Understanding Poverty: Causes and Effects

• Poverty has been a long-standing societal issue, preventing individuals from affording basic necessities.
• Impoverished individuals may subsist on a single daily meal and resort to begging to earn money.
• To alleviate hunger, people might scavenge for discarded food near establishments.
• They might sleep outside or seek shelter under bridges during inclement weather.

Causes of Poverty

• Poverty is influenced by several socioeconomic factors, most notably unequal wealth distribution.
• Corruption and increasing population exacerbate poverty.
• Illiteracy and unemployment are also significant factors, often linked due to lack of education leading to joblessness.
• Those below the poverty line often lack marketable skills.
• Even when employed, wages are often insufficient to support an individual or family.

Effects of Poverty

• An inability to afford basic necessities leads to adverse outcomes.
• Healthcare becomes unaffordable, increasing the risk of disease.
• Some individuals turn to illegal activities to obtain money.

Solutions to End Poverty

• Poverty requires long-term planning and government policies targeting those below the poverty line.
• Education and financial support are crucial in combating poverty by increasing employability.
• Increased access to higher education helps individuals become employable.

Community Services

• Community service betters society.
• Volunteering in community provides experiences and insight.
• Spending time making a difference can be valuable.
• There are many opportunities for community service.

Occurrence of Infectious Diseases

• Epidemiology studies the occurrence of disease.
• Epidemiologists study infectious, noninfectious, and environmental diseases.
• Epidemiologists minimize the impact of diseases and identify high disease incidences.
• Epidemiologists determine vaccine effectiveness.
• Epidemiologists calculate the cost-effectiveness of controlling disease transmissions.
• Sometimes epidemiologists track a new disease's cause and mode of transmission.

Modes of Transmission

• Infectious agents transmit through direct or indirect contact.
• Direct contact occurs when an individual is infected through touching, ingesting, or being bitten.
• Direct contact includes inhalation of droplets from sneezes or coughs.
• Direct contact includes contracting an infectious agent through intimate sexual contact.
• Diseases transmitted via direct contact include ringworm, AIDS, trichinosis, influenza, rabies, and malaria.
• Indirect contact involves a pathogen surviving outside a host for a long time before infecting someone.
• An indirect contact is when the reservoir contaminates inanimate objects.
• Ingesting contaminated food and beverages is another example of disease transmission by indirect contact.
• The fecal-oral transmission route involves using sewage-contaminated water for drinking, washing, or food preparation, and gastrointestinal diseases such as cholera, rotavirus infection, cryptosporidiosis, and giardiasis.
• These transmissions are horizontal because they pass from person to person in a group.
• Vertical transmission passes from parent to child during reproduction, fetal development, or birth.
• Diseases with vertical transmission include AIDS and herpes encephalitis.