The relevance of disease prevention the benefits of using preventive approaches have become particularly evident over the past 2-3 decades, when cases of mass diseases have become less common due to effective clinical preventive measures. Thanks to the vaccination of children, infectious diseases such as polio, which used to roll in regular epidemic waves (more than 18,300 cases in 1954), have almost become isolated cases in the United States. In 1987, there were only 5 cases of paralytic polio in the United States.
Before vaccinations began, the rubella epidemic was repeated in the United States every 6-9 years; the 1964 pandemic gave more than 12 million infected children, more than 11 thousand died at the fetal stage, and about 20 thousand children died from congenital rubella syndrome. Since 196The benefits of using preventive approaches have become particularly evident over the past 2-3 decades, when cases of mass diseases have become less frequent due to effective clinical preventive measures. Thanks to the vaccination of children, infectious diseases such as polio, which used to roll in regular epidemic waves (more than 18,300 cases in 1954), have almost become isolated cases in the United States. In 1987, there were only 5 cases of paralytic polio in the United States. Before vaccinations began, the rubella epidemic was repeated in the United States every 6-9 years; the 1964 pandemic gave more than 12 million infected children, more than 11 thousand died at the fetal stage, and about 20 thousand children died from congenital rubella syndrome.
Since 1969, when vaccinations began, the number of diseases has decreased by 99%. The same can be said about diphtheria, whooping cough and other once so common childhood diseases. Preventive measures for early detection of diseases have led to a sharp decrease in the incidence and mortality rates. Since 1972, the death rate from stroke in the elderly has decreased by more than 50%, which is largely due primarily to the early recognition and treatment of hypertension. The death rate from cervical cancer has decreased by 73% since 1950, 8 in particular, thanks to the use of the Pap test, which can detect cervical dysplasia. Thanks to routine examinations of newborns and timely treatment, if necessary, it is possible to cure children with such lesions as phenylketonuria and congenital hypothyroidism, which previously inevitably led to a lag in their mental development.
Although vaccination and screening remain among the most important preventive measures, the greatest hopes are associated with a change in the attitude of patients themselves to their health. They should take measures long before the active development of the disease.9 years, when they began to get vaccinated, the number of diseases decreased by 99%. The same can be said about diphtheria, whooping cough and other once so common childhood diseases.
Preventive measures for early detection of diseases have led to a sharp decrease in the incidence and mortality rates. Since 1972, the death rate from stroke in the elderly has decreased by more than 50%, which is largely due primarily to the early recognition and treatment of hypertension. The death rate from cervical cancer has decreased by 73% since 1950, 8 in particular, thanks to the use of the Pap test, which can detect cervical dysplasia. Thanks to routine examinations of newborns and timely treatment, if necessary, it is possible to cure children with such lesions as phenylketonuria and congenital hypothyroidism, which previously inevitably led to a lag in their mental development.
Although vaccination and screening remain among the most important preventive measures, the greatest hopes are associated with a change in the attitude of patients themselves to their health. They should take measures long before the active development of the disease.
The importance of the relevance of disease prevention
The importance of this approach was shown on the basis of statistics that reveal an increasingly obvious link between the attitude of patients to their health and some diseases that are among the leading causes of death in the population: cardiovascular diseases, cancer, brain vascular lesions, injuries, and chronic airway obstruction.
Smoking alone is the cause of death in every sixth person in the United States, including 130,000 deaths from cancer, 115,000 from coronary artery disease, 27.500 from brain vascular disease, and 60.000 from chronic lung disease. The most important causes of accidents on the roads are unwillingness to wear seat belts and driving under the influence of alcohol — more than 47 thousand deaths in 1987.
Lack of mobility and non-compliance with the rules of a healthy diet lead to atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis and a number of other common diseases. Some sexual perversions increase the risk of unintended pregnancy, sexual transmission, and AIDS. Despite the presence of very obvious clinical criteria that convince of the need for prevention, doctors often do not follow the recommendations.
The reason lies in a number of circumstances, including the fact that doctors do not receive compensation for the implementation of preventive measures, as well as because they are too busy to pay attention to preventive procedures as well. However, even with this in mind, doctors should be reproached for not paying enough attention to prevention in general. One of the most important reasons for this situation is that clinicians do not fully understand what preventive measures are really needed.
One of the reasons is that the recommendations come from different sources, which also differ from each other. It is enough to mention such sources of information as public health services, special medical organizations, professional and scientific organizations, voluntary associations, individual experts. And yet the main reason is that doctors are very doubtful about the clinical effectiveness of preventive measures.
Often, the doctor is not sure that the implementation of certain preventive measures will significantly affect the reduction of mortality or morbidity for the diseases that he is trying to cure. In addition, it is not clear how to compare the relative effectiveness of various preventive measures. The doctor who does not have free time finds it difficult to decide which of the preventive measures should be advised to the patient during his short visit. In addition, it is possible that some manipulations can do more harm than good.
Although this kind of consideration can be attributed to any medical procedure, it is especially relevant in relation to preventive measures, bearing in mind that after all, the patient against whom the preventive measure is applied is more or less healthy. Some complications or rare side effects that can be reconciled with the treatment of a serious disease are of great importance if they occur in asymptomatic conditions, and here it is necessary to carefully weigh the benefits of treatment measures in comparison with the possible risk.
Antibiotics (for example, amoxil) are widely used for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infectious diseases and relevance of disease prevention
Conclusion
Such “wide-ranging” measures, such as routine mass population surveys, inevitably entail significant costs. Such considerations increasingly call into question the usefulness of routine examinations of asymptomatic patients, when the standard check includes a traditional set of tests and examinations. The annual health check was first proposed by the American Medical Association in 1922. For many years afterward, health care professionals recommended routine medical examinations and detailed laboratory tests as an effective preventive measure.
At present, without denying the importance of regular examinations by a home doctor, it should be recognized that the use of a standard screening set of examinations of all healthy people, carried out once a year, can not be considered an effective measure to prevent diseases. Moreover, both the frequency of examinations and the content of periodic examinations should be correlated with each individual person, and you need to have confidence that this procedure will be clinically effective. This approach to regular check-ups was put forward by the American Medical Association in 1983, which stated that it no longer favored regular annual medical check-ups of the healthy part of the population.