The preventive medicine It is one whose main objective is focused on the preservation of the health of individuals. In general, it is aimed at keeping people in a given population healthy, through the application of various mechanisms.
Individual cases are treated by doctors, who through consultation will seek to convince the subjects of the convenience of taking specific treatments or changing harmful habits in order to preserve health..
The fields of action of preventive medicine will be limited to a group of people in whom the risk of contracting a disease has been determined.
It can be an easily contagious pathology that has spread as an epidemic and, to combat it, the authorities draw up vaccination plans aimed at the sector that is at risk.
Likewise, it is responsible for the preventive medical examination in the initial phases of various diseases, in order to prevent the development and compromise of health, and lead the person to a serious deterioration in their body.
Preventive medicine has as its main premise the preservation of health from the point of view that it is less expensive to avoid the disease than to treat it once it appears.
That is why every year a large amount of resources is allocated to the creation of policies, laws and campaigns for the education of the population in order to keep the largest number of individuals healthy..
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The evolution of preventive medicine was the product of advances in curative medicine.
Since ancient civilizations, characterized by high rates of morbidity, mortality and a reduced life expectancy, the interests were focused on finding methods to help people heal.
However, the concern for obtaining knowledge led many researchers to concentrate on the study of the relationship between various variables that intervene in the appearance of pathologies.
The results of all these attempts contributed to the fact that between the 15th and 18th centuries multiple procedures were carried out in order to improve the state of health through the development of medicines..
However, preventive medicine was not consolidated until the invention of the smallpox vaccine by Edward Jenner during the 18th century..
Prevention procedures to avoid the spread of this disease that caused the death of millions of people, were carried out by vaccinating healthy individuals.
These first practices, in conjunction with the evolution of curative medicine, laid the foundations for the development of preventive medicine.
One of the main functions of preventive medicine resides in the conservation, protection and promotion of healthy habits.
Their actions are generally aimed at healthy individuals or an entire human group that can be part of a community that is considered to be affected by risk factors..
Risk factors can be found in the environment, correspond to lifestyle habits or from hereditary conditions, among others..
A typical case is revealed when certain contagious diseases appear and the authorities of the health sector undertake mass vaccination campaigns in combination with other measures.
The objective of preventive medicine focuses on the application of various strategies in order to prevent people from contracting diseases. To meet its goals, it relies on the creation of educational campaigns for the population with the use of social media..
It also includes the delivery of drugs to individuals who are considered vulnerable. Being classified in this group all those that are associated with the risk factors.
In general, the people for whom preventive medicine is directed are healthy and are considered only to maintain their well-being.
It refers to the actions carried out by health organizations, the government or organized communities in order to prevent the population from contracting diseases.
Given the possibility that a disease, for example dengue, that has affected a certain population spreads, policies that include fumigation to exterminate mosquitoes can be implemented.
The set of elements that can combine to give rise to the disease in a population may come from environmental factors or from the lack of information of the population.
In this sense, it is possible that they combine education campaigns in order to inform communities about the measures to be taken to preserve health with vaccination if necessary..
In some countries, vaccination against influenza is promoted before the arrival of the rainy or winter season.
It is a type of prevention that occurs specifically during the initial stages of a disease.
Through this approach, it is considered that the treatment of some pathologies in their initial stages is much more effective and reduces the adverse effects in individuals in the long term..
The objective of secondary prevention revolves around early detection in order to keep people healthy and increase life expectancy.
To do this, campaigns are designed aimed at specific sectors of the population to screen for certain diseases such as some types of cancer..
Evidence shows that the application of treatments in the early stages of these pathologies greatly reduces mortality rates in patients.
Likewise, days of early detection of arterial hypertension and diabetes, among other diseases, are carried out..
The purpose of detecting diseases in early stages allows individuals to initiate treatments, which prevents the disease from getting worse and their health from deteriorating.
These actions, in addition to providing people with a better quality of life, reduce costs.
It is the third phase of preventive medicine and unlike the primary one, it becomes evident in the presence of a disease that can be chronic.
Its main objective will be the preservation of the health of the individuals that make up a certain population.
However, their actions will focus on controlling or reducing the risk factors that appear as a result of the emergence of a specific disease.
In the case of a diagnosis of diabetes, a patient will be recommended a drug treatment aimed at keeping blood glucose levels stable.
In addition to medications, the patient must acquire healthy eating habits in order to prevent the disease from negatively affecting some organs such as the kidneys, extremities or vision..
The techniques used for tertiary prevention help reduce the chances that the sequelae of chronic diseases affect other parts of the body.
As the last stage of preventive medicine, it is equally interested in the well-being of the patient but from another perspective.
Quaternary prevention focuses on healthy or sick individuals, so to speak, and focuses on avoiding health problems that can arise from medical practices, as well as treatments.
The use of X-rays to diagnose a disease or the side effects of a drug can have negative health consequences. This prevention phase is responsible for reducing these risks.
Preventive medicine is oriented to the preservation of health in healthy individuals, therefore, the first concept is associated with health.
The concept of health is related, according to the WHO's conception, to general well-being, not only on a physical level but also on a mental level. Therefore, the consideration of a healthy individual goes beyond the one who is not sick..
Preventive medicine is aimed at a population, which is understood as the set of people whose place of residence is a specific location.
During the process of developing policies for the preservation of health, the location of the people to whom the campaign will be directed is defined. According to the case, the age ranges and characteristics such as gender will be established, all based on risk factors.
Risk factors are the set of environmental, social and physical elements that make the person prone to acquiring a certain disease.
They can be associated with the immediate environment in which the individual develops, with physical conditions such as genetic background or being related to lifestyle habits that increase the chances of getting sick.
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