The basis of a successful fight against infections associated with the provision of medical care is properly organized Health Officer’s (HO) epidemiological surveillance (ES). Descriptive epidemiology aims to understand factors causing population-wide infections and relevant health problems to ensure safety for people (“What is descriptive epidemiology”, 2019). The purpose of the HO is to form an objective conclusion about the epidemiological situation on the population-wide assistance in the medical and preventive institution and its subdivisions. In addition, the Health Officer aims to develop on this basis evidence-based practical recommendations for the control of the epidemic-related aid. The establishment of trends in the epidemic process for the rapid introduction of adjustments helps optimize preventive and anti-epidemic measures alongside the evaluation of the effectiveness of the activities.
A prerequisite for a successful ES for HO is the continuity of its implementation. The current operating epidemiological surveillance system, carried out by epidemiologists of the state sanitary and anti-infection service coming to health care facilities, can ensure the continuity of epidemiological surveillance. Consequently, an individual approach is important to the development of anti-epidemic measures by taking into account the characteristics of a particular health care facility. This possibility has appeared with the introduction of Health Officers to hospital epidemiologists and the staff of hospitals.
There are methodological approaches to analyze epidemiological diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB). Firstly, observational studies review and make summative conclusions based on the current knowledge base by applying statistical tools and population-wide illustration. Secondly, the experimental study emphasizes practical analysis and discovering new data by conducting experiments, surveys, and other data collection methods (Watterson, Williams, Lavorato, & Patten, 2017). Both approaches are important for analytical epidemiology, and they produce the best possible results when complemented by each other.
The observational methodology can be demonstrated by overviewing the data of international experts from the World Health Organization (WHO); the HIV epidemic has become of global importance. In 2008, 2.7 million people were infected with HIV, and 33.4 million people are living with HIV in the world (Friedman, Khan, & Duffus, 2018). The likelihood that people with HIV infection, who are also infected with tuberculosis bacteria, will develop tuberculosis disease, is 34 times higher than the figure for people who do not have HIV infection. In 2010, 1.1 million people with HIV developed TB. Worldwide, and 12% of TB patients also have HIV infection (Friedman et al., 2018). In total, throughout the epidemic of tuberculosis combined with HIV infection, more than 150 million people have already died in the world with a combined pathology. In 2010 alone, about 350 thousand people died in the world with a combination of HIV infection and tuberculosis (Friedman et al., 2018). Currently, HIV infection is the most common cause of death in young people, and TB plays a major role in fatal outcomes.
The experimental methodology can be observed through experiment-specific studies. Thus, given the close relationship between the epidemics of tuberculosis and HIV infection by experiment-based research, the World Health Organization and the United Nations have declared tuberculosis and HIV infection interrelated global destructive issues that require immediate intervention (Friedman et al., 2018). There are several conditions under which the cohort or case-controlled study is superior. The main influencing factor is the timeframe because the cohort study requires a cross-sectional time component.
In conclusion, the cohort method can be fully randomized due to the selective features of the sample. However, the case-controlled approach does not possess the desired epidemiological scale due to the closed system analysis. The problem of combining tuberculosis and HIV infection is extremely relevant, and the prognosis of the further spread of this combined pathology is crucial among the population.
Friedman, E. E., Khan, A., & Duffus, W. A. (2018). Screening for latent tuberculosis infection among HIV-infected Medicaid enrollees. Public Health Reports, 133(4), 413–422.
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