World Breastfeeding Week

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is an annual celebration which is being held every year from 1 to 7 August .Breastmilk provides just the right proportion of essential nutrients, vitamins, proteins, fats and antibodies to help your baby’s body and brain develop.Because breastmilk is the perfect food, breastfed babies get a wealth of medical benefits. A preeminent baby authority, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), states: "Breastfeeding ensures the best possible health and best developmental and psychosocial outcomes for the infant."

Advantages:

1. Get sick less and have a lower risk of allergies.
2. Have a lower risk of obesity and Types 1 and 2 diabetes.
3. Have a lower incidence of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
4. Have a reduced risk for ear infections (otitis media) and gastroenteritis.
5. Are on a path to optimal brain development.
6. Get nutrients that help strengthen and develop their immature immune system in a way no other substance can.
7. Respond better to immunizations against Polio, Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Haemophilus influenza (bacterium that can cause a severe infection).
8. Have optimal oral development because of their jaw movements and nutrients in breastmilk decrease the risk of tooth decay.
9. Are protected against respiratory infections including those caused by rotaviruses.
10. Are less likely to be hospitalized with pneumonia or bronchiolitis, and have a decreased risk of lower respiratory tract infections.
11. Have been associated with a slightly enhanced performance on cognitive development tests.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that usually affects the lungs. Compared with other diseases caused by a single infectious agent, tuberculosis is the second biggest killer, globally.

Causes:

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacterium causes TB. It is spread through the air when a person with TB (whose lungs are affected) coughs, sneezes, spits, laughs, or talks.
TB is contagious, but it is not easy to catch. The chances of catching TB from someone you live or work with are much higher than from a stranger. Most people with active TB who have received appropriate treatment for at least 2 weeks are no longer contagious.

Symptoms of tuberculosis

While latent TB is symptomless, the symptoms of active TB include the following:

• Coughing, sometimes with mucus or blood
• Chills
• Fever
• Loss of weight
• Loss of appetite
• Night sweats
• Fatigue

  Prevention:

  A few general measures can be taken to prevent the spread of active TB.
  Avoiding other people by not going to school or work, or sleeping in the same room as someone, will help to minimize the risk of germs from reaching anyone else. Wearing a mask, covering the mouth, and ventilating rooms can also limit the spread of bacteria.

 

 

Communicable Disease

A communicable disease is one that is spread from one person to another through a variety of ways that include: contact with blood and bodily fluids; breathing in an airborne virus; or by being bitten by an insect.
It is important in the planning and evaluation of disease prevention and control programs, in the assurance of appropriate medical therapy, and in the detection of common-source outbreaks. Some examples of the communicable diseases include Hepatitis A, B & C, influenza, measles, and salmonella and other food borne illnesses.
How these diseases spread depends on the specific disease or infectious agent. Some ways in which communicable diseases spread are by:

1. physical contact with an infected person, such as through touch (staphylococcus), sexual intercourse (gonorrhea, HIV), fecal/oral transmission (hepatitis A), or droplets (influenza, TB)
2. contact with a contaminated surface or object (Norwalk virus), food (salmonella, E. coli), blood (HIV, hepatitis B), or water (cholera);
3. bites from insects or animals capable of transmitting the disease (mosquito: malaria and yellow fever; flea: plague); and
4. travel through the air, such as tuberculosis or measles.