NIH Radio
Public health approach to infectious disease prevention and control
Brief Description:
Infectious diseases, which kill more people worldwide than any other single cause, are a public health challenge.
Transcript:
Balintfy: Infectious diseases are caused by germs or microbes. Microbes are tiny living things that are found everywhere – in air, soil and water – but they can't be seen without a microscope. Some microbes are essential for a healthy life; but others, if touched, consumed or inhaled, can cause infection, disease and even death. Preventing infectious diseases is a key component of public health. Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says while great progress has been made, more can be done to reduce the burden of illness, disease and death here and worldwide.
Frieden: In this country we can continue to reduce infections that happen in healthcare facilities. We can continue to reduce food borne infections and we can continue to reduce HIV, hepatitis and other leading causes of illness and death. Globally there's much more we can do with HIV with new knowledge. We can continue to make progress with malaria prevention and control.
Balintfy: He adds that there are preventable infections that continue to kill millions of children worldwide. These could be drastically reduced by improving vaccination efforts.
Frieden: Vaccines are one of the great success stories of public health and in fact of society. But we have much further to go. We're not yet over the finish line in polio eradication and we need to make more progress in measles vaccination and other vaccine programs.
Balintfy: The CDC's Dr. Frieden, presenting at The Kinyoun Lecture at the NIH, discussed tuberculosis – also called TB – as a case study or example of managing an infectious disease.
Frieden: Tuberculosis is really a model for good public health practice. Figuring out what works and then scaling it up.
Balintfy: He explains that working with patients and healthcare facilities is how a public health system – including both private physicians and public hospitals – can protect not only individual patients, but society in general. He adds that data and scientific study are essential.
Frieden: Fundamentally what we want to do is grow the science so we know what's making people sick, we know how to prevent it and then we figure out what is the best way to scale that up.
Balintfy: An earlier example of science leading public health efforts dates back to 1847. Dr. Joseph James Kinyoun founded the Laboratory of Hygiene where he identified the infectious disease cholera. That lab went on to become the first national laboratory in the United States dedicated to improving public health and later evolved to become the NIH. For more information on infectious diseases and The Kinyoun Lecture Series, visit www.niaid.nih.gov. This is Joe Balintfy, at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.
About This Audio Report
Date: 11/25/2011
Reporter: Joe Balintfy
Sound Bite: Dr. Thomas R. Frieden
Topic: Infectious disease, infectious diseases, germs, microbes, disease, public health, vaccine, vaccination, HIV, hepatitis, malaria, polio, measles, tuberculosis, TB, cholera
Additional Info: Infectious diseases, which kill more people worldwide than any other single cause, are a public health challenge.
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