Preventing Viral Diseases
Countries across the world have different ways of dealing with challenges. Viral infections, for example, has remained a problem across the world. Different countries deal differently with viral diseases because of factors such as leadership, population, capital resources, literacy, and so many other factors. The complexity of how countries deal with viruses is also dependent on virus transmission and the history of the illness. Significant differences occur in how western and eastern countries deal with viral infections. The focus of this research is to identify prevention strategies used in the prevention of virus in the west and the east.
Eastern countries use multiple prevention strategies for a virus such as raising awareness, screening, disinfection/hygiene, viral exposure reduction, vaccination, pre/postexposure prophylaxes. Secondary prevention strategies for viruses include the process of identifying and providing counseling for infected persons and treatments (Pfaender et al., 2016). In extreme infectious cases like the Coronavirus, Eastern countries include the quarantine and isolation of the infected people. For example, isolation in the eastern states is currently being experienced with the Coronavirus, where some cities are on lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus-like in China, Japan, and Korea.
Large populations in the Eastern world and lack of insufficient resources cripple prevention strategies for eastern countries. The large population in eastern countries makes it easy for virus infections spread fast because it is hard to vaccinate. Creating awareness in large populations in eastern countries is complicated. Cultural barriers hinder prevention strategies for the virus in the eastern countries.
The differences that occur between East and Western countries in the prevention of viral diseases is the response time. Western countries are quick to find a solution to viruses because of the capital capacity, which enables research and development vaccines and medication compared to eastern countries. Western countries are ready to respond to any virus conditions as they can quickly spread fast if not contained. For example, in 2011, the U.S was quick to act and contain avian influenza. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program in the U.S began in 2006. In China, avian influence has been reoccurring since 1996, with a varying number of infections each year. For the case of the Corona Virus in China, it has now become a global crisis because of the denial of the Chinese government because an alert was raised early enough (Zhu et al., 2020). These are just a few examples to show how the western countries are swift in response, especially in cases of infectious viruses compared to eastern countries.
References
Pfaender, S., von Hahn, T., Steinmann, J., Ciesek, S., & Steinmann, E. (2016). Prevention strategies for blood‐borne viruses—in the Era of vaccines, direct-acting antivirals, and antiretroviral therapy. Reviews in medical virology, 26(5), 330-339.
Zhu, N., Zhang, D., Wang, W., Li, X., Yang, B., Song, J., … & Niu, P. (2020). A novel coronavirus from patients with pneumonia in China, 2019. New England Journal of Medicine.