Infectious Diseases and Family

For the rural communities in developing countries, health care and sanitation are always one of the major public health challenges. When it comes to infectious diseases and caring for the sick, they have limited resources and knowledge. As such they rely on information passed on down the family from generation to generation as a way of caring for a patient with such and such a disease. The problem comes in as some of the ideas that are used to care for these patients result in putting the whole family at high risk of contracting the disease.

In as much as there are many organisations that are helping in disseminating information on how to prevent the risk of spread of disease, it is crucial that training is carried out to bring awareness on infectious diseases and their effects.  Many are the times that we focus on prevention of the disease but not on how to take care of a patient when they are infected by the disease. We focus so much on how the patient is affected but on the family that is around this patient and how the infectious disease can actually spread to them as well.

It is high time that organisations involved in public health awareness also put focus on how a family with a patient carrying an infectious disease can be affected/ infected. It is important that organisations focus on the infectious diseases that exist in a particular area and their risks to the family. In addition to prevention of the disease, advice on the correct ways to care for patients with a particular disease may reduce the risk of spread of infectious diseases within the family hence the community.

I must say, campaigns on prevention of disease have really helped a lot in bringing awareness on the dangers of various diseases. But there is need to also focus on what happens when the disease is in the family, how do we protect the family members and the community at large as they care for their patients from home before they take them to hospital.

As I mentioned area, most of the rural areas in developing countries lack hospitals/ medical facilities, some populations live tens of kilometres away from the nearest hospital. As such families tend to wait for a day or two some even a week whilst they care for the patient at home trying to find a way to get them to hospital. And sadly most of the times some of the patients don’t make it to the hospital, while others make it to the hospital, unfortunately the do not survive the disease because they arrived too late. Well some people may be asking why not call an ambulance? Well with the lack of ambulances, there are areas where they have one ambulance covering an area over 100 square kilometres while others there is no Ambulance at all, hence people have to find their own way to the hospital. Apart from that, there are certain areas that are inaccessible during the rainy season due to flooding and other forces of nature. I can go on and on with the reasons why people don’t make it to the hospital on time in rural areas of most developing countries. But my main focus is the need to train families how to care for their loved ones at home while they are preparing to take them to the hospital. It is important to determine the various infectious diseases that are common in communities and train these communities on how to take care of patients with any of these diseases, while they are preparing to tke them to hospital.