Epidemiologic surveillance is used in public and global health. For this Assignment, begin by locating a recent article about an outbreak of an infectious or communicable disease. The article can come from a newspaper or other source but your paper must be supported with at least three scholarly sources of evidence in the literature which may include your text or course readings.
For this Assignment, review the following:
• Assignment Rubric
Write a 3page paper that includes the following:
• A summary of the article, including the title and author
o Identify the title of the article with in-text citation and corresponding reference in reference list
• The relationship among causal agents, susceptible persons, and environmental factors (epidemiological triangle)
• The role of the nurse in addressing the outbreak
• Possible health promotion/health protection strategies that could have been implemented by nurses to mitigate the outbreak
Assignment Rubric: Required Content
1. Summarized an article about an outbreak of infectious or communicable disease.
2. Described the relationship between causal agents, susceptible persons and the environmental factors that contributed to the outbreak.
3. Described the leadership role of the public health nurse in the outbreak and 2-3 possible strategies that might be used to mitigate the outbreak. Epidemiology in Public and Global Health Essay Paper
Epidemiology in Public and Global Health
Article
Staudenmaier Rebecca. (2019). Tuberculosis outbreak at German school infects over 100. < https://www.dw.com/en/tuberculosis-outbreak-at-german-school-infects-over-100/a-49854829
Summary of the Article
The article was written by Rebecca Staudenmaier, a journalist in Bonn Area, Germany and covered the tuberculosis outbreak in German school where more than 100 individuals were had tuberculosis infection. According to the article, in a school located within southwestern Germany, an oddly high number of teachers and students had tuberculosis infection (Staudenmaier, 2019). According to the district administration of Karlsruhe, a total of 109 teachers, students and other workers within the school has tuberculosis infection. Four individuals, including two students, had active tuberculosis which means symptoms were already manifesting the disease could be contagious. The district administration reported that actively sick students were removed from the school to avoid spreading the disease to other school populations, even though they were being treated (Staudenmaier, 2019).
Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease whose causative agent is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Normally, the bacteria attack the lungs, and is spread from one individual to another through the air. When an individual having TB coughs, spits or sneezes, the TB germs are propelled into the air. An individual needs to inhale only a small number of TB germs, for infection to occur.
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Epidemiological Triangle
The epidemiologic triangle is a model used to study health complications and it explains the spread of disease in the environment. The epidemiologic triangle is made of an agent, host and the environment. The agent is the disease-causing microorganism while the host refers to the organism that harbor the disease (Gulis & Fujino, 2015). The environment refers to the external factor that allows disease transmission. In tuberculosis, mycobacterium tuberculosis is the agent while the host is a susceptible human being (McCreesh & White, 2018). Mycobacterium tuberculosis is transmitted to human beings via respiratory exposure. The environment in tuberculosis includes communal settings, crowded places or public gatherings. In this case, the school setting is the environment that contributed to the outbreak of tuberculosis because it is a communal setting where a large number of people meet (Gulis & Fujino, 2015). Epidemiology in Public and Global Health Essay Paper
The Role of the Public Health Nurse in Addressing the Outbreak
Public health nurses have important roles in regard to the management and investigation of disease outbreaks such as the tuberculosis outbreak. This is because nurses have the required skills to conduct interviews on sensitive subjects and collaborate with communities, including different kinds of settings. Therefore, the nurse has the role of conducting interviews with the school representatives to establish the root cause of the tuberculosis outbreak. The nurse should also collaborate with the school community to efficiently investigate the outbreak. The nurse is also required to maintain links with the healthcare providers with the school and the community where the school is located, and also maintain links with the symptomatic individuals, their families, and associates as well. this will ensure that the nurse will effectively investigate the tuberculosis outbreak in the school. In addition, the nurse can play a critical role in the school of case finding by identifying individuals at high risk for tuberculosis in the school and facilitating testing.
According to Zinasta et al (2018), effective infection control measures can contain disease transmission. Therefore, the nurse has the role of implementing infection control practices in the school in order to contain the transmission of tuberculosis. The nurse also has the role of that any person with latent and active TB accesses treatment. Since nonadherence to treatment is very risky in patients with tuberculosis, the nurse has the role of monitoring and making a follow-up to ensure that students and other individuals with latent and active tuberculosis adhere to the treatment (Parmer et al., 2017). Finally, the nurse has the role of preventing the spread of tuberculosis through the provision of education to the affected individuals and the community and supervising health campaigns in the community. The public health nurse should educate teachers, workers, and students about tuberculosis and oversee the test of any person potentially exposed to tuberculosis (Parmer et al., 2017).
Possible Strategies to Mitigate the Outbreak
One of the strategies to mitigate the outbreak is the social distancing measure that will involve isolation of all teachers, students, and workers with active tuberculosis from healthy individuals as well as restricting their movement. The aim of this strategy is to stop the spread of tuberculosis because it is airborne (Zhang et al., 2016).
Other strategies include ensuring that individuals use face masks and perform adequate handwashing always in order to reduce contact rates. It is also important to ensure that the school environment is well ventilated because mycobacterium bacteria can remain in the air for a long time in case of poor ventilation (Hollingsworth et al., 2017).
References
Gulis G & Fujino Y. (2015). Epidemiology, Population Health, and Health Impact Assessment. J Epidemiol, 25(3), 179–180.
Hollingsworth T, Don K, Hans H & Roy A. (2017). Mitigation Strategies for Pandemic Influenza A: Balancing Conflicting Policy Objectives. PLoS Comput Biol, 7(2), e1001076.
McCreesh N & White R. (2018). An explanation for the low proportion of tuberculosis that results from transmission between household and known social contacts. Sci Rep, 8(5382).
Parmer J, Allen L & Walton W. (2017). Tuberculosis: A New Screening Recommendation and an Expanded Approach to Elimination in the United States. Am J Nurs, 2 117(8), 24–34
Staudenmaier Rebecca. (2019). Tuberculosis outbreak at German school infects over 100. < https://www.dw.com/en/tuberculosis-outbreak-at-german-school-infects-over-100/a-49854829
Zhang S, Li X, Zhang T, Fan Y & Li Y. (2016). The experiences of high school students with pulmonary tuberculosis in China: a qualitative study. BMC Infect Dis. 16(758).
Zinasta F, Andre J & Kigozi G. (2018). Voices from the frontline: barriers and strategies to improve tuberculosis infection control in primary health care facilities in South Africa. BMC Health Serv Res, 18(269). Epidemiology in Public and Global Health Essay Paper