explain the statement that public hygiene is the key to prevention of communicable diseases.....
Answers
Prevention and Control
In these vulnerable situations after a disaster, prevention of disease is the key to maintaining public health. Hazards have a wide range of after-effects on populations, as well as a wide range of possible health impacts, which all need to be taken into account when planning interventions. Post-disaster risk assessments should be conducted to determine what health impacts are likely to be observed as a result of the specific hazard and associated after-effects being experienced [3].
Sites for shelters need to be planned in ways to avoid overcrowding which can lead to acute respiratory infections or pneumonia. They also need to be organized with hygiene in mind, so that there are enough facilities for all inhabitants and so that there is no chance for contamination of water supply.
Vector control needs to be geared towards the specific vector and the diseases likely to be prevalent. Insecticide treated nets are useful for combatting malaria because it is spread by the Anopheles mosquito which is active between dusk and dawn. At this time most people are unmoving or sleeping so the best prevention method is to avoid bites. The Aedes mosquito is responsible for the spread of dengue fever. This mosquito bites during the day, so removing sites of stagnant water through proper water storage and waste disposal is the best method of prevention of mosquito proliferation. This is also useful for prevention of proliferation of the Anopheles mosquito. Following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, there was no outbreak of dengue due to the rapid, multidimensional response that was employed. Targeted vector control and strong surveillance was used for early detection. Spray and larvicide can also be effective methods for extermination of mosquito populations and preventing further spread of dengue [13].
Vaccinations should be used to prevent outbreaks of measles or any other vaccine-preventable communicable diseases that are endemic and high in prevalence in the affected region. Typhoid vaccination campaign in the Republic of Fiji following a cyclone was able to reduce incidence of typhoid fever. The typhoid vaccine is not necessarily always useful in post-disaster settings, but because there was a high incidence of typhoid in this region it was deemed an important component in a post-disaster environment [14]. Measles, meningitis, and tetanus are other vaccinations that should be taken into consideration pre-disaster so that populations are effectively immune from diseases that may otherwise reach epidemic proportions in a weakened postdisaster population.
Communities need to prepare for likely disasters by being aware of any weaknesses their environment has. For example, high slope of mountainous regions increases the risk of landslide [15]. Similarly, regions that experience high seismic activity need to be aware of how to handle earthquake disaster management.
Public Health Implications
In a world that is undergoing epidemiological shift away from communicable diseases and towards chronic diseases, disasters allow endemic communicable diseases to take root and continue to plague populations. Disasters are associated with various aftereffects, which then directly impact the health of communities. These high stress situations leave populations weak, vulnerable, and unable to fight off diseases that are commonly endemic.
Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary General, stated that “The more governments, UN agencies, organizations, businesses, and civil society understand risk and vulnerability, the better equipped they will be to mitigate disasters when they strike and save more lives” [2]. Public health workers need to become more involved with disaster risk reduction so that they can understand the factors at work and how such factors need to be managed so their impact on public health is minimized.
As explained earlier in this review, different after-effects of hazards are associated with different health impacts. In an emergency situation, public health workers need to be aware of the relationships between these factors. Through understanding and awareness of these relationships, public health workers can recognize risks before they are fully formed, and hopefully prevent them from negatively impacting population health.
A part of disaster risk reduction is disaster management. In particular this outlines what is to be done once an emergency has occurred. Through disaster management, workers are then able to analyze how the hazards and the associated after-effects can be managed to minimize their impact on public health. This is the ideal location for public health workers to put their skills to use. They must be trained to look at particular hazards and always be thinking of how that hazard and its associated effects can impact the health of individuals and the public as a whole.