This report will contain information on lung cancer and MRSA and how these two diseases are controlled and prevented in England.

by tasha25 (student)

My two chosen diseases, Lung cancer and MRSA…

This report will contain information on lung cancer and MRSA and how these two diseases are controlled and prevented in England. Lung cancer is a major health problem and the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. MRSA is not an aggressive disease but has become hard to control through the years because of its resistant to antibiotics. This report will show the effectiveness of the programmes that are put into place in order to prevent and control the diseases.

Lung Cancer…

Lung cancer is the name of a disease that happens when cells uncontrollably grow in the tissues of the lung. If the disease is not treated straight away it can spread in to other parts of the body. The main cause of lung cancer is caused by smoking which causes between 80 to 90 per cent of lung cancers and up to 15 per cent of lung cancers can be caused by several factors such as genetics, asbestos, air pollution and second hand smoke.

The most cost effective way of justifying lung cancer is prevention. In most countries domestic and industrial substances that are known to cause lung cancer have been banned. Although there have been many bans in the UK, tobacco smoke it is still a problem. Tobacco smoke is the main target in preventing lung cancer and smoking campaigns have an important part in the preventing procedure.

In the UK we now have policies that prevent people smoking in public places such as workplaces, restaurants and pubs. This helps to prevent passive smoking.

There was the worry that if people stopped smoking in public places it would drive more people to do it in their homes which could then harm children however this was not the case, it seems to have made people more aware of the dangers of passive smoking and since the ban it looks as if it is becoming a social norm and many people are trying to cut down or quit.

Researchers indicated that there were more than 21,000 asthma admissions between 2000 and 2009 for children below 15 years, before the legislation was put in place, admissions amongst nursery schools were increasing by more than 9% a year, whereas for older children they were no change. After the ban, they dropped by 18.4% for nursery children and 20.8% for those children aged five to 14years.

The CDC sponsored study said that smoking bans have reduced the dangers of heart attack and heart disease for example heart attacks have fallen by up to 47 per cent in places where the smoking ban has been implemented. .

Young people are said to have benefited from the smoking bans. Evidence shows that the children who live in areas where there is a smoking ban have less cotinine in their blood. Thirty nine per cent lower than young people who are around second hand smoke. .

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Since July 2007 when the smoking ban was put in place, admissions to hospitals for heart attacks had fell to 2.4%, according to Bath University study

Robin Hewins , a tobacco control manager at Cancer Research UK stated the ’Smokefree’ legislation has saved many people’s lives .

There is a lot of evidence to show that the smoking ban is effective and the people in the UK are in better health since the ban.

Screening is the way medics test for disease. There are many scans that are used to detect lung cancer such as (CT) tomography and computed (CXR) ...

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Since July 2007 when the smoking ban was put in place, admissions to hospitals for heart attacks had fell to 2.4%, according to Bath University study

Robin Hewins , a tobacco control manager at Cancer Research UK stated the ’Smokefree’ legislation has saved many people’s lives .

There is a lot of evidence to show that the smoking ban is effective and the people in the UK are in better health since the ban.

Screening is the way medics test for disease. There are many scans that are used to detect lung cancer such as (CT) tomography and computed (CXR) sputum cytology, chest radiograph.

A CT scan is reported to be the most effective way of achieving accurate results when screening for Lung Cancer according to

Screening heavy smokers using low dose computer tomography has decreased lung cancer deaths compared to treating individuals with the chest x-ray. In the LDCT group, the reduction in lung-cancer-specific death was 20%, and there was a 7% reduction in all-cause mortality, Dr. Rotter noted

The first scan that will be offered for someone with possible lung cancer will be the chest radiography; this is not always the best scan to have as it has known to miss tumours, the CT scan is said to be the better scan for detecting lung cancer although there can be times where people get false positives which can have a big effect on a person however the benefits of screening compensate for the false positives.

Generally only high risk individuals are offered the CT scan such as people of a certain age ranging between, 55 to 74 or people who have smoked for many years and a lot of cigarettes each day. This is because the cost and the small dangers of radiation need to be taken into account. Radiation exposure from frequent screening may in fact provoke cancer formation.

Eighty five per cent of lung cancers are detected at stage three and five without screening and at stage 1, only fifteen per cent of cancers are identified, according to the I-ELCAP study.

There was an experiment done which involved more than 53,000 current and former smokers’ age between 55 and 74. These people had either three CT scans or three x-rays done yearly. The deaths for each group were recorded over a five year period. In October 2010, 354 people in the CT scan group had died from lung cancer, versus 442 people in the X-ray group; this study shown that deaths in the CT scan group of patients were 20.3% lower than in the X-ray group.

Treatment

Treatment for lung cancer depends on which cell type the cancer it is and how much the cancer has spread and the overall health of the patient. Treatments normally consist of palliative care, radiotherapy, surgery and chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy is used commonly to treat metastatic and advanced lung cancer.
The usual combinations of chemotherapies that are used for lung cancer are cisplatin + paclitaxel, cisplatin + docetaxel, carboplatin + paclitaxel and cisplatin and gemcitabine. These are the usual mixtures used for the first treatment of lung cancer. Evidence suggests that none of these combinations are ant better than the other.

