Health Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Term Paper Sample)

Running Head: Public Health Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
Pandemics
Public Health Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Pandemics
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Content
Introduction
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
Facts
Spread and symptoms
Prevention
Treatment
Public health response to SARS
Surveillance systems and screening for SARS
Recommendation on SARS
Handling infected persons
Handling of contacts
Provision of information to the public
Contingency planning
Conclusion

Public Health Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Pandemics
Introduction
Public health response is a system within the health care system that is designed to handle and respond to disease outbreaks within a society. Different health care systems have varied ways they use to deal with matters of disease outbreaks. In the U.S for the example a society with enormous population matters of disease outbreak can be of detrimental effects and need to be quickly addressed. Working solutions have to be achieved in order to avert the effects of such a pandemic and its future occurrence. This paper is going to look at the public address response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. It first important to first understand the disease in totality before looking at how it’s addressed.
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Facts
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is a viral disease that affects the human respiratory system. The causal virus is known as SARS corona virus or better denoted as SARS-CoV. The disease is mostly famous for attacking the older generation as statistics indicate. According to a 2003 statistic indicator less than 1% of the infected population aged less than 24 years contrary to the more than 50% of the infected who aged above 65 years. The disease was first detected in China in 2002. A local farmer was the first to be diagnosed with the disease. He was treated and discharged from hospital but unfortunately passed away as the treatment accorded was not sufficient enough for the disease. The disease was particularly new at the time and thus very little was known about it. It was at that time that solemn effort was channelled towards research into this disease. Since then remarkable results have been achieved and the disease has successfully been quarantined in most parts.
Spread and symptoms of SARS
SARS is mainly spread through person to person close contact. Close person to person contact in this context means being in close physical contact with an infected party. Coming into physical contact with the body fluids or excretions of an infected party also leads to instant infection. Currently SARS virus is known widely spread through the air as it is airborne. This explains the quick rate at which the disease is spread. Various signs are visible in a patient who is diagnosed with SARS. Preliminary signs include fever, cough, sore throat, lethargy, chills and shivers, muscle ache among other symptoms that are relieved after much thorough analysis on the patient. Some patients developed signs of headache and severe body ache 12-24 hours before the on-set of the fever. Diarrhoea is also experienced by a large percentage of the infected people. It of absolute importance to also mention that most infected patients end up developing pneumonia at a much later stage. These symptoms are common with other diseases as well hence simply having them is not a sure sign that one is infected with SARS it thus advisable for one to visit a doctor if they experience such symptoms (Hoffman, 2003).
Prevention of SARS
SARS being a respiratory disease it is easily spread between individuals thus quarantine is one of the methods that has been used to prevent the spread of this disease. Infected people are quarantined in one place as they received there treatment so as to avoid them having any form of contact with the rest of the population that is yet to be infected as it is very easily spread. Records show that during the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong over 1200 people were quarantined. Schools and public places where many people converged together were temporarily closed down so as to curtail the quick spread of the disease. In some countries facilities and amenities such as hospitals were isolated for the treatment of SARS specifically so as to narrow down on the ease with which the disease is spread (Hoffman, 2003).
Treatment of SARS
Treatment of SARS has been prioritised to curtail its adverse effects to the world. It has however proved to be a daunting task seeing that SARS is a viral disease. Treatment has thus been channelled towards curing the symptoms. Antipyretics are the most common tablets known to SARS sufferers. This help patients counter the high fevers which in turn makes it impossible for the multiplication of the virus. Provision of supplementary oxygen has to patients with breathing difficulties has been of value. Doctors have also found it worthy to work by curing secondary infections and thus helping strengthen the body against this virus. Above is a short insight into the disease. It is now important to look at how the public health response has worked towards curtailing the pandemic mainly focusing on the U.S (Schoenstadt, 2003).
Public health response to SARS
Surveillance systems and screening for SARS
For the public health response system to successfully curtail a sickness a plan has to be agreed upon as to how they will go about the matter. That is why surveillance systems for a disease have to be set up in order to quickly identify the areas that require quick attention. Conditions such as SARS particularly require very immediate response in a country such as the U.S with large populations. Thus in the U.S the public health response has been keen on setting up continued surveillance systems all over the country which basically act first in detecting any cases of SARS in the country. This are also used to ensure proper management of SARS patients to avoid further infection and spread into the society. It however important for the U.S government to device plans that will focus towards identifying the disease as opposed to waiting until the situation is out of control for them to start taking measures. Clinical screening of people particularly those coming into the country is one of the ways. This way it will be easier to arrest cases of SARS early enough and thus curtail damage that would have otherwise occurred. The public health response has also been keen on monitoring the countries borders. This is so as there have been cases of SARS detected in neighbouring countries such as Canada thus any visitors coming in from any neighbouring countries through the borders should first undergo a series of thorough check ups and screening for the disease. Airports have been pin pointed as high risk areas as well. Screening areas have therefore been set up in airports thus helping to capture and arrest the cases before hand. Airliners have also been put on high alert and been told to be sure to monitor passengers within the plane. In case of any sicknesses the case should be reported immediately on landing (Beneden, 2003).
Recommendations on SARS
The public health response to the SARS pandemic in the U.S must give the public a guideline that they should possibly follow to avoid SARS infection. Various recommendations have been made in that regard. The public health response has particularly been heard campaigning viciously for the public to maintain good and hygienic ways to curtail the spread of the disease. They have advised the public to maintain good cleaning practises as the main way through which SARS is spread is through physical contact with the body fluids of an infected party. The health officials have advised on the importance of washing hands with soap or alcohol in order to kill the virus in case one might have picked it up. The public health officials have further advocated for gloves when dealing with body fluids or people so as to prevent any form of infection in the case where the patient may have been infected before hand. Another area that has been of key concern to the public health response officials has been areas of shared contact such as spoons, forks, knives, door knobs, bathroom surfaces and the like. The officials have insisted on the thorough disinfection of such tools and surfaces. This is critical in ensuring that person to person infections are minimised and eventually gotten rid of. Broader public recommendations have also been made with people returning from affected areas being a key target. They have been quarantined in one location so as to facilitate their specialised treatment and monitoring. Schools and other public gathering places have been targeted and advised to close down temporarily. This has been chief in ensuring that the spread is minimised. The public health response has also massively recommended for use of masks by the public. The masks have been useful in helping bridge air borne transmissions (Schrag et al., 2003).
Handling infected persons
The public health response officials have a very good way that they use to deal with infected persons. The key aim of this is to arrest known cases and thus prevent further infection of the disease. Patients identified to have SARS are instantly put in isolation within hospitals that have particularly been set aside for SARS treatment. The U.S government on realising the existence of SARS in its population quickly set aside hospitals that would be entirely and solely in charge of SARS treatment. These were spread all over high risk areas with more emphasis being placed on areas that the disease was more concentrated. All cases of SARS in the U.S are identified and put under monitored treatment. This however does not signify the end of it. The pa...