally linked diseases in a country that is already faced with so many other diseases can have severe consequences on its future economic growth and prosperity.Therefore, the main objectives of this article are to list several environmentally linked diseases in South Africa, provide a brief explanation of the history of these diseases (where they came from or what caused them), how they are obtained and how they affect individuals as well as the population structure. We will then demonstrate how the diseases are currently spreading across South Africa using geographic mapping tools and provide an explanation for why this may be happening. Lastly, we will discuss methods on how to control or even prevent some of these environmentally linked diseases in countries that may currently be at risk.
Demographics and geography
A common way to display demographics is using spatial scales and mapping.The main reason why mapping diseases is so important is because it helps to develop medical precautions, manage action taken against the diseases, control distribution of funding, and increase epidemiological knowledge.[1] Epidemiology studies the spread and control of diseases across a population in order to understand how to control/prevent the disease[2] Mapping of diseases is commonly used to track infectious diseases but is also important for environmentally linked diseases as patterns showing where the environmentally-linked diseases are present can help determine the triggers and causes of those diseases. This helps to visualise the data better to show in what areas the human population is changing because of the disease and this thus shows the effect the specific disease will have on the human population demographics.The study of the effects of environmentally linked diseases on demographics is important because if we do not collect data on the influence the environmentally-linked disease will have on population growth, size, the amount of births or deaths as well as if this environmentally linked disease will cause the population to move. We will be unable to prevent future environmentally-linked diseases from developing and by the time we do figure out its affect,it will be too late.
Types of environmentally-linked diseases
1. Malaria: Why should it be an even greater cause for concern?(waqeefah's disease)
Pneumoconiosis
(alycias disease) Pneumoconiosis is a term used to refer to a variety of workplace interstitial lung disorders
References
- ↑ Tatem, Andrew J; Adamo, Susana; Bharti, Nita; Burgert, Clara R; Castro, Marcia; Dorelien, Audrey; Fink, Gunter; Linard, Catherine; John, Mendelsohn; Montana, Livia; Montgomery, Mark R; Nelson, Andrew; Noor, Abdisalan M; Pindolia, Deepa; Yetman, Greg; Balk, Deborah (16 May 2012). "Mapping populations at risk: improving spatial demographic data for infectious disease modeling and metric derivation". Popul Health Metr. 10 (1): 8. doi:10.1186/1478-7954-10-8. PMC 3487779. PMID 22591595.
- ↑ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (3 August 2022). "Introduction to Epidemiology". Public Health 101 Series. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Retrieved 24 August 2022.
This article "Environmentally linked diseases" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Environmentally linked diseases. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
