Download Module 5: Public Health Impact of and response to infectious diseases

Module 5: Public Health
Impact of and response to infectious diseases
Infectious diseases appear from time to time, threatening the human race. The table below shows a few examples
of infectious disease outbreaks in recent years to help students better understand the characteristics of infectious
diseases and the common arguments for different types of questions on this topic.
Global
Impact of
infectious
diseases
Suggestions
on ways to
manage
infectious
diseases
Kong
SARS epidemic
Between February and June
2003, the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) broke out in Hong
Kong. The virus is mainly
transmitted through close
human contact. During the
outbreak, 1,755 people were
infected, of whom 299 died,
including 8 medical
practitioners.
Lack of public health awareness
Absence of vaccines
High cross-border people mobility
Damage to people’s health
Increase in public health awareness
Deployment of resources to tackle
infectious diseases
Better monitoring
Strengthening
education
Providing resources
World Health
Organization
(WHO) and
governments
Organizations
Individuals
Devising
management
policies
Increasing public
health awareness
Monitoring the
effectiveness of
government
measures
Increasing
personal health
awareness
Limited resources
Barriers to
the
prevention
of
infectious
diseases
More updates Hong
In late 2013, an epidemic of Ebola,
a highly deadly infectious disease,
broke out in various West African
countries. Infected cases also
emerged in countries such as the
US and Spain. This acute infectious
disease can transmit among humans
through direct contact with infected
persons’ bodily fluid or indirect
contact with contaminated
environment. The epidemic
continued until 2015, and led to the
deaths of more than 11,000 people.
Background
Causes of
the spread
of
infectious
diseases
Ebola
WHO and
governments
Uncooperative
attitude of some
governments
Different
situations in
different countries
Difficulties in
changing people’s
lifestyles and habits
2016 Hong Kong Educational Publishing Company
1
Avian flu
Hong Kong
AIDS
Hong Kong
MERS
Global
Global
Zika virus
The world’s first human
case of avian flu was
found in Hong Kong in
1997. Since then,
infected cases have been
found in Hong Kong
from time to time.
Individuals may contract
the avian flu virus
through close contact
with infected wild birds
and poultry (whether
live or dead) or their
droppings.
The disease is transmitted
through sexual contact and
blood and from pregnant
women to their babies.
Infections in China are
mainly related to drug
abuse, prostitution, blood
selling and sexual contact.
It is estimated that over 10
million people have AIDS
in China.
There was a large-scale
outbreak of the Middle East
Respiratory Syndrome
(MERS) in the Middle East
in 2012. Imported cases
appeared in Korea in 2015.
Suspected cases were also
found in Hong Kong.
Infections are mainly caused
by contact with animals
(especially camels) and virus
carriers. As of June 2015,
1,342 people from around
the world had been infected
with 513 deaths.
In 2015, the Zika epidemic
spread across Central and South
Americas. In Brazil, the most
affected area, there were over 1.5
million infections. It is suspected
that the virus is linked to the
surge in microcephaly (abnormal
smallness of the head) among
new-born babies in Brazil. The
virus is transmitted to humans by
Aedes mosquitoes.
Human-to-human transmission
may also occur by ways of blood
transfusion and sexual contact.
(Difficult to control
people’s activities)
Students can first grasp the common points listed on the far left column by looking at the local cases, before extending
the reasoning to China and global cases at large. Students can freely add more examples to enrich this table.
2
Point Analysis
Students can tackle questions on infectious diseases by examining the causes, impact, suggestions and challenges.
There are common rules for various question types:
Topic: Causes of the spread of infectious diseases
Question
Point
Explanation
type
People lack public health awareness and have little knowledge on
Lack of public health
infectious disease prevention. In some places, people’s
awareness
lifestyles/traditional customs increase the risk of infection.
Infectious diseases and virus continuously evolve. It takes time for
Causes
Absence of vaccines
drugs and vaccines to be developed. It is not always possible for
countries to obtain disease specific vaccines and drugs immediately.
Cross-border mobility allows viruses to be carried around the world
High cross-border people
easily. This increases the chance of outbreaks and makes it harder
mobility
for governments to contain infectious diseases.
Topic: Impact of infectious diseases
Question
Point
type
Damage to people’s
health (negative impact
on individuals)
Impact
Increase in public health
awareness (positive
impact on community)
Deployment of resources
to tackle infectious
diseases (negative impact
on society)
Explanation
Various infectious diseases damage the health of patients. For
example, the avian flu causes fever, cough, sore throat, muscle pain
and serious respiratory infection. Some diseases can cause failure of
multiple organs and death.
Often, people become more aware of the need to protect their health
after an epidemic. They learn about measures to prevent diseases
and change their lifestyles. When the risk of individual infection is
reduced, the chance of cross infections is also lowered. The
community’s ability to prevent epidemics is increased overall.
In the face of infectious disease outbreaks, governments redistribute
resources to improve the healthcare system’s capacity of response.
This takes away some resources for other areas.
Topic: Suggestions on ways to manage infectious diseases
Question
Point
Explanation
type
Enhancing inspection of tourists from regions affected by
Better monitoring
an epidemic and putting infected persons in quarantine
Releasing the latest health information to improve the
Strengthening
public’s epidemic prevention awareness and encouraging
education
people to adopt epidemic prevention measures
Helping to improve the healthcare system of less
WHO and
Providing
developed/affected regions by providing medical
governments
resources
equipment and professional advice and assisting in drug
and vaccine development
Establishing cross-border health reporting mechanisms to
Devising
Suggestions
report and assess epidemics to prevent their spread.
management
Adopting quarantine measures to prevent community
policies
outbreaks when necessary
Increasing public
Explaining the latest information about infectious diseases
health awareness
to the public and providing prevention guidelines.
Organizations
Monitoring the
(For NGOs) Suggesting reform when they find loopholes
effectiveness of
in the government’s measures
govt. measures
Following the latest information about infectious diseases
Increasing personal
Individual
and changing their lifestyles if necessary to minimize the
health awareness
risk of infection
2016 Hong Kong Educational Publishing Company
3
Topic: Challenges to the prevention of infectious diseases
Question
type
Point
Explanation
Limited resources
Challenges
WHO and
governments
Uncooperative
attitude of some
governments
Different situations
in different
countries
Difficulties in
change people’s
lifestyles and habits
Developing countries have limited medical resources
because of their lower economic development level.
To protect their own interests, some governments may not
cooperate with other countries and international
organizations in combating infectious diseases.
Countries face different situations so they cannot support
each other.
Governments cannot forcefully change or monitor their
people’s life constantly.
Skill Transfer
Topic: Explain the various roles played by the World Health Organization in handling infectious diseases.
(6 marks)
Skills for answering questions about ‘roles’
‧
A role means the function performed by a stakeholder due to the stakeholder’s particular position. The roles
played by stakeholders often end with ‘-or’ or ‘-er’ as in the right column below.
The role of the WHO (stakeholder) is deduced from the causes and suggestions explained in the previous pages:
Cause
Suggestion / Method
People’s lack of public
health awareness
Absence of vaccine
Releasing the latest health
information
Assisting in drug and
vaccine development
Establishing
cross-border
health reporting mechanisms
High cross-border people
mobility
Effective
suggestions
should respond
to the causes.
4
Role of the WHO
Educator
Resource provider
Policy formulator/
monitor
Students are suggested
to consider the role of
the stakeholder before
suggesting reasonable
methods.