The Gold Coast is one of the places prone to infectious diseases and this is due to its unique environment. The fact that the Gold Coast has several tourist attraction sites make thousands of tourists from all over the World to flock the coast. It boasts of different natural attractions and national parks According to research, the Gold Coast is one of Australia’s most biodiverse city and it boasts of the subtropical rainforest remnant in the world. Other centers of attraction include the Management and the theme parks as well as the zoos, sanctuaries, aquariums and wildlife parks. The Gold Coast also boasts of different games that attract tourists. It is the different tourists especially those from the developing countries that spread infectious diseases from their countries to the Gold Coast. Some of the notable diseases that have spread through tourism include typhoid fever and the cholera.
The fact that the Gold coast has saline water makes it prone to cholera infections. The Gold coast has the salty water from the ocean. According to different studies, the vibrio cholera which is the bacteria responsible for the cholera disease, thrives very well under the salty condition. This therefore makes cholera frequent at the Gold coast.
The Gold coast also experience heavy rainfall. The frequent heavy rainfalls causes flooding at the Gold Coast. Flooding causes frequent cholera outbreaks due to the contamination of both water and sources of food. The Commonwealth government should therefore come up with different strategies to control flooding so as to reduce the incidences of the cholera outbreaks.
Communicable diseases have high mortality and morbidity rates in Australia. Therefore, there should be efforts or rather relevant infrastructure that will effectively control and manage the deadly communicable diseases. Currently, there are already existing programs with the said objective.
Increased surveillance activities should be at the top of the agenda. The commonwealth government is on course to hold the common wealth games and as a result, it should strive to offer or rather leave a legacy that will act as a standard for future mass gathering. Continuous monitoring of cases of gastroenteritis presentation at the health care facilities is one of the infrastructure in place to assist reduce on the incidences of communicable diseases. Continuous monitoring can really reduce the incidences of communicable diseases. In case one person is found suffering from the condition, he or she will be alienated from the public so that he or she does not spread the disease to other people. Other countries that purpose to hold such mass gatherings should therefore employ such a strategy.
Collection and analysis of food and water is another useful related infrastructure. Contaminated water and food are the leading sources of communicable diseases. Diseases such as typhoid and cholera are caused by bacteria that are harbored in the contaminated food and water. Frequent collection and analysis of these two sources will therefore assist to a very big extend, the spread of the communicable diseases. The commonwealth government should also set up special eating and drinking joints that are free from contamination. Proper hygiene is a very essential infrastructure in controlling and managing of communicable sources.
Monitoring of the travelers at the entry points is a good infrastructure. The Public Health Department should set up special monitoring units at the entry points of both local and international tourists that can thoroughly screen the concerned individuals for presence of any communicable diseases. This would also serve well when it comes to controlling and Management of the contagious diseases.
Educating the masses or the citizens is also a key infrastructure. The commonwealth government through the Medicare department should organize several forums and seminars where the citizens would be educated on the causes and the effects of the communicable diseases and how well they can prevent such infections. This is a good infrastructure that if implemented, will reduce the incidences of the communicable diseases.
The Gold Coast is prone to several infectious diseases. However, the most common ones include dengue fever, measles, whooping cough and then food and waterborne diseases like cholera, typhoid and finally serious diseases like the meningococcal disease. Their respective etiology and epidemiology will be analyzed in the subsequent section.
Etiology
Meningococcal disease is caused by a certain bacteria known as Neisseria meningitides. According to research, it is estimated that for every one out of ten people, these bacteria are found at the back of their nose as well as their throats. These bacteria however exist without any signs and symptoms. This phenomenon is what is referred to as being a carrier. The bacteria at some time however invade the body system and lead to certain illnesses that are collectively called meningococcal disease.
There five known types of the Neisseria meningitides and they are A, B, C, W and finally Y that most commonly lead to disease globally. Out of the serotypes, it is the B, C and Y that contribute to most illness in the Gold Coast. These diseases are spread from one person to another through sharing of the different throat secretions like saliva or the spit.
