In Thailand, chickens in a cage, stacked upon cage, stacked upon cage, in a wet market. Waiting to be bought and then butchered, and sent home to make someone a chicken dinner. I put the photograph here because I want to emphasize that humans and animals live together and it's in that living together that we can find many infectious diseases produced and transmitted from human to animal. I thought it was great way to frame our lecture today on the plebeians and the stealth bombs of infectious disease. We've talked about HIV, AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis. And now let's move on to the Plebeians. As I said, the diseases that aren't talked about as much but which have a significant impact on global health. Lower respiratory infection, diarrheal disease, and neglected tropical diseases. Then we'll move on to the stealth bombs, and I will come back to those chickens. The plebeians diarrhea. Diarrhea is defined as having three or more liquid stools a day. Are the greater than that's an individual's norm of stool both volume consistency. And also along with dehydration. Now most diarrhea is actually caused by bacteria. Cholera is an example of a bacteria that has, it's quite virulent and pathogenic but there are many other bacteria as well that cause common types of diarrhea. There can also be viral, particular in kids, a virus called roto virus is the number one cause of diarrhea. And it's frequently transmitted through an oral-fecal route. In other words, bacteria from someone's diarrhea has gotten into a water supply, or it's on someone's hands and it's transmitted to someone else. It's more common to get diarrhea if you have low immunity, or a disaster has taken place where the water supply is contaminated. If you're undernourished and you're immune system isn't strong. Also living conditions in which good hygiene cannot be practiced all increase risk. Now there are lots of ways to prevent and treat diarrhea successfully. One is vaccines, right? So the rotavirus vaccine, the cholera vaccine, the measles vaccine. Measles, by the way, can also cause diarrhea. Improving water sanitation and hygiene using something called oral rehydration therapy. That's a mixture of water, salt, sugar and some electrolytes. That are given to the patient to prevent dehydration, which is one of the most common reasons that people die, cholera for example. One dies not from the cholera so much but from the massive dehydration that occurs. Having good access to medical treatment and also, breast feeding an infant for as long as is recommended. min, minimum six months, and most developed countries, to one to two years in developing, in developing countries, as well. Because that way the child, by breast feeding, and exclusively breast feeding for six months. Is actually not is actually as a minimum risk of being exposed to contaminated water. Lower respiratory infections. I'm really talking about primarily pneumonia and influenzas. now, pneumonia is usually bacterial, can be viral, but normally the agent is a bacteria. And the influenza, or the flu, which is normally viral. Now there are the top infectious disease killers of children and the elderly in many parts of the, of the world. Children in the developing world in particular, the elderly in particular in the global, in the global north. Apart from exposure alone there are many risks to contracting an LRI. Your low immunity response, low birth weight in children which means they have a lower immunity response as well. Not having sufficient nutrition so that your body doesn't have strong resistance, living in housing conditions or environmental conditions where you are exposed to the virus and or the environment is such that your lungs are staying irritated. So, perhaps, if you were inhaling lots of indoor smoke so that you've gotten more inflammation. Main keys to successful treatment and prevention of lower respiratory infection. Flu vaccine, which I get every year and I recommend that you do as well. Talk to your doctor about that. A new vaccine that's to prevent pneumonia, that's especially important for children in low and middle income countries as well since as I said it can be a, a top cause of death. Finally the neglected tropical disease. There's 17 diseases that we call neglected because they don't get a lot of attention. And there are diseases that primarily infect who we call the bottom billion, right. The people who are the poorest in the world. Now, these diseases might differ by region and climate. But they have a collective, huge impact on people. In fact, taken together, these 17 neglected tropical diseases have the same number, create basically the same number of DALYs as does malaria. Greatest risks. Conditions of poverty that create conditions in which the diseases can thrive and spread. And to be perfectly honest with you, apathy from the Global North about these diseases.
