Communicable diseases pose significant challenges to medical practitioners all over the world. The diseases spread at a rapid rate. Additionally, they can quickly reoccur in regions they were previously controlled. Globalization and infrastructural development have made it hard for health care personnel to deal with communicable diseases like measles, influenza, and meningitis. Even though most developed nations can control infectious diseases, they face an immense threat from developing countries.
Infected persons from developing countries can efficiently transfer the disease to the developed states. Globalization has eased the movement of individuals from one country to another. The free movement of people creates an opportunity for the spread of communicable diseases. This paper examines the case of a meningococcal disease outbreak. It will also discuss how to contain the epidemic.
Description of the Outbreak
The meningococcal outbreak was reported in Europe in 2000 after the return of the Hajj pilgrims. The disease was first discovered in Saudi Arabia. From there, it spread to European countries via air travel. Individuals who traveled to Saudi Arabia for Hajj brought back the disease. In Europe, the disease was spread as a result of local travel. The infected persons spread the disease as they traveled within the country. The strain of the disease that the pilgrims suffered from was serogroup W135 meningococcal. It was reported in nine European countries. They included the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Belgium, Norway, and Switzerland (Abubakar et al., 2012).
The meningococcal outbreak was not evenly spread. Instead, ninety people who attended the Hajj pilgrimage suffered from the disease across the nine countries. According to a report by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the first case of the disease was noticed one week after the pilgrims came back from the Hajj. The pilgrimage happened between 15th and 18th March 2000. It was the eleventh week of the year. The first case was reported in the United Kingdom in the twelfth week of the year. By the fourteenth week, the disease had started to spread across the country. In France, the first case of meningococcal disease was detected in the thirteenth week.
The disease began spreading within the same week (Aguilera, Perrocheau, Meffre, & Hahnes, 2002). Aguilera et al. (2002) maintain that the outbreaks in the other seven countries were sporadic and isolated. Some states reported only three cases. The first cases were detected in the twelfth week. The common factor about the outbreaks is that all the victims had attended the Hajj pilgrimage.
Epidemiological Determinant
A bacterial infection causes meningitis diseases. The disease is spread through contact with individuals suffering from meningococcal. The disease is spread through coughing, sneezing, mucus secretion, and other forms of contact (Jafri et al., 2013). According to Jafri et al. (2013), meningococcal disease is easily spread. One can quickly get the disease upon coming into contact with an infected person. The incubation period of the disease is one week.
After a week, an infected individual starts to exhibit signs of the disease. The Hajj provides a venue for large gatherings. Some of the people who attend the pilgrimage carry different types of communicable diseases. Thus, individuals with weak immunity are likely to contract diseases when they come into contact with infected persons. On the other hand, pilgrims from different nations have varied levels of hygiene (Jafri et al., 2013). Some pilgrims engage in unhygienic behaviors like spitting in public that contribute to the spreading of the disease.
According to Jafri et al. (2013), meningococcal disease has several risk factors. They include alcoholism, age, immune deficiency disorders, and drug abuse among others. Chances of an outbreak to happen when people live in congregated areas like dormitories or military barracks are high. Meningococcal is not highly virulence. However, the disease can be fatal if not detected and treated on time. Climate plays a significant role in the spread of the disease. Jafri et al. (2013) posit that Meningococcal thrives in arid conditions. Countries with high temperatures like Sudan are prone to the disease.
Effects of the Outbreak at Systems Level
Meningococcal disease outbreak requires quick intervention from the medical personnel because it poses a significant threat to people’s life. Once an outbreak has been declared, medical facilities and staff and encouraged to stay vigilant and screen all patients that visit the health care centers. Additionally, the medical staff is invited to take preventive measures to ensure that they do not contract the disease as they handle patients.
They are also supposed to make sure that the infected individuals do not spread the disease to other patients in the health facilities (Obaro & Habib, 2016). The medical personnel is required to liaise with colleagues from different health care settings and alert the public of the outbreak. Besides, hospitals work with the government to come up with ways to contain the disease and prevent possible spread.
Meningococcal disease is not highly infectious like Ebola (Obaro & Habib, 2016). Therefore, it may not require a complete shutdown of institutions in the affected area. Members of the community may be encouraged to go for vaccination. However, an outbreak of the disease would not affect business operations. The most drastic measure that the government or health personnel can take is to quarantine individuals who have come into contact with sick persons to facilitate their observation. Such a precautionary measure is necessary because the disease has an incubation period of about seven days.
The Reporting Protocol
Meningococcal disease outbreak is a grave risk to the health of the entire public. Other than treating the disease, public health management systems need to be put on high alert to contain the outbreak. Although medical facilities play the biggest role in treating patients, the public health department has a responsibility to inform the public and come up with measures to resolve the problem. During an outbreak, the public health incident command system is activated (Qureshi, Gebbie, & Gebbie, 2006).
The decision to enable the incident command system is reached once the health personnel reports the first case of meningococcal disease. The incident commander mobilizes the health staff to take precautionary measures. The liaison officer coordinates internal and external activities in collaboration with other agencies. Once the health workers are confident about the possible outbreak, the public information officer is given the green light to inform the community (Qureshi et al., 2006). The health personnel monitors the situation. The planning and intelligence officer collects information about the progress of the outbreak and reports directly to the incident commander.
Education Strategies
Education strategies that can be used to prevent an outbreak of meningococcal disease include patient and community sensitization programs. The government in partnership with the public health department can organize for community education programs (Bastable, 2016). The programs would equip society with skills on how to detect the signs of meningococcal disease as well as how to prevent an outbreak. On the other hand, the health care personnel can come up with a program aimed at enlightening patients on how to deal with the disease to prevent further spread.
Conclusion
Meningococcal disease is fatal and can pose a significant threat to society if not contained on time. The disease is communicable and can spread at a high rate. The good news is that the disease is easy to control if detected in advance. The health department and government agencies need to work in partnership in the case of an outbreak. Additionally, they need to inform the public about the epidemic and train it on how to deal with the incident.
References
Abubakar, I., Gautret, P., Brunette, G., Blumberg, L., Johnson, D., Poumerol, G., Memish, Z., Berbeschi, M., & Khan, A. (2012). Global perspective for prevention of infectious diseases associated with mass gatherings. The Lancet Infectious diseases, 12(1), 66-74.
Aguilera, J., Perrocheau, A., Meffre, C., & Hahnes, S. (2002). Outbreak of serogroup W135 meningococcal disease after the Hajj pilgrimage, Europe 2000. Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, 8(8), 17- 36.
Bastable, S. (2016). Essentials of patient education. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Jafri, R., Ali, A., Messonnier, N., Tevi-Benissan, C., Durrheim, D., Eskola, J., & Zhujun, S. (2013). Global epidemiology of invasive meningococcal disease. Population health metrics, 11(1), 11-17.
Obaro, S., & Habib, A. (2016). Control of meningitis outbreaks in the African meningitis belt. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 16(4), 400-402.
Qureshi, K., Gebbie, K., & Gebbie, E. (2006). Implementing ICS within public health agencies. Web.