Concepts of Epidemiology and Applying Nursing Theories

Concepts of Epidemiology and Applying Nursing Theories
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Concepts of Epidemiology and Applying Nursing Theories
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a sexually transmitted virus that causes AIDS disease. It is transmitted by interacting with infected blood and from an illegitimate injection of drugs or needle sharing (Schalkwijk, Snoeck & Andrei, 2022). It is also transmitted from a mother to a child through pregnancy, breastfeeding, or childbirth. Without proper healthcare, HIV may weaken someone's immune system, and within some years, the patient has AIDS.
Some HIV signs include headaches; inflamed lymph swellings; recurring fevers; night sweating; nausea; fatigue; diarrhea; vomiting; weight reduction; skin epidemics; recurring vaginal or oral yeast; shingles, and pneumonia. The disease-associated complications are Salmonella, pneumonia, toxoplasmosis, tuberculosis, and candidiasis. The best defense against these complications is to administer HIV medicines daily.
The disease treatment is called antiretroviral therapy (ART). It entails taking a mixture of regimen HIV drugs called treatment daily. ART is suitable for anyone who has HIV. ART does not heal HIV but helps HIV patients live healthier and longer.
HIV disproportionately affects some demography, mainly ethnic and racial sectors and gay and bisexual. By 2018, around 700,000 individuals had died of HIV in the US since the commencement of the HIV epidemic. Approximately 13,000 persons who have AIDS in the US die yearly (Schalkwijk, Snoeck & Andrei, 2022).
The demography with a high disease incidence is the African in American bisexual and gay. The 2020 data should be inferred with attention because of the effect of the COVID-19 disease on the accessibility of HIV care services and testing activities in national and local authorities.
South America has the highest chance of prevalence of persons who have HIV; however, if the inhabitants' population number is then taken into consideration, Northeast America does have the highest probability of persons who have HIV.
Why is HIV a reportable disease?
HIV is a reportable disease because a report is required to monitor the existing trends in the condition appropriately and to safeguard continued financing by State and federal agencies towards local HIV prevention and treatment services (Um & Choi, 2022). It is only reportable on an occasion that the infected individuals have received or donated blood, tissues, or organs.
The reporting criteria facts are: the disease incidence, the status, diagnoses, linkage to medication, and PrEP reporting. Each pointer was selected with particular healthy objectives in mind and per the four effective strategies of reporting: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and response. Incidences evaluate the overall goal of eradicating new incidences by around 90% by 2030. Status knowledge and diagnoses are essential in identifying which person needs linkage to healthcare and signify vital stages.
The social determinants of health and how they contribute to the HIV disease
Social health factors are those situations in which persons are born, live, labor, and age. These factors include education, social status, physical and neighboring environment, employment, and accessibility to healthcare services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) implies that social factors of health are: transportation; socioeconomic status: housing; services accessibility; discrimination based on race, class, or gender; environmental and social stressors. These factors can impact a person's likelihood of getting a contagious disease, like HIV, through the impacts on behavior, inadequate access to preventive measures, and inadequate access to healthcare providers or testing.
The epidemiologic triangle as it relates to the HIV disease.
An Epidemiologic Triangle is a scientific model developed for research on health problems. It helps students to understand how infectious diseases are spread. The model has three vertices which are agent, host, and environment (Thornton, 2022). The triangle is shown below:
The agent refers to the cause of the HIV disease. In studying the epidemiology of some communicable diseases, agents are microbes; organisms too minor and not visible to the naked eye. HIV is the agent for the HIV disease.
Hosts refer to animals or humans exposed to and accommodate a disease. A host is an organism infected by sickness and those who are just carriers; for instance, worms and insects. For the Human immunodeficiency virus, a CD4 cell is the host. The virus destroys the immunity system, especiall...