18.3

Preventing and Treating Communicable Diseases

Promoting Resistance to Infection

• A healthy lifestyle can keep the immune system in good shape
• Ways to support the immune system:
  • Eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and fiber
  • Get 8-10 hours of sleep
  • Develop strategies for managing stress
  • Get plenty of physical activity
  • Avoid alcohol, tobacco products, and medication and drug abuse
  • Get regular checkups with your doctor

Washing Your Hands

• Hand washing is the most important method of preventing many communicable diseases
• When to wash your hands:
  • After using the bathroom or changing a diaper
  • Before preparing and eating food
  • After blowing your nose or having contact with other bodily fluids
  • After handling trash, waste, or uncooked meat and fish
  • Before and after visiting a healthcare facility
  • When your hands are visibly dirty
• How to wash your hands:
  • Rub your hands together, including palms, backs, fingernails, in between fingers, bases of thumbs, and wrists
  • Rinse your hands and dry them completely

Practicing Respiratory Etiquette

• Respiratory etiquette helps prevent the spread of diseases from direct skin contact
• How to practice respiratory etiquette:
  • Cover your mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing
  • Do not reuse or store used tissues
  • Throw used tissues in the trash after use
  • If you have no tissues, cough or sneeze into your upper arm, sleeve, or elbow
  • Wash your hands after using a tissue or sneezing and coughing into your hands

Getting Vaccinations

• Vaccination is the only proven method of successfully eliminating a communicable disease
• Vaccination activates the immune system and is also called immunization
• Examples of diseases that have been or will be conquered by vaccination:
  • Smallpox
  • Polio

Treating Communicable Diseases

• Treatment for communicable diseases depends on the type of pathogen involved
• Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections
• To avoid contributing to antibiotic resistance:
  • Use the entire dose for the length of time prescribed by your doctor
  • Do not share antibiotics with other people
  • Do not take leftover antibiotics
• New strategies to combat antibiotic resistance:
  • Using bacteriophages, or viruses that naturally kill specific bacteria
  • Using computers and artificial intelligence to design and test new antibiotics
  • Attacking bacterial biofilms

Review

• Hand washing is the universally acknowledged most important method of preventing communicable diseases
• Respiratory etiquette helps prevent the spread of diseases from direct skin contact
• Vaccination protects the body from communicable diseases by activating the immune system
• Antibiotics should not be taken for viral infections
• Antiviral medications work differently from antibiotics