Epidemiology
According to research, the incidences of meningococcal diseases reduced significantly from 1.52% from 2001 to 0.47% in 2015 among 100,000 population in Australia.
Cholera
Etiology
Cholera is caused by a non sporing, gram negative, curved and rod shaped bacteria known as Vibrio cholera. Consumption of contaminated water and food leads to the inoculation of the bacteria which eventually reach the small intestines. Spread of the bacteria is made easier if there is reduction in the production of the gastric acid in the stomach (Jameel et al., 2016). Vibrio cholera exists in several serotypes which is due to the antigenic differences in the O-antigen. The most common serotypes of the V cholera include the O1 and the O139 serotypes. Of the two, it is the O1 that has been fatal leading to pandemics for over 200 years. The O139 was just recognized recently in 1992 and it is even yet to reach Asia. The Non-O1 and theNon-O139 lead to diarrheal diseases that is same as the classical diarrhea but does not lead to large outbreaks.
According to statistics, there are usually about 2- 6 cases of cholera in Australia in a year. This cases though happen to those individuals who have been infected overseas from developing countries. The studies have also found out that the risks of infection is at 0.2 cases among 100,000 travelers from the Western countries.
Typhoid fever
Etiology
Typhoid is a common communicable disease along the Gold Coast. It is caused by a certain bacteria that is known as salmonella typhi. This bacteria usually spread through food, drinks and water that has been contaminated by the fecal matter (Prasad et al., 2018). Washing of fruits as well as vegetables suing contaminated water can also spread this bacteria.
Epidemiology
Typhoid is common amongst children and young adults as well. This disease is common in impoverished regions as well as areas with high populations like slums where is there is poor sanitation (Stewart, Graves, Hajkowicz, & Armstrong, 2017). According to the World Health Organization, there are usually 200-300 cases of salmonella typhi infections each year and majority of the cases happen to travelers who visit countries where typhoid is endemic.
MEASLES
ETIOLOGY
The causative agent of measles is virus known as the rubella virus that lives in the mucus in the nose and the throats of the infected patient. The infection is usually contagious for approximately four days before the rash appears and it goes on for about 4-5 days thereafter (Yermalovich et al., 2014). The infection spreads through different ways such as physical contact with a person who is already infected especially if they cough or sneeze and contact with surfaces that are infected with droplets of mucus then introducing them in the mouth or rubbing the nose or the eyes (Pressman & Behar, 2016). The virus is believed to remain active on an object for around 2 hours.
According to the World Health Organization, measles is a highly contagious disease that prior to the introduction of the vaccine, used to infect 90% of the children by the time they were 10 years old. Measles occur throughout the world and it contributes to the death of children (Nohynek & Miller, n.d.). It is an infection that has high incidence rates especially in children under 2 years of age in developing countries.
The Commonwealth government through the Medicare has the capacity to handle some of the infectious diseases .The overwhelming number of the tourists however, saw stress on the available resources thus the country was incapacitated in handling the possibility of the infectious diseases.
In order to have the capacity to handle the infectious diseases, it is necessary to identify the critical control points for the diseases. One such critical control point is the hygiene of food and water. According to research, majority of the infectious diseases in Gold Coast are due to the contaminated food and water. The contaminated water is used to clean fruits and vegetables. If these products are consumed, there will definitely be the incidences of cholera and typhoid. The commonwealth government should therefore come up with stringent measures that will generally improve on the hygiene of the environment under which water and food is prepared and supplied to the general public.
Dengue fever is an infectious diseases along the Gold Coast. This condition or disease is caused by a mosquito called Aedes aegypti. This type of mosquito breeds and survives well in areas that are urbanized (Achee et al., 2015). A lot of air travels also leads to the dengue fever epidemic. From this description, it therefore clear that the critical control point for dengue fever is cut on the air travels as well as planned urbanization (Vannice et al., 2018). Besides these two efforts, the commonwealth government through the Public Health Department should come up with strategies or efforts to fight mosquitoes along the Gold Coast and this will reduce the incidences of the dengue fever disease.
