Study Guide

This lesson discusses four major areas related to the control of communicable disease after disaster: environmental health management, immunization, chemotherapy, and quarantine and isolation.

Learning Objectives

Become familiar with key concepts in the management of environmental health.

Identify factors to be considered when carrying out immunizations during emergencies.

Recognize pros and cons to be considered in chemotherapy during emergencies. Become familiar with issues involved in quarantine and isolation.

Learning Activities

Read pages 53-60 in the manual.
Study, but do not memorize, Annex 5 in the manual.
Become familiar with publications No. 27 and No. 58 listed under References in the manual.

Evaluation

Complete the Self-Assessment Test.

Notes

Lesson 5 - Self-Assessment Test

Multiple Choice

Circle the correct answer:

1. After a disaster, vaccination may be considered for:

a. the elderly
b. patients with chronic and debilitating diseases
c. essential personnel
d. children
e. all of the above

True/False

Indicate T or F:

____2. After a disaster, infection control problems in hospitals usually become more severe.

____3. Proper burial of human corpses and animal carcasses is a most important measure in preventing epidemics of communicable diseases.

____4. Whether or not to provide chemosuppressive drugs against malaria to a population affected by, disaster is a complex decision that depends on local conditions and circumstances.

____5. Environmental interventions need to take into consideration the limitations in existing techniques and/or their misapplication.

____6. Mass immunization against influenza is a necessary measure to be carried out after a disaster.

____7. Malaria chemosuppression is usually practiced on populations living in areas with high levels of the disease.

____8. The promiscuous use of antibiotics can lead to the emergence of drug-resistant strains of bacteria.

____9. Mass administration of anti-infective drugs in a disaster-affected population is essential.

____10. Measures of communicable disease control which are effective in normal times quite often are not effective following a disaster.

Answer Key

Health for all by the year 2000

In 1977, the World Health Assembly decided that the main social target of the governments and of WHO should be the attainment by all people of the world by the year 2000 of a level of health that would permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life, that is, the goal popularly known as "health for all by the year 2000."

In 1978 the International Conference on Primary Health Care (Alma-Ata, USSR) declared that, as a central function of the national health system and an integral part of economic and social development, primary health care was the key to achieving that goal. Subsequently, the governments committed themselves - at the global level at the World Health Assembly, and at the regional level at meetings of the PAHO Governing Bodies - to implement the resolutions adopted for attaining health for all. In the Americas the high point of these mandates was reached on 28 September 1981 when the Directing Council of PAHO approved the Plan of Action for implementing the regional strategies for health for all by the year 2000. These strategies had been approved by the Directing Council in 1980 (Resolution XX) and today constitute the basis of PAHO's policy and programming, and represent in addition the contribution of the Region of the Americas to the global strategies of WHO.

The Plan of Action approved by the Directing Council contains the minimum goals and regional objectives, as well as the actions governments of the Americas and the Organization must take in order to attain health for all. The Plan, continental in nature, is essentially dynamic and is addressed not only to current problems but also to those likely to arise from the application of the strategies and the fulfillment of regional goals and objectives. It also defines priority areas that will serve as a basis, in developing the program and the necessary infrastructure, for national and international action.

The exchange and dissemination of information constitutes one of the priority areas of the Plan of Action. PAHO's publication program - including periodicals, scientific publications, and official documents - is designed as a means of promoting the ideas contained in the Plan by disseminating data on policies, strategies, international cooperation programs, and progress achieved in collaboration with countries of the Americas in the process of attaining health for all by the year 2000.