Scabies and Streptococcal Pyoderma in Indigenous Australians
Describe about the Current Health Issues affecting Indigenous Australians.
Despite the tremendous efforts made so far, healthcare system in Australia is still skewed towards the disadvantaged groups like the non-indigenous communities. Unlike their non-indigenous counterparts, the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people have numerous health challenges. The socio-economic status and location in the remote area makes the indigenous communities vulnerable to a large number of health issues. However, with the active involvement of the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organizations (ACCHOs) and effective implementation of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Plan 2013-2023, the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people will be in the right path of attaining health equity just like the rest of the Australian society (Cheng, Carapetis, Currie, Mulholland & Chatfield 2015). This paper presents a detailed discussion on the current health issues affecting the indigenous communities in Australia. It focuses on the prevalence of scabies and streptococcal pyoderma amongst the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people.
As a community, the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people suffer from scabies and streptococcal pyoderma than the rest of the communities across the nation. Scabies refers to a contagious diseases caused by mite Sarcoptes scabiei. As a disease infestation, scabies causes pimple-like rushes and serious itching on the body. Its major signs and symptoms are sores, itching, thick crusts on the skin, and body rushes. When infested by scabies for the very first time, it usually takes between 2 and 6 weeks for the symptoms to appear (Gubhaju, McNamara, Banks, Joshy, Raphael, Williamson & Eades 2013). However, on second infestation, the symptoms begin to appear on the first day. In most cases, the symptoms appear in certain body parts such as the fingers, wrists, and waistlines.
Streptococcal pyoderma, on the other hand, is a contagious skin disease that is attributed to bacterial infection of the body. It is a very common pyogenic disease that affects a large number of people especially the children. Although its exact causes are not yet known, pyoderma is attributed to the presence of autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis. However, its risk factors are gender, age, blood cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease. Its symptoms include a gradual appearance of pyoderma gangrenosum characterized by spider-like bites, tiny red bumps, and painful large sores in the body (Fredericks, Lee, Adams & Mahoney 2015). Other symptoms include ulcers which of course appear on an individual’s legs or other surgical sites of the body.
Why the Prevalence of Scabies and Streptococcal Pyoderma High Amongst the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander People
Scabies and Streptococcal pyoderma are some of the most common disease infections that are so prevalent amongst the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people. Prevalence for scabies amongst the children, for instance, stands at 50%. Research has proven that these diseases remain a major cause of morbidity amongst these indigenous communities (Cheng, Carapetis, Currie, Mulholland & Chatfield 2015). This is due to many reasons that include the following:
Causes of Prevalence
First, the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander People are located in the remote areas of Australia. The location of these communities in such areas makes them more prevalent to skin diseases because of many reasons. In the remote rural areas, it is not easy to get access to facilities such as washing machines and clean linen. These are essential facilities that are always required to help in promoting personal and communal hygiene (Donato & Segal 2013). Research has found out that the skin diseases are linked to infections that might be prevented if appropriate measures are taken to maintain hygiene in the community. For example, during outbreak, people should not find it challenging to acquire washing machines.
Secondly, the prevalence of scabies and streptococcal pyoderma amongst the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people because of their socio-economic status. Unlike the rest of the non-indigenous communities, the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people are not economically-empowered. These indigenous communities are not financially stable and therefore lack access to essential commodities like housing. This is a major blow to the communities because lack of proper housing facilities facilitates the spread of skin infestations. Once a person cannot access housing facilities, it might not be possible to address the infection of skin diseases (Baba, Brolan & Hill 2014). All cases of hygiene might not be properly addressed in a timely manner before the infection spreads to dangerous levels. If the indigenous communities had no such challenges, the cases of scabies infestation might be controlled.
Lastly, the prevalence of scabies and streptococcal pyoderma is linked to the poor living conditions in the rural areas. Unlike in the urban centers where there are proper planning and design of the facilities, rural areas are characterized by overcrowding. Meaning, there are a high number of people living in together. High population density is quite undesirable because it enhances the rate of prevalence of skin disease infestations (Jongen, McCalman, Bainbridge & Tsey 2014). The contagious nature of the scabies for example makes it easy to be spread from one person to another as long as there is an uninterrupted exposure or no immediate isolation measures are taken to separate the infected persons from the rest of the population.
