The case study of Bunistan deals with the outburst of communicable diseases because of the incidence of earthquake and flooding events in a small space of time. It is to be mentioned that the place was already afflicted with civil strife. This report aims to offer details of basic information to be collected, prioritize that information, and provide validation for consideration in the context of the crisis.
Basic information to be collected and their description. During the period of complex emergencies, the affected persons require to be provided with shelter, food, water, sanitation, and basic healthcare services. Critical information should be collected to rapidly assess the emergency situation regarding the disease outbreak, prevention of the occurrence of epidemics, presence of forceful supervision coordination, outbreak control mechanics, and overall disease management (Toole & Waldman, 1997).
The rapid evaluation of the outbreak includes knowing the degree of urgent situation and risk of diseases, the type of likely intervention and priority actions, plan execution, and providing sufficient information to the external assistance agencies for support mobilization. The prevention aspects include spot preparation, provision of shelter camps, basic clinics, water, food, sanitation, control of vectors and mass vaccination arrangement. The supervision system should be easy, satisfactory, flexible, and condition-specific. It allows for the methodical collection, analysis and scrutiny of data for proper health interventions. One needs to identify priority health areas, analyze mortality and morbidity rates, identify outbreaks and observe response, study trends in disease rates, provide ample information to help agencies for aid. The outbreak control system must look strictly for diseases such as cholera, measles, shigellosis, malaria, DPT, typhoid, yellow fever, etc (Indian Council of Medical Research, 2011). Lastly, the overall disease management system should contain grounding of the outbreak by holding health meetings, formulating response plans, keeping stocks of i.v. fluids, antibiotics and vaccine stocks, having isolation wards and lab support; detection of the outbreak by having an early warning system, taking of affected individuals’ samples and arrangement of weekly reports; the response team needs to verify the outbreak, then stimulate the team for study and control the outbreak. Appraisal of the situation would include the study of containment measures, timeliness of response, change of health policy if the need arises and writing the outbreak report (World Health Organization, 2011).
Prioritizing the information and the rationale for consideration. In the context of the given crisis, there was flooding after the earthquake which worsened the outbreak situation, and provided for enough breeding grounds for disease vectors and thus in the rapid dissemination of the disease. The priority area should be to set up a highly efficient mass immunization program. The priority information would include the availability of stockpiles of vaccines, antibiotics, ORS; availability of isolation wards, enough support staff and health volunteers, and sampling kits containing materials for meeting immediate medical care like syringes, gloves, icepacks, serum tubes, specimen collecting tubes, etc. (Salama P. et al, 2004). This information should be supplied along with the weekly reported disease incidence and resulting deaths. The rationale for considering this information as important is to control the outbreak from turning into an epidemic and save more lives which could be possible, given the threat. The public, private and community relationships for imparting health education and ensuing action must be fully established to control disease outbreaks (Connolly M. A. et al, 2004).
References
Connolly M. A. et al (2004). Communicable diseases in complex emergencies: impact and challenges. Lancet, 365(9462): 842-843. PMID: 15567014
Indian Council of Medical Research. (2011). Communicable Diseases. Web.
Salama P. et al (2004). Lessons learned from complex emergencies over the past decade. Lancet, 364(9447): 1801-1813. PMID: 15541455
Toole M.J., & Waldman R. J. (1997). The public health aspects of complex emergencies and refugee situations. Annu Rev Pub Health, 18: 283-312. PMID: 9143721
World Health Organization. (2011). Health Action in Crises. Web.