Infectious Diseases Brief
Introduction
In today's globalized world, the spread of infectious diseases and the threat of a global pandemic are ever more present. Modern technology and advances in transportation including cross-continental air travel have allowed people (and disease) to travel quickly and efficiently. Cross-continent air travel opens the door for an outbreak or pandemic to occur at any time. This is the price the world must pay for globalization. Since the bubonic plague in the fourteenth century, disease prevention and treatment has improved greatly. However, the world is still susceptible to an outbreak at virtually any time. SARS, The Spanish Flu, and most recently H1N1 (Swine Flu) have all caused widespread infection and, depending on the severity and treatment of the virus, even death. The World Health Organization (WHO) works round the clock to prevent such outbreaks, and to control the spread of them once they do occur. It is through the work of NGOs like WHO and with the cooperation of member states that the United Nations can hope to establish better prevention and containment of disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO)
WHO is a valuable and useful organization within the UN that should be used by the General Assembly to its fullest extent. WHO has had numerous successes in the past. In 1979, with the help of member states, WHO successfully eradicated smallpox from the world. WHO went on a campaign to eradicate the virus beginning in 1967. Before its eradication, Smallpox had infected and killed millions. WHO also helped reduce the amount of Polio cases by more than 99%. In 2003, WHO successfully fought and contained the SARS virus after its outbreak in eastern Asia in 2003. With the support of WHO, the General assembly can hope to be very effective in any resolutions it passes.
Prevention
Disease preparedness in all countries throughout the world can be improved. A disease can spread at a frightening pace without the proper defenses against it, and can come from virtually anywhere at anytime. Diseases are by their very nature unpredictable, and it is that which makes them dangerous and deadly. This unpredictability factor is what makes prevention and proper disease defenses ever more important. Prevention is always much easier and more effective than containment and cures. One of the easiest ways to prevent the spread of disease is simple communication. Immediate notification of an outbreak on an international level can stop a disease at its early stages, before it becomes a global pandemic. Because disease can spread so quickly in today's world, notification and proper warning at a moment's notice is of the utmost importance. Such communication between nations may seem like an obvious and basic solution, but nevertheless proper communication is very rarely seen.
Containment and Treatment
Containment of outbreaks is equally important as prevention. Once an outbreak occurs, fast action is required to stop it in its tracks and prevent it from spreading to a larger area. Containment of the disease can be achieved by communication and proper treatment. In more developed countries, the treatment of the disease may be much easier. For instance, whereas 36 people in the US died from the outbreak of Swine Flu several months ago, 117 in Mexico died from the outbreak and 577 died in Brazil. Taken directly from the WHO website, Global Alert and response page were the International Health Regulations:
• Specific procedures for notification, consultation, and reporting of public health events
• The establishment of permanent communication channels, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, between countries and WHO
• The possibility for WHO to take into account reports from sources other than notifications or consultations.
• Verification requests by WHO to national health authorities regarding reports of public health events occurring within countries
• An Emergency Committee which provides its views to the WHO Director General with regard to events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern.
• Cooperation of WHO with other competent intergovernmental organizations or international bodies
In the IHR's annual report, it states that all Ports, Airports, and Ground Crossings should have the capacity at all times to:
1. At all times
The capacities:
(a) to provide access to (i) an appropriate medical service including diagnostic facilities
located so as to allow the prompt assessment and care of ill travellers, and (ii) adequate staff,
equipment and premises;
(b) to provide access to equipment and personnel for the transport of ill travellers to an
appropriate medical facility;
(c) to provide trained personnel for the inspection of conveyances;
(d) to ensure a safe environment for travellers using point of entry facilities, including
potable water supplies, eating establishments, flight catering facilities, public washrooms,
appropriate solid and liquid waste disposal services and other potential risk areas, by conducting
inspection programmes, as appropriate; and
(e) to provide as far as practicable a programme and trained personnel for the control of
vectors and reservoirs in and near points of entry.
2. For responding to events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern
The capacities:
(a) to provide appropriate public health emergency response by establishing and maintaining
a public health emergency contingency plan, including the nomination of a coordinator and
contact points for relevant point of entry, public health and other agencies and services;
(b) to provide assessment of and care for affected travellers or animals by establishing
arrangements with local medical and veterinary facilities for their isolation, treatment and other
support services that may be required;
(c) to provide appropriate space, separate from other travellers, to interview suspect or
affected persons;
(d) to provide for the assessment and, if required, quarantine of suspect travellers, preferably
in facilities away from the point of entry;
(e) to apply recommended measures to disinsect, derat, disinfect, decontaminate or otherwise
treat baggage, cargo, containers, conveyances, goods or postal parcels including, when
appropriate, at locations specially designated and equipped for this purpose;
(f) to apply entry or exit controls for arriving and departing travellers; and
(g) to provide access to specially designated equipment, and to trained personnel with
appropriate personal protection, for the transfer of travellers who may carry infection or
contamination.
Links and Resources
International Health Regulations -
http://www.who.int/ihr/en/
World Health Organization -
http://www.who.int/en/
International Health Regulations Annual Report -
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2 ... 10_eng.pdf