Measles is another key infectious disease. Measles is a disease that is caused by the rubella virus .This virus can however be controlled effectively through immunization using the measles vaccine (Tannous, Barlow, & Metcalfe, 2014). The vaccine is subjected to children under the age of five years and this is the critical point for the disease. The commonwealth government should therefore monitor the vaccination program so as to cut down on the incidences of the measles (Jing, Bejarano, Zaias, & Merchan, 2014) .
The Gold Coast is one of the regions that is highly served with proper infrastructure in Australia. There is a very good network of roads, the railway as well as the water transport through the ocean. The Gold coast also boasts of several airports that receives flights from across the world. This good infrastructure is however a blessing and curse in disguise (Jost, Luzi, Metzler, Miran, & Mutsch, 2015). According to statistics from the World Health Organization, cases of several contagious or communicable diseases in the Gold Coast is due to the travelers. Statistics has it for example that 80% of the typhoid cases that occur in the Gold Coast are due to travelers who visit areas in which the disease is endemic (HEYWOOD et al., 2016). Travelers also carry along with them fruits and vegetables that might be contaminated hence are likely to spread diseases like cholera and typhoid to the public.
Ease of access of the Gold coast is therefore a leading factor towards increasing the risk of infectious diseases (“Infectious Diseases: A Geographic Guide,” 2011).The Commonwealth Government should therefore come up with different strategies that will see thorough screening of the travelers so that those who are found affected by certain diseases be alienated from the public until they are healed.
References
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HEYWOOD, A. E., ZWAR, N., FORSSMAN, B. L., SEALE, H., STEPHENS, N., MUSTO, J., … MACINTYRE, C. R. (2016). The contribution of travellers visiting friends and relatives to notified infectious diseases in Australia: state-based enhanced surveillance. Epidemiology and Infection, 144(16), 3554-3563. doi:10.1017/s0950268816001734
Infectious Diseases: A Geographic Guide. (2011). doi:10.1002/9781119971641
Jameel, S. K., Shafek, M. A., Abdulmohsen, A. M., Mohamed, N. S., Naji, S. R., & Mohammed, T. T. (2016). The Isolation of Vibrio cholera and Other Enteric Bacteria with Molecular Characterization of Vibrio cholera during the Outbreak of Baghdad/Iraq in 2015. Advances in Microbiology, 06(09), 699-715. doi:10.4236/aim.2016.69069
Jing, Y., Bejarano, M. T., Zaias, J., & Merchan, J. R. (2014). In vivo anti-metastatic effects of uPAR retargeted measles virus in syngeneic and xenograft models of mammary cancer. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 149(1), 99-108. doi:10.1007/s10549-014-3236-8
Jost, M., Luzi, D., Metzler, S., Miran, B., & Mutsch, M. (2015). Measles associated with international travel in the region of the Americas, Australia and Europe, 2001–2013: A systematic review. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 13(1), 10-18. doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2014.10.022
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Prasad, N., Jenkins, A. P., Naucukidi, L., Rosa, V., Sahu-Khan, A., Kama, M., … Crump, J. A. (2018). Epidemiology and risk factors for typhoid fever in Central Division, Fiji, 2014–2017: A case-control study. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 12(6), e0006571. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0006571
Pressman, A., & Behar, J. (2016). Etiology and Pathogenesis of Idiopathic Achalasia. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, 1. doi:10.1097/mcg.0000000000000780
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Tannous, L. K., Barlow, G., & Metcalfe, N. H. (2014). A short clinical review of vaccination against measles. JRSM Open, 5(4), 205427041452340. doi:10.1177/2054270414523408
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