Using cytotoxic agents to treat lung cancer is suggested to be effective and could lengthen a person’s life to extra five years depending on how advanced the cancer is. Advanced lung cancer will have

Lung cancer patients treated with cytotoxic agents have a 5-year survival rate of 5 per cent to 50 per cent depending on stage of lung cancer at diagnosis. The lowest survival rate is among patients with advanced or metastatic lung cancer a lower rate of surviving. A treatment used for advanced lung cancer that has no cytotoxic agents in is suggested to be ineffective. Patients suffering from advanced lung cancer that have chemotherapy with cytotoxic agents in, will live up to ten months according to

MRSA…

MRSA is a bacterial infection that has become resistant to many antibiotics over the years such as penicillin, and because of this it has become more difficult to control than any other bacterial infection. MRSA is an abbreviation of meticillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. This illness is also known as the ‘superbug. This report is going to show how MRSA is prevented and controlled in England.

‘Staph ‘is a short version name of staphylococcus aureus. This is one of the most common types of bacteria. MRSA is located on the top of the skin or inside the nose area; symptoms include skin infections such as impetigo and boils. If the bacteria gets into the skin through an open womb can cause very bad infections such a blood poisoning.

Antibiotics have been used that much over the years it has become resistant to certain strains of bacteria; it has been used to treat minor illnesses that could have cleared up in time by its self.

People who are in hospitals, nursing or care homes are more vulnerable in contracting the MRSA illness; this is because they may have open wounds, intravenous drips and catheters which the MRSA can get inside and cause infection. These people usually have low immune systems too, being old or weak, making them more likely to get the illness and being around a lot of people can spread the bacteria from one person to the next although MRSA has been said to be a problem in the community, this is known as (Community Associated –MRSA). It is a problem in busy environments where there is more contact between peoples more so in places like the army bases or shelters where hygiene not the best. ‘Mortality rates for deaths involving MRSA increased over 15-fold during the period 1993 to 2002.’ (Office for National Statistics, 2005)

An increase in the spread of MRSA in the 1990s is why these hygiene measures have been put in place in order to prevent and control the disease.

Over the years MRSA has dropped because the public and medics are more aware of the illness however the infection is still a big problem on the health services because of the resistance. By reducing MRSA people have been advised and instructed to takes some small steps to cut down the spread of infection, such as, Visitors are encouraged to wash hands thoroughly when visiting patients and when leaving. They are encouraged not to sit upon the patients beds and hand wipes or gels are to be used when interacting with the patient. Patents are instructed to wash their hands thoroughly continually throughout their hospital stay, the Hand wash is always there and available round all hospitals and care homes.

Staffs in hospitals and care settings are now trained to wash hands properly, especially the staff that are caring for patients and touching hospital equipment. These hygiene measures are extremely important when handling food and making beds also.

Staffs are made to wear gloves when inserting intravenous drips, changing dressings and handling needles. The floors, beds and toilets should be kept clean and individuals who have or thought to have MRSA should be isolated furthermore to reduce community associated MRSA the same preventing techniques should be used. With good standards of hygiene and special care taken, the aim is to reduce MRSA from spreading.

Another way of controlling the illness MRSA is screening, by screening people before they come into hospital for operations can stop the bug from entering and spreading everywhere. Screening can be done by a swab. A swab is when a doctor or nurse takes a sample of bacteria from the person; it can be taken from different areas on the body such, the armpit, groin or nose. This will not take long to do and not painful. The swabs are then tested in a laboratory for MRSA, the time it takes to get the results back can vary, and it can take five days although it has been known in certain circumstances to get the results back the same day. If any people happen to be carrying MRSA there hospital appointment will likely be delayed until the MRSA is treated. This is to stop other people from getting the illness. The treatment used if the person has contracted MRSA is normally a special cream that goes in the nose or a power. In some cases an antibacterial wash is only needed up until the day of operation or procedure. If the operation is urgent then an individual would have to be admitted straight away and be put in a room in the hospital isolated from others.

Reports show that MRSA infection rate have fallen compared to four years ago. The number of MRSA infections is said to be more than halved and this is all down to improved hand washing, screening of people who attend hospitals, deep cleaning of the wards and better infection control between the staff in hospitals and care settings.

Conclusion…

This report shows that the screening and prevention for lung cancer such as screening and the smoking campaigns have proven to be effective although it will take a few more years yet to actually see what the effects are on preventing cancer and lung disease. Secondly this report also shows that, MRSA is a bacterial infection that is very hard to control, not because it is aggressive but because of it being resistant to several antibiotics however it also shows that the prevention and control system that is put in place has been effective enough to bring down the infection by half the amount from four years ago. I also believe that by making the people more aware of the illness by using adverts, leaflets and posters and even teaching young children how important it is to have a good standard of hygiene when visiting care homes and hospitals, this would bring down the infection rate even more.