By BobbieJo Paul, Family Nurse Practitioner, ATI Active Care, Waukesha, WI
As the title suggests, World Health Day is a day that has been designated to raise awareness about global health. This day is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). Each year the organization chooses a theme to highlight a priority area of public health. This year’s theme is vector-borne diseases.
What are vector-borne diseases?
A vector-borne disease is a disease that is carried by a small organism. Examples of vectors are mosquitos, flies, ticks, bugs, and freshwater snails. Illness and death can and do occur with infection from vector-borne diseases.
Some examples of vector-borne diseases are:
- Dengue Fever – fastest growing in the world and is transmitted by mosquito
- Malaria – caused by a parasite that is transmitted by a mosquito
- Leishmaniasis – caused by a parasite transmitted from sandflies
- West Nile Virus – an example that affects animals and people and is transmitted by infected mosquitoes
- Lyme Disease – caused by bacteria from an infected deer tick
Know your risk for where you live and where you plan to travel as more than half of the world’s population is at risk of contracting a vector-borne disease.
Protect yourself:
- Choose proper clothing
- Use barriers to prevent vectors from entering houses or if traveling use recommended bed nets
- Use insect repellent
- Check for travel vaccination/medications to help reduce risk of transmission before travel
- Reduce breeding sites like standing water in puddles or containers or refuse in yards
Check out what is going on for World Health Day at www.who.org or www.paho.org
ATI Active Care is a walk-in clinic, located in Waukesha, WI, that provides immediate care for non-emergency acute conditions, physicals, health screenings, preventive health and wellness programs. For more information contact BobbieJo Paul at bobbiejopaul@activatehealthcare.com or call (262) 574-2711.