Question

How can screening for disease address the burden of non-communicable diseases? Do you make a point to get regularly scheduled screening tests? If so, which ones? Are there ones identified in your texts that you'd never heard of?

Subject: Public and Community Health

Answer 1

Due to being considered relatively less risky than communicable diseases, noncommunicable diseases have turned into an epidemic in recent times. This results in an urgent need for proper screening of such diseases to reduce their spread.

• Screening of the diseases on a regular basis can contain the diseases in its earlier stages which means less financial impact on patient and the national health budget overall.
• Moreover, sometimes, non-communicable diseases can end in the death of the patient. this has substantially increased the mortality in spite of medical advancement in recent years. Frequent screening can help save lives and in turn, brings down the mortality rate.
• Non-communicable diseases impact the health of the individual resulting in less productivity. This can result in a major loss of income as well as loss of health due to late diagnosis. Frequent screening can cure the diseases on time which would help in saving the productivity of the economy and keep the working force of the country in a healthy condition.

Personally, I have myself screened once a year for basic diseases. The screening involves X-rays of body parts, urine and blood tests along with regular eye and dental checkup. There are no diseases identified in the text which I haven't heard of before though.