Disease prevention is a procedure through which individuals, particularly those with risk factors for a disease, are treated in order to prevent a disease from occurring. Treatment normally begins either before signs and symptoms of the disease occur, or shortly thereafter. Treatment can include patient education, lifestyle modification, and drugs.
There are three levels of prevention:
- improving the overall health of the population (primary prevention)
- improving (secondary prevention)
- improving treatment and recovery (tertiary prevention).
A recent self-assessment of public health services in 41 of the 53 countries in the WHO European Region found that:
- Primary prevention: routine immunization programmes are established in some form in all countries, and in most cases are well developed and effective. However, arrangements for delivery of vaccine programmes are under-developed in some countries, especially for minority populations. Some Commonwealth of Independent States have seen an increase in vaccine preventable diseases following the breakdown of services available in the Soviet era.
- Secondary prevention: routine screening for major forms of cancer now exists in many countries, but not in all of them. Screening programmes are not always evidence-based and systemic health checks for noncommunicable diseases are not routine in most countries.
- Tertiary prevention: lack of availability and affordability of treatment for early stage cancers is a limiting factor in some countries. Staff need training in evidence-based treatment and management approaches for noncommunicable diseases, and modern equipment.
As a result, a recommendation was made to ensure a balance in the three disease prevention approaches: primary (vaccination and health promotion), secondary (screening and early detection of disease) and tertiary (integrated patient-centred disease management).