Community/Public Health Nursing ( Epidemology paper) Health Essay

Community/Public Health Nursing Epidemiology Paper on Measles
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Community/Public Health Nursing Epidemiology on Measles
Introduction
Measles, also known as rubeola, is one of the highly contagious viral diseases globally. It often commences its pathogenic process in the respiratory system. The health systems have created elaborate response frameworks aimed at managing infectious diseases like measles. Despite the presence of a powerful control system encompassing deploying a safe and efficacious vaccine, measles continues to pose a substantial health threat globally due to significant mortalities that are associated with this disease.
Causes of Measles
Measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases occasioned by the measles virus. This measle virus is called Measles morbillivirus (MeV). It is a single-stranded ribonucleic acid (RNA), negative-sense (negative polarity), enveloped, and non-segmented RNA virus. It belongs to the genus Morbillivirus, which falls in the family Paramyxoviridae and of the order Mononegavirales (M'garrech et al., 2012: Leung et al., 2018). The measles virus is spherically shaped, with a diameter ranging from 100 to 200 nm, and depicts pleomorphism. The non-segmented genome has about 16 000 nucleotides in length and contains six genes for eight viral proteins (Leung et al., 2018). It comprises six structural and two non-structural proteins. The six structural proteins include haemagglutinin protein, fusion protein, nucleocapsid protein, phosphoprotein, matrix protein, and large protein, where the haemagglutinin protein binds to cellular receptors, thereby allowing the virus to attach itself to host cells. The fusion protein permits fusion of the viral envelope with the host cell, plasma membranes. Such fusion allows the entry of viral ribonucleoproteins into the cytoplasm of the host cell. The two non-structural proteins, including V protein and C protein, show little role in maintaining viral structure. However, they act as virulence factors by suppressing the host’s innate immune response through their influence in limiting interferon production and encouraging viral replication (Leung et al., 2018).
Measles Mode of Transmission
Humans are the only known hosts of the measles virus. The virus is often transmitted by inhalation of virus-laden airborne droplets. Besides, the micro-particle aerosols suspended in the air, direct contact with infected secretions, and contact with contaminated fomites are some of the ways that constitute critical approaches to measles transmission (Leung et al., 2018). However, the authors note that measles infection transmission via contaminated fomites is less observed. The measles virus can survive in the air and on fomites for up to 2 hours (Leung et al., 2018). Thus, measles transmission may occur in the absence of direct contact with an infected person. Measles is a highly contagious virus residing in the nose and throat mucus of an infected person. Thus, it is frequently spread to others via coughing and sneezing. People get infected by breathing in contaminated air, touching contaminated services, and subsequently touching eyes, nostrils o...