Prof. Dr. Açık: ''Social distancing, hygiene and preventive health measures should be a part of our lives”

Public Health Specialist Prof. Dr. Yasemin Açık warned about infectious diseases in her statement on the occasion of September 3-9 Public Health Week.

Public Health Specialist Prof. Dr. Yasemin Açık, in her statement on the occasion of September 3-9 Public Health Week, drew attention to the increasing number of infectious diseases, especially in the last quarter century, and listed the measures to be taken. Drawing attention to infectious diseases such as Covid-19 and monkeypox, as well as diseases such as influenza and parasitic infections that increase especially with the arrival of autumn and the opening of schools, Prof. Dr. Açık said, “In order to protect against these diseases, social distance should be maintained and excessive contact should be avoided, routine vaccination schedule and screening tests for infants and children should be followed within the scope of preventive health services, hygiene rules and healthy nutrition should be paid attention to, and smoking should be avoided.”

''As travel and migration increase, infectious diseases spread''

Prof. Dr. Yasemin Açık stated that migrations and travels have a significant impact on the increase in infectious diseases worldwide and said: “With the increasing urbanization worldwide, internal migrations to areas without healthy infrastructure in large cities, external migrations due to wars and forced city changes due to disasters such as earthquakes and floods cause serious human and therefore microorganism mobility. In addition, international travel is on the rise. In fact, while the number of tourists worldwide was 25 million in 1950, this number reached 700 million in 2002 and 1.3 billion as of last year. As a result of all these developments, infectious diseases are spreading much faster. Considering that migration and travel will continue, everyone from relevant public institutions and organizations to the private sector, non-governmental organizations and individuals have important duties to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.”

''We should avoid too much contact''

Reminding the social distance and hygiene rules that everyone paid attention to during the Covid-19 pandemic, Prof. Dr. Açık said, “Undoubtedly, we cannot spend our whole lives with masks, but we should make the social distance, avoidance of excessive contact and hygiene measures we applied at that time a routine of our lives, rest as much as possible in rapidly spreading diseases such as influenza, and take precautions by wearing a mask if we will be in public. Nutrition also plays an important role in preventing diseases. We should not consume food that does not comply with hygiene conditions, inform the authorities when we detect such a situation, as well as keeping our children away from packaged foods as much as possible.”

''Let's trust science and benefit from preventive health services''

Emphasizing that one of the primary and most effective methods of preventing infectious diseases is preventive health services, Prof. Dr. Yasemin Açık continued as follows:

“Preventive health services are of vital importance for the prevention or early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this context, it is necessary to implement the vaccination schedule of infants and children on time and to carry out screenings for different age groups from birth. The role of the state is crucial in ensuring that these activities are carried out in full and in raising public awareness. Because in recent years, we see that there has been an increasing rate of anti-vaccine sentiment, resulting in an increase in childhood vaccine-preventable infectious diseases. However, we should always act with confidence in science, benefit from preventive health services without looking for a way other than science, and contribute to health communication and education support by directing people who lack information about these measures to the relevant institutions.”

Prof. Dr. Açık stated the importance of the immune system in preventing diseases and said that regular sleep, adequate and balanced nutrition and using methods to cope with stress increase immunity. Stating that the main theme of the Public Health Week announced by the Ministry of Health this year is 'Don't delay your health, take action', Açık emphasized the necessity of physical activity. Açık also underlined that smoking, other tobacco products and electronic cigarettes should be avoided.