Public health. Leukemia descriptive analysis. Medicine Research Paper

Leukemia
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Epidemiology is the study of incidence, distribution and the possible control of diseases affecting humans, animals and plants. It is a branch of medicine that also deals with other factors relating to health and is among the best methods of finding the impact of health outcomes and disease distribution in a population. The role of this study is to identify hazardous materials or items of importance in a community. During a test a single patient that is infected represents a whole community. Leukemia is a disease in which blood cancer attacks the bone marrow and causes formation of abnormal blood cells which are not fully developed.
Leukemia does not choose a victim; it affects both young and the old in the society. Men are in high risk of being affected by leukemia than their counterparts. According to World Health Organization, affected male to female ratio is 1:4. In age the risk of being affected increases with age but people under the age of 20 also get affected. Acute myeloid, chronic lymphocytic and chronic myeloid leukemia cases have mostly been found in adults of age 65 and above while acute lymphocytic leukemia has been found in ages 20 and below. Leukemia cases are rare in pregnant women and are treated aggressively depending on the type of leukemia.
Leukemia has been categorized into two major sub types which are acute leukemia and chronic leukemia; acute means that the cancerous cells are reproducing very fast and the signs are very serious while chronic is the exact opposite where the illness is succeeding slowly. The various types of leukemia that exist and have been identified include: acute lymphoblastic leukemia and is very common in young children but is also vast in old people especially those at 65 years old and above, survival rates for this type of cancer is 85% in kids and 50% in adults. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia affects mostly adults of above 55 years and young adults but rarely found in children. Survival rates for this type of cancer are 75% and it affects mostly men. The other type of leukemia is acute myeloid leukemia which occurs mostly in men than and is found commonly in adults than children, has a survival rate of 40% (Else, Ruchlemer & Osuji, 2005)
Chronic myeloid leukemia is present in most adults and affects a very small number of children and has a survival rate of 90% in 5 years. Hairy cell leukemia affects adult men is treatable but incurable, survival rate stands at a hundred percent for 10 years. T- Cell prolymphocytic leukemia is very insistent and common to men than women. Clonal hypereosinophilias type of cancer is exemplified with the development of eosinophils duplicates in the blood and body tissues. Most of these cases are treated by chemotherapy and other special drugs designed for their treatment.
Leukemia cases are more rampant in developed worlds. In the United States almost 245,000 people are affected (Amitay & Keinan-Boker, (2015). In the United Kingdom leukemia is ranked at number 11in the most common cancers list in the U.K. Africa, Japan and Asian countries are estimated to have the lowest number or percentage of leukemia cancers on both women and men. In 1975 to 2011 United States experienced an increase of 0.7% of leukemia cases in children per year (Amitay & Keinan-Boker, (2015). Rossi J, ( 2018) states that upper Midwest states in the United States have a higher rate of leukemia diagnosis, these include: North Dakota 17.3%, Minnesota 17.0%, Idaho 16.6%, Wisconsin 16.1%, New York 16.0 just to mention the top ranking states with higher rates of cancer.
Leukemia just like other diseases has signs and symptoms that indicate its presence in a human being. Each type of leukemia has different signs and different symptoms. Children have common symptoms of being injured easily, soft skin, rise in temperature, inflamed spleen or liver. Replacement of the normal bone marrow with an alarming abnormal rate of white blood cells which are immature causing damage to the bone marrow. This also leads to lack blood platelets hence excessive bleeding to leukemia patients. Infections become common as white blood cells are muted or become dysfunctional thus the body cannot fight diseases attacking other cells in the body.
Anemia sets in as red blood cells are insufficient due to the destruction of the bone marrow which produces or makes red blood cells in the body. Other symptoms include: fevers, night sweats, fatigue, nausea and flu-like symptoms. There are symptoms associated with the nervous system when it is affected by leukemia. These diseases include; migraine, seizures or comas due to pressure being put on the brain stem. Loss of weight with much effort, bone tenderness and pain, enlarged spleen or liver, red spots on the skin, excessive nose bleeding and severe infections which become frequent.
Cancer screening refers to checking for cancer that do not ha...