Bird Flu Pandemic. President Obama’s Senior Adviser
Containment policies are never easy to discuss (Pozgar, 2011). Needless to say, most people seem to be unaware of the benefits of containment as a strategy for preventing the disease from taking a statewide scale. It is important to stress, though, that the recent examples of influenza containment show high rates of efficiency of the given practice.
From the point of view of common sense, the policy of containment seems the most reasonable step: “The combination of early intervention with antiviral administration, prevaccination, and quarantine could contain strains with a reproductive number around 2.4” (Smith, 2005, Aug. 3, para. 24).
Allowing slowing the problem down and, thus, stopping it from spreading all over the state, the given step will lead to handling the virus before it strikes the entire population of the U.S. Thus, the people who will contract the virus will be cured fast and efficiently, while the rest of the population will remain safe.
It could be argued, though, that the citizens who will be unfortunate enough to contract the virus of influenza will argue against being separated from the rest of the world, even for a few weeks. However, it can be assumed that, after a stage of containment, the virus will be dealt with efficiently and will no longer pose a threat to the population.
Bird Flu Pandemic. A Private Citizen
The very idea of separating the people who will contract the virus of influenza from the healthy ones seems unreasonable, since, isolated from the rest of the USA, the so-called ghetto for the people sick with influenza will raise prejudice against the people living in the containment area, therefore, making the communication with the influenza victims and the healthy part of the population unnecessarily complicated.
It is the duty of the healthcare specialists to search for the cure for the influenza instead of creating closed communities, in which the disease is most likely to progress to the point where it becomes incurable and where the risks of recidivism are close to 100%.
Despite the containment practice being an admittedly reasonable means to restrict the case of epidemics to a specific area, it is clear that the chosen method of problem solving is unethical in relation to the people who will contract the virus and, therefore, be doomed to live in the containment area.
More to the point, the people in the given area will be unable to acquire information concerning the current status of the disease and the existing treatment methods. The given step is, therefore, the breach of ethical code of healthcare service, which says that healthcare service “supports access to medical information by appropriate health providers, researchers, and public health agencies, balanced with appropriate consumer protections” (NAHO, 2011, p. 3).
Bird Flu Pandemic. A Response to a Classmate
Even though the problem of influenza pandemic is very serious and must be addressed immediately, the idea of creating containment areas in order to keep the healthy part of the population away from the ones who have contracted the virus does not seem adequate to me.
At present, it will be much more efficient to focus on creating the vaccination that will keep the U.S. population safe. In addition, other preventive measures must be undertaken by the citizens to remain healthy. The availability of vaccination, medicine and information about the influenza seems a much better means to keep the population safe than the creation of an asylum for the ones with flu, where the chances for getting well are driven practically to zero.
Reference List
NAHO (2011). Code of ethics and standards of practice for healthcare quality professionals. Web.
Pozgar, G. (2011). Legal aspects of health care administration. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Smith, M. (2005, Aug. 3). Containment said key to preventing avian flu pandemic. MedPage Today. Web.