According to the World Health Organization, an emerging disease is “one that has appeared in a population for the first time, or that may have existed previously but is rapidly increasing in incidence or geographic range.” (WHO, 2016). A re-emerging disease, on the other hand, is a disease that had emerged and resurfaces at a later time due to the change in the infectious agents mutating and the failure to immunize some individuals when the disease first appeared.(BSCs, 1999).
Complementary and alternative medicine have gained use in past few years in developed countries while it has been common practice in developing countries dating back from traditional medicine. The current trend in CAM is its use together with conventional medicine to treat illnesses. As of 2015, about 40% of the US population was using CAM and most of them were adult women with higher education and economic backgrounds. (NCCIH, 2016). The increase in their use is prompted by the rise in muscle-skeletal diseases and allergies.
Dengue fever is transmitted by mosquitoes in the tropics and subtropics, and it infects nearly 400 million people yearly in these areas with joint and muscle pains as the symptoms. The disease has been hard to control due to the nature of their carriers. The countries most affected are in the Latin America like Puerto Rico, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. (CDC, 2016). Currently, there is no vaccine or treatment, but if caught early various medicines are used to control the symptoms.
The recent outbreak of Ebola demonstrated the extent to which globalization of health has developed. Due to ease of mobility and new technologies, it was possible to prevent its spread. These technologies included the point-of-care diagnostics toolkits that helped diagnose the disease and keep it under control. (Global Health Technologies Coalition Blog, 2016).
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Dengue. Retrieved online from www.cdc.gov
Global Health Technologies Coalition Blog. (2016). Ebola Product Development Advanced at Lightning Speed. Retrieved online from http://blog.ghtcoalition.org
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. (2016). The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the United States. Retrieved online from <nccih.nih.gov>
World Health Organization. (2016). Emerging Diseases. Retrieved online from www.who.int
