Week 7 Flashcards
What are the National Health Response Arrangements used for?
- inform and guide a coordinated Australian health sector response to, and recovery from, emergencies of national consequence; and
- provide a strategic planning framework for guidance to the future revisions of existing health sector emergency plans.
What is the difference between the NatHealth Atrrangements and other emergency response plans?
Unlike a plan that is activated in times of need, the NatHealth Arrangements remain in place at all times.
When are the NatHealth Arrangments utilised?
in response to domestic or international event that:
that:
- impacts or threatens to impact two or more states and/or territories and across jurisdictional borders;
- has the potential to overwhelm or exhaust a state and/or territory’s health assets and resources; or
- its scale or complexity warrants a nationally coordinated response.
Define a disaster?
A serious disruption to community life which threatens or
causes death or injury in that community and/or damage to property which is beyond the day-to-day capacity of the people dealing with it
Difference between disaster and emergency?
Emergency means an emergency due to the actual or imminent occurrence of an event
which in any way endangers or threatens to endanger the safety or health of any person
in Victoria or which destroys or damages, property
What is the national disaster resilience framwork?
NOT ON EXAM
how we overcome and recover from a disaster.
“Protecting Australia from the impacts of disasters is a shared responsibility that cannot be borne by the emergency management sector alone.
who does the emergency management manual cover?
“Protection and preservation of life is paramount this includes:
- Safety of emergency services personnel; and
- Safety of community members, including vulnerable community members and visitors/tourists located within the incident area…”
what are some public health concerns after disasters?
ON EXAMS
Water quality Sanitation Infectious disease Hospitalisation GP / Out patient attendance Long term health effects Long term psychological effects
what are the key principles of emergency management?
Comprehensive Approach
• Before: Prevention (Mitigation) & Preparedness
• During: Response
• After: Recovery
• All Emergencies
• All CommunitiesWHat are the ICS (AIIMS) principles?
- One agency is controller of an incident
- Functional delegation
- Management by objectives
- Management plans
- Span of controls
- Command within agencies
• When CIM of HC role becomes too large or complex to be
undertaken by one individual, some of the functions are
delegated to another person
• Division of functions
• Control -> operations -> planning -> logistics
What are the 4 functions of ICS?
Control
Operations
Planning
Logistics
what are the elements of an Incident Action Plan
SMEAC PLAN
- Situation – what has happened
- Mission – what do we need to achieve
- Execution – how are we going to achieve it
- Administration – what are the details
- Command & Communication – who is doing what and how will we
communicate
What is the international role of paramedics?
Urban search and rescue
Australian medical assistance teams
general ambulance
What is the communicable disease triad?
Host
• Intrinsic
• Behaviours / Extrinsic
Agent
• Eg pathogenicity, infectiousness, infectious dose, virulence,
immunogenicity, drug resistance
Environment
• Physical
• Social
Define a pathogen?
organism/agent capable of causing disease
Define pathogenesis?
mechanism by which pathogen produces disease
Define virulence?
degree of pathogenicity (disease inducing ‘power’ of pathogen)
Define susceptible in relation to disease
able to contract infection, ie at risk of transmission
Define reservoir in relation to disease
habitat where a pathogen normally lives, grows or multiplies
may be human, animal, environment
Define carrier in relation to disease
asymptomatic person or animal that harbours a pathogen and
serves as potential source of infection
define vector in relation to disease
living organism that plays a role in the transmission of a pathogen
to a susceptible host
Define Arbovirus
arthropod-borne virus transmitted by arthropod vectors
Define Zoonosis
infectious disease transmitted from vertebrate animals to
humans
What are some examples of direct mode of transmission
transfer of a pathogen from an infected host to a
susceptible host ie person to person
- Skin to skin eg Gp A strep
- Sexual contact
- Blood borne
- Respiratory droplet
- Vertical (mother to foetus)
- Transplant
What are some examples of indirect mode of transmission
transmission of a pathogen to a susceptible host via the aid of a vector, vehicle or air
- Food borne
- Water borne
- Soil borne
- Fomite borne
- Vector borne
- Animal borne
- Air borne (aerosol)
What is the reproductive ratio (R)?
average number of infections resulting from an
infectious case ie average number of successful transmissions
what is the purpose of health surveillance?
Purposes
• determine the magnitude of a disease
• examine trends over time
• examine differences in different settings
• identify risk factors
• identify cases that require defined response(s)
• detect outbreaks
• monitor impact of health interventions
• facilitate future planning, interventions etc
What are the types of disease surveillence?
- Syndromic surveillance
- Disease surveillance
- Passive v active
- Enhanced surveillance
- Laboratory based
- Sentinel surveillance
- Case definitions
- Cases
What is included in the infection control program?
- Hand hygiene
- PPE
- Isolation
- Surveillance: monitoring and prevention
- Vaccination
- Cleaning / disinfecting / sterilisation
- Outbreak investigation and management
- Antimicrobial stewardship
What is an endemic?
disease that occurs in the community with incidence
falling within an expected range
what is an epidemic
occurrence of disease in the community/region clearly in
excess of the normal expected incidence
what is an outbreak
equivalent to epidemic, but usually taken to refer to the
first cluster or epidemic cases, or to a small epidemic
What is contact tracing?
interrupts ongoing transmission, finds those at high risk of
infection and those who may benefit from Rx, and counsel and give information
as needed
what is quarantine?
separates and restricts the movement of people who have been
exposed to a communicable disease (observe if they become symptomatic)
what is herd immunity
critical levels of immunisation coverage required to prevent
outbreaks of a specific disease, in a given context
what are the steps of investigating an outbreak
- Establish existence of outbreak
- Verify diagnosis
- Define and identify cases
- Perform descriptive epidemiology
- Determine who is at risk
- Develop and evaluate hypothesis
- Perform additional studies
- Implement control and prevention measures
- Communicate findings
What do you look for in investigating an outbreak?
- Cause of disease
- Source of infection
- Mode of transmission
- Who is at risk
- Control / prevention
What are the 5 elementns of risk communication?
- Trust
- Early announcement
- Transparency
- Listening
- Operational planning
What is the equation for working out the reproductive ratio (R) in infectious disease?
R = C x P x D
Reproductive ratio = Contact rate x probability of transmission x infectious period
