Introduction to health protection

Question 1

What is health protection?

Answer 1

Health protection is one of the core components of public health practice and includes:

Infectious disease control

Environmental hazards – e.g., chemicals, radiation, climate change, pollution

Emergency response and preparedness

Question 2

Infectious agent

Answer 2

An infectious agent is an organism that causes disease in a vulnerable host.

Question 3

COMMUNICABLE DISEASE

Answer 3

A Communicable Disease is caused by an infectious agent being transmitted from one person to another person either directly or indirectly.

Question 4

LATENT PERIOD

Answer 4

the time the person is incubating the infection; they are not infectious.

Question 5

INFECTIOUS PERIOD

Answer 5

– the time during which a person is infectious

Question 6

ONSET OF DISEASE

Answer 6

the time the person shows signs or symptoms of disease. This may be some time after they become infectious

Question 7

PRIMARY CASE and SECONDARY CASE

Answer 7

PRIMARY CASE – first or index case of disease

SECONDARY CASE – person they transmit the disease to. They transmit during an infectious period

Question 8

SURVEILLANCE

Answer 8

Ongoing, systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of health-related data essential to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of public health practice, closely integrated with the timely dissemination of these data to those responsible for prevention and control.