Public Health Emergency

the top on the list of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century (Jackson 643). Vaccinations have been extremely successful in eliminating and containing many deadly diseases, such as smallpox and polio, by providing the public with immunizations to keep themselves healthy against these very scary and potentially fatal illnesses. Mandated vaccinations for children in the united states has remained a highly debated and hot topic as many argue the freedoms of these children and their parents is being compromised by the notion of mandated immunizations and vaccinations to attend public and private schools. The founding documents of our country support these feelings, but many disagree as the greater good of the public would be largely at stake if exposed to a possible risk of contagion due to a preventable human to human transmittable disease. Vaccinations are mandated by school districts in every state as a method to protect the children, and the public as a whole when statistics show 100% effective elimination of certain diseases like smallpox. Many believe that vaccinations are responsible for eliminating these deadly diseases, while opposing views believe that better sanitation, hygiene, and the introduction of antibiotics is solely responsible for containing these outbreaks. Why would parents choose not to vaccinate and protect their children? Though there is evidence that supports both of these perspectives, there is a factor that remains untouched, the

The CDC had a moral duty to protect the public from communicable diseases, and making the decision to quarantine Mr. Speaker, fell within their rights to the public and did not violate any of Mr. Speaker ethical or autonomy rights as a patient or a human being. For the CDC it is not an easy decision to quarantine Mr. Speaker, their decision was based off of John Stuart Mill, theory of utilitarianism that is formulated into many healthcare polices today (Morrison, 2009). “Something is good if it produces utility” which means if an action will produces results that will benefit the greater numbers it is good (Morrison, 2009). The law is not always black and white they are areas of the law that are grey around the

Mill was actually an advocate for autonomy—thus being consistent with the argument of this paper—but his views had an important stipulation: the patient must not be causing harm to others in carrying out their wishes (Alzheimer Europe, 2009). He also stated that it was not unethical to interfere in a decision that was made without knowing all of the facts (Alzheimer Europe, 2009). An example of Mill’s Principle in action is forcefully containing a person with a contagious and deadly disease (Pecorino, 2002). This action would prevent others from contracting the illness but would severely restrict the freedom of the patient. This is reminiscent of the recent forced quarantines of those who were in close contact with Ebola patients during the recent outbreak of the disease. The quarantines were in effect because the people in question may have contracted the disease and may be in the incubation period (British Broadcasting Corporation, 2014). Under Mill’s Harm Principle, a forced quarantine on these people would be the right thing to do, as it would restrict the quarantined person’s autonomy but ultimately reduce the risk of them causing harm to others by passing on the disease. However, these forced quarantines were met with a great deal of speculation and backlash, including by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and an American judge who presided in the case of an

The early 1970s were watershed years for public health in emergencies. The Biafran War (in Nigeria), the 1970 cyclone in Bangladesh, and the sweeping famines in Africa deeply engaged the public health community in trying to meet the need for impartial and effective medical aid. The use of epidemiologic methods to reduce civilian morbidity and mortality in mass emergencies began in earnest at this time.4,5 This period also saw the engagement of health care practitioners in the elaboration of international norms on ethics, human rights, and humanitarian law in emergency settings.6-8

Do you think it’s unethical to quarantine individuals in order to protect and stop the spread of diseases?

If the government has proof or evidence of individuals who have a disease or infection which creates a potential public health risk, then the government should be able to deny certain civil liberties to an individual. In the case of the aid workers returning from Africa during the Ebola scare in 2014, the government had the right to quarantine those workers. The workers had been working in Africa with exposure to Ebola patients. These workers needed to be quarantined in order to stop potential spread of the deadly virus because the exposure rate was so significant. The workers knew they were being exposed to Ebola when they went to work with the patients and thus, should have expected

As student Majoring in Human Development and Family Sciences, it is required for me to learn about various aspects of the life span and to comprehend the different stages of life, even through aging and death. It is amazing what the body goes through and it is even better to understand and learn about the different phases that a human goes through in order to be whom they are and what they had to do, to get there. Such as surviving the Great Depression, being strong through the Civil Rights Movement, creating rituals and routines for family health goals, and figuring out how to adjust to the world as it was changing before their eyes. As a class we were asked to participate in an assignment that required