Lecture 28 Flashcards
(14 cards)
Response strategy: control
Reduce to an acceptable epidemic level using feasible means
E.G: most serious IDs
Control –> mitigation
–> suppression
Response strategy: mitigation
Reduce to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system
E.G: pandemic influenza
Response strategy: suppression
Reduce to minimise negative health impacts
E.G: seasonal influenza
Response strategy: elimination
Reduce to zero in a country or region for prolonged periods
E.G: measles, polio
Elimination –> eradication
Preparation: NZ’s pandemic influenza plan
- Plan for it (planning and preparedness)
- Keep it out (border management)
- Stamp it out (cluster control)
- Manage it (pandemic management)
- Manage it: post-peak
- Recover from it (recovery)
4 key objectives that shaped New Zealand’s initial response
- Preventing illness and deaths especially in most vunerable populations like Maori, Pasifika, people with disabilities or at risk (equity)
- Protecting the healthcare system and healthcare workers (healthcare workers were dying from COVID)
- Protecting the economy
- the economy is there to serve and protect people
- The best response to protect the economy was a strong public health response - Protecting Pacific countries
- They have vaccination issues and so they are more vunerable
Surveillance WHO definition
Public health surveillance is the continuous, systematic collection, analysis and INTERPRETATION of health-related data
Disease impact is determined by:
- How many people get infected
- How severe the infection is
- The availability and effectiveness of vaccines, supportive care and treatments
How many people get infected is determined by:
- Infectiousness, including pre-symptomatic
- Incubation period
- Asymptomatic or mild infections
- How many people are exposed
Public health measures
The best way to prevent people from being hospitalised or dying from a communicable disease is to stop them from being infected in the first place
Disease surveillance data
- Serves as an early warning system for impending outbreaks that could become public health emergencies
- enables monitoring and evaluation of the impact of an intervention, helps track progress towards specified goals
- monitors and clarifies the epidemiology of health problems, guiding priority-setting and planning and evaluation public health policy strategies
Three essential considerations for effective communications
- Channels: relevant, accessible, TRUSTWORTHY
- Message: appropriate, co-designed, tested
- Messenger: trusted, credible
Equity
There were higher risk for Maori and Pacific peoples: 2.0 and 2.5 time, respectively, the risk seen in the European and Other group
Having a serious comorbidity is uncommon in under 60-year-olds but imparted a risk of mortality 78 times that of those with no comorbidity (the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases or medical conditions in a patient
What worked for NZ during COVID
- Good people across the public service, public health, Universities, ESR and the health care system
- Strong, people-focused leadership
- Agility
- Clear, honest and consistent communication
- Being prepared is necessary but not sufficient (as shown by GHS Index)
