Topic: Community Prevention Project in Virginia

Community Prevention Project
Name
Institution
Community Prevention Project
Introduction
The adverse repercussions of the proliferation of vector-borne diseases to the social, economic, and even political aspects of the society demand the implementation of appropriate measures to deal with the menace. Both the preventive and interventional measures have to be put in place to maintain the community’s well-being for increased productivity and the development of the society as a whole. It is for the outlined reasons that the state of Virginia, through its Department of Health, is on constant alert to protect and prevent its constituents from the harmful effects of vector-borne diseases. Vector-borne diseases refer to the pathogens transmitted to human beings through a wide range of arthropods with blood-sucking abilities. The disease-carrying pathogens commonly found in the state of Virginia and around the United States include mosquitoes, ticks, mites, lice, and fleas. Mosquitoes and ticks are the main blood-sucking arthropods associated with the transmission of a wide range of vector-borne diseases or pathogens in the state of Virginia and its environs. The health concerns facing the Virginia community as a whole include Malaria, Dengue Fever, West Nile Virus, and the Eastern equine encephalitis which are transmitted through various species of Mosquitoes. The other vector-borne diseases raising a health concern for the community are the Lyme Disease and the Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever transmitted by through ticks. The project seeks to identify the factors contributing to the increase in the population of both ticks and mosquitoes, the specific health concerns transmitted by the insects, analyzing the existing public interventional and preventive measures while also recommending an enhanced approach for addressing the community health concerns.
Health Concerns of the Community
The state of Virginia has a high population of two main disease-carrying vectors, Mosquitoes, and Ticks. The health concerns associated with the two vectors include Malaria, Dengue Fever, West Nile Virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, Lyme Disease, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (Roanoke, 2018). Malaria is a parasitic vector-borne pathogen transmitted to human beings through the Anopheles mosquitoes, while both Dengue Fever and the West Nile Fever are viral pathogens transmitted through different species of mosquitoes such as the Culex mosquito for the latter (Cole, 2014). Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, on the other hand, are tick-borne disease posing a health concern for the community. The former is a bacterial pathogen transmitted by both the Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes ricinus species of ticks while the latter spread through a range of ticks (Sedda, 2014). Increase in the population of both the mosquitoes and ticks shows a strong correlation with the outbreak and spread of the vector-borne diseases in Virginia and thus raising a range of health concerns to the community (Cole, 2014). Environmental factors such as the existence swamps in the coastal regions of Virginia, stagnant pools of water during the rainy season coupled with climatic changes in the atmospheric temperatures provide conducive environments for the increase in the population of mosquitoes (Cole, 2014). Ticks, on the other hand, thrive well in the bushy areas or regions with a lot of grass. The availability of blood from either animal or human host, increased humidity, and high temperatures also constitute the favorable habitat for the increase in the population of ticks and the subsequent outbreak of tick-borne diseases in Virginia. Transmission of tick-borne diseases is, however, propagated by the ticks’ migration from one host to the other (Parham, 2015). Addressing the health concerns arising from the insects’ vector-borne diseases thus require a comprehensive assessment of the environmental risk factors contributing to the vector’s increase in population and the implementation of the effective measures to deal with the outbreak of the diseases.
Current Environmental Risk Assessment Methods Applying to the Public Health Concerns
The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) emphasizes on monitoring the outbreak of the vector-borne diseases, the environmental risks leading to the proliferation of the insects, and promoting public awareness on the diseases (Cole, 2014). The comprehensive approach facilitates the initiation of preventive and interventional measures against the same at both the public and individual level. At the organizational level, the state’s department of health institutes preventive measures such as monitoring the vectors’ population to alert the community on the possibility and the occurrence of a vector-borne disease to reduce its effects on members of the public. Currently, the state of Virginia is constantly monitoring the increasing population of the Asian Tiger Mosquito, the Lone Star Tick, and the Gulf Coast Tick (Spear, 2018). The interventional measures embraced by the public health institution include truck and aerial spraying of swampy areas or places with stagnant water to limit the completion of mosquitoes’ life cycle as well as cutting and trimming of bushes and long grass along the pathways, and other areas of with close proximity to places of residence (Cole, 2014). The department uses the combination of insecti...