With the increase in world population, we are all being forced into living closer and closer together. Living space is diminishing and opportunities for being alone are getting fewer and fewer.
Hygiene and disease control are becoming important issues, both within the family unit as well as withing the broader community in which we live, work and play. Every year, with increasing frequency outbreaks of disease occur ravaging certain parts of the world.
Disease not only affects the individuals and families, it also takes a heavy toll on businesses and the local, regional and national economy. Tourism declines, visitors cancel and postpone their travel plans and business is taken elsewhere. The AIDS pandemic, the various bird flu viruses, Ebola, TB and continual outbreaks of Cholera all take their toll. Moving population groups such as immigrants, refugees and victims of natural disaster increase the problem and the incidence of disease.
Each one of us is, in our own way, responsible for the prevention of the spread of disease, its containment and transmission. That is what this course is about - assisting the individual contribute to the prevention of disease transmission.