Explain the role of the community health nurse (case finding, reporting, data collection, data analysis, and follow-up) and why demographic data are necessary to the health of the community. Identify at least one national agency or organization that addresses the communicable disease chosen and describe how the organizations contribute to resolving or reducing the impact of disease.

Explain the role of the community health nurse (case finding, reporting, data collection, data analysis, and follow-up) and why demographic data are necessary to the health of the community. Identify at least one national agency or organization that addresses the communicable disease chosen and describe how the organizations contribute to resolving or reducing the impact of disease.

Epidemiologic Triangle of TB

Epidemiologic triangle is a useful tool in identifying the transmission of a disease, from which effective and efficient methods to prevent further transmission of the disease can be established. In an epidemiologic triad, there are three factors to consider, host factors, agent and environment factors.

For TB the host factors relate to organisms susceptible to spreading the disease. The SEIR model is usually used to describe the different categories of hosts or likely hosts for TB infection. S in the model stands for susceptible persons who are at risk of getting the disease. They persons belong to the categories described in the earlier sections of this paper. E stands for persons who are exposed but not infectious. For example, people living with infected persons or persons with latent TB. I stand for infected persons who are infectious. The R stands for persons receiving treatment or under quarantine due to the disease, including patients with latent TB under treatment (Brauer, Castillo-Chavez & Feng, 2019). Some of the host factors that increase the susceptibility of the disease include poor nutrition, lifestyle behaviors like smoking, failure to adhere to the prescribed drug therapy, poor hygiene methods, for example when sneezing and coughing, low immunity, for example, for people with HIV/AIDS, to list a few.

The agent factors are factors relating to the disease-causing organism. For TB the main causative agent is Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (Khan, 2017). Thus, managing the bacterium through vaccinations or using a prescribed drug therapy will go a long in reducing the transmission of the disease. The infectious agent is highly resistant to antibiotics and strict adherence to the treatment regimen is extremely crucial in dealing with the agent.

The environmental factors are external factors that affect the rate of spread of TB. Some of them include an unclean physical environment, poor ventilation, crowding, to list a few. Dealing with environmental factors by encouraging proper hygiene and good environmental management practices can assist in preventing the spread of the infection (Khan, 2017). The disease is airborne, therefore, ensuring good ventilation and reducing congestion and crowding in a small enclosure can also assist in preventing the transmission of the disease.

From the listed factors, emphasis on the preventive measures including seeking prompt treatment in identified cases, maintaining proper hygiene and ideal environment management, eating proper nutrition, avoiding unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, are some of the considerations that the general population can take to prevent the transmission of the disease.

Role of Community Health Nurse in Combating TB

Community health providers play an essential role in creating awareness on TB. Awareness creation is considered a vital tool in dealing with the spread of the infection. A community health nurse is also supposed to be at the forefront in ensuring that patients receive and adhere to their prescribed treatment regimens to prevent the development and spread of drug-resistant TB.

In terms of data collection and analysis, a community health nurse is in the best position of identifying, reporting and recording the number of TB cases experienced within his community. Using this information, they can assess whether the efforts they have put in place are effective in preventing TB infections. The community health providers are also supposed to asses the data on the prevalence of the disease with regards to specific population groups (Sismulyanto et al. 2019). This data is useful n coming up with targeted interventions that can be used to cushion high-risk groups against infection from the disease, including but not limited to the use of vaccines.

Other than creating targeted interventions based on collected demographic data, data on the prevalence of TB within a given community can be useful for planning purposes, especially by government institutions. For example, acquisition and distribution of drugs in high-risk populations. Analysis of any observable changes in prevalence demographics is also important, especially in understanding the cause of the change and the implications of the change in the healthcare delivery system. All this is made possible through the roles of community nurses in data collection and reporting.

National Agency Responsible for Combating TB

National Tuberculosis Controllers Association (NTCA) is a non-profit organization that was created in 1995 under the guidance of the CDC Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (DTBE). The organ has since grown to 400 members from different interest groups including nurses. The association in conjuncti