The first thing that should be known is that communicable diseases are contagious infections in the body that can spread from person to person. Some examples of these diseases include colds, chicken pox, ring worm, meningitis, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS. Some of the ways communicable diseases are spread are through the air, urine and feces, blood, saliva and skin. Colds and chicken pox are most often spread through sneezes and coughs (airborne), whereas some forms of hepatitis and HIV/AIDS are transmitted through blood (direct contact). Preventing the spread of communicable diseases will help keep you and your family safe and healthy.
Here are some of the things you can do to help prevent communicable diseases. Consult your primary care physician to ensure that all children and adults in your family are up-to-date on immunizations. If not, schedule the appropriate appointments to receive the needed shots. If you don't have a primary care physician, contact your local health clinic. These immunizations are designed to build up our bodies’ defenses/immunity to certain strains of these diseases. Another important factor is washing your hands vigorously after using the restroom, coughing, sneezing, or playing with your pets just to name a few. The bacteria or viruses can live a curtain amount of time outside the body and cleanliness is a major factor to combat the spread. In the kitchen we need to watch how we handle out meats, fruits, and vegetables, we must not cross contaminate the bacteria from the meats to the rest of our food supplies. Constantly washing hands and not using the same cutting boards for fruits and