Preventing and controlling disease
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| vaccine | 疫苗 | yì miáo |
| insecticide | 杀虫剂 | shā chóng jì |
| antibiotic | 抗生素 | kàng shēng sù |
| surveillance | 监测 | jiān cè |
Stopping disease in its tracks
- Stopping a disease is not just about the science of the pathogen.
- Control has biological, social and economic sides.
- The best methods depend on how each disease spreads.
Disease control chain
Follow how prevention breaks the chain of infection.
Which helps control the spread of an infectious disease?
Vaccination, hygiene and quarantine all reduce the spread of disease.
Control measures
- cholera: clean water and proper sewage treatment; good hygiene; vaccines 疫苗 in some areas.
- malaria: sleep under nets; remove still water where mosquitoes breed; spray insecticides 杀虫剂; take anti-malarial drugs.
- TB: find and treat patients (long antibiotic 抗生素 course); the BCG vaccine; reduce overcrowding; trace contacts.
- HIV: condoms; clean needles; test donated blood; education. No cure or vaccine yet, but drugs slow the virus.
The most important way to prevent cholera is to:
Cholera spreads via faeces-contaminated water, so clean water and good sanitation are key.
Match each disease to the best way to control it.
You control each disease by attacking how it spreads — water for cholera, the mosquito for malaria, body fluids for HIV.
Malaria is controlled by attacking the mosquito ______ — with nets, insecticides and by draining breeding pools.
The mosquito is the vector; stop it biting (nets) or breeding (drain still water) and you stop malaria spreading.
There is currently no cure or vaccine for HIV, so prevention (condoms, clean needles) matters most.
HIV has no cure or vaccine yet; prevention and drugs that slow the virus are the main tools.
Three sides to every effort
- biological — the supply of drugs and vaccines, the biology of the pathogen.
- social — people's willingness to change behaviour, and education.
- economic — the cost and resources available.
- All three together decide how well a disease can be controlled.
Plasmodium parasites (ring shapes) inside red blood cells
Why might a good control method still fail to stop a disease?
Control depends on biological, social and economic factors together — cost and behaviour can block even good science.
A global effort
- Controlling disease needs global cooperation: surveillance 监测, vaccination programmes and sharing data.
- Organisations such as the WHO coordinate responses to outbreaks across borders.
You've got it
- control has biological + social + economic sides
- cholera: clean water & sewage; malaria: nets, remove still water, insecticide
- TB: treat patients (long course) + BCG; HIV: condoms, clean needles, test blood (no cure/vaccine yet)
- cost, behaviour and drug supply all affect success