It is therefore evident that the prevalence of scabies and streptococcal pyoderma is so high amongst the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people. These are community-acquired diseases that are determined by the antimicrobial susceptibility profile of each community (Parker & Milroy 2014). The indigenous communities are more susceptible to these skin infections because of their location in the remote areas in which the spread of skin diseases is enhanced by the high population densities, and poor accessibility to housing and healthcare facilities.
Management of Scabies and Streptococcal Pyoderma on the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander People
Scabies and streptococcal pyoderma are disease conditions that are not desirable because they have a potential of negatively impacting on the health status of individuals. Apart from contributing to serious health problems like renal and rheumatic heart diseases, the skin diseases can lead to serious socioeconomic burdens in the community because of its impacts on job absenteeism and increased expenditure on healthcare (Doolan, Najman, Henderson, Cherney, Plotnikova, Ward, Kemp, Dev & Smirnov 2015). Hence, it is necessary to come up with feasible measures to manage the diseases. To do this, the following measures can be taken:
Management of Scabies and Streptococcal Pyoderma on the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander People
A comprehensive public health management plan should be formulated to address the challenge of scabies and streptococcal pyoderma amongst the Aboriginals and the Torres Strait Islander people. This should be tailored to tackle the socioeconomic challenges facing these indigenous communities such as poor housing facilities, overcrowding, and hygiene (Tieman, Lawrence, Damarell, Sladek & Nikolof 2014). One way of achieving this goal is to construct standardized community swimming pools, supervise and properly maintain them. Besides, the children in remote areas should be equipped with showering facilities to enable them access quality cleaning facilities like the rest of the nation.
The other way of dealing with the scabies and streptococcal pyoderma is organizing for effective treatment for the patients using appropriate medications. The treatment should be designed to suit the families, individual patients, and the community at large. Treatment should be based on the degree of severity, follow-up standards, treatment risks, causative agents, natural progression, acceptability, and side effects (Cheng, Carapetis, Currie, Mulholland & Chatfield 2015). For effective service delivery, the medication process should be handled by the local native healthcare providers who have a deeper understanding of the local native communities in which they operate.
References
Baba, J.T., Brolan, C.E. & Hill, P.S., 2014. Aboriginal medical services cure more than illness: a qualitative study of how Indigenous services address the health impacts of discrimination in Brisbane communities. International journal for equity in health, 13(1), p.1.
Cheng, A., Carapetis, J., Currie, B., Mulholland, E. & Chatfield, M., 2015. Impact of an ivermectin mass drug administration on scabies prevalence in a remote Australian Aboriginal community. PL o S Neglected Tropical Diseases [E], 9(10, Article No. e0004151), pp.1-13.
Donato, R. & Segal, L., 2013. Does Australia have the appropriate health reform agenda to close the gap in Indigenous health?. Australian Health Review, 37(2), pp.232-238.
Doolan, I., Najman, J., Henderson, S., Cherney, A., Plotnikova, M., Ward, J., Kemp, R., Dev, A. & Smirnov, A., 2015. A retrospective comparison study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander injecting drug users and their contact with youth detention and/or prison. Australian Indigenous Health Bulletin, 15(4).
Fredericks, B.L., Lee, V., Adams, M.J. & Mahoney, R., 2015. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health. Introduction to Public Health [3rd Ed.], pp.355-376.
Gubhaju, L., McNamara, B.J., Banks, E., Joshy, G., Raphael, B., Williamson, A. & Eades, S.J., 2013. The overall health and risk factor profile of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants from the 45 and up study. BMC public health, 13(1), p.1.
Jongen, C., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R. & Tsey, K., 2014. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander maternal and child health and wellbeing: a systematic search of programs and services in Australian primary health care settings. BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 14(1), p.1.
Parker, R. & Milroy, H., 2014. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health: an overview. Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice. 2nd ed. Canberra: Department of The Prime Minister and Cabinet, pp.25-38.
Tieman, J.J., Lawrence, M.A., Damarell, R.A., Sladek, R.M. & Nikolof, A., 2014. LIt. search: fast tracking access to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health literature. Australian Health Review, 38(5), pp.541-545.
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