Social Epidemiology: The Science About Health and Culture

Now, we will discuss about how social epidemiology works which falls under Social Epidemiology and Health. We know, sociological perspectives inspect the various contexts that influence treatment and healthcare. But Social epidemiology takes things in a somewhat different turn by investigating how disease, recovery, and healthcare vary from one society to the next. It is also defined as a subfield of epidemiology which focuses on the effects of social-structural causes on health outcomes. 

Along with social epidemiology two other factors that fall under the Social Epidemiology and Health are Incidence and Prevalence. Incidence here describes the amount of additional cases of a particular disorder that occur within a population group over a specified time span, normally a year. While Prevalence, the amount of cases of a specific disease that occur at any given time. Here we can address all these factors with the most recent example of this is the case surrounding the huge ongoing COVID-19 pandemic situation. We all are aware of the on going pandemic all around the world. This virus was first originated in Wuhan, China late December 2019 and slowly spread like wildfire bring the whole world to a complete halt. Since the end of 2019, things have not been the same at all and the world has faced lockdown after lockdown. Our country Bangladesh, like the majority of countries around the world, has been on lockdown since March 2020, but the virus is still at large, and the circumstances in different countries are not the same. Because of various factors such as geography, population, community, and so on, each society has a unique outcome. Some countries have huge population where it spread rapidly, while some countries have lower population and they were able to restrict it instead of spreading so rapidly by taking necessary precautionary methods. In case of our country Bangladesh, things have been rather bumpy or fluctuating and scary as cases increase and drop on a daily basis with new variants of covid being found over time regardless of all the sorts of preventive methods being adapted. “However, these measures face challenges in Bangladesh, a lower-middle-income economy with one of the world's densest populations. Social distancing is difficult in many areas of the country, and with the minimal resources the country has, it would be extremely challenging to implement the mitigation measures. Mobile sanitization facilities and temporary quarantine sites and healthcare facilities could help mitigate the impact of the pandemic at a local level”. Since Bangladesh is such a densely populated area, it is difficult to sustain the pandemic protection measures. In contrast to other nations, controlling the virus in Bangladesh is more difficult due to a constant lack of resources required to quarantine the virus and cure those that have already been infected. According to reports, we can see that IEDCR Bangladesh had only screened 11,223 people five weeks after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in Bangladesh, equating to around 68 tests per million people. Currently Bangladesh being at the middle of the so called second infection wave has an approximate of 1500 new cases and 25 deaths daily. Not all counties faced the same fate though. Due to their more refined and under control reponses as well as simpler public enforcement, some countries were able to respond quickly and in a more controlled manner. New Zealand had just 89 cases a day at its height. 

In conclusion, population, healthcare availability, and other factors are important in validating the concept of all the factors under Social Epidemiology and Health, including social epidemiology and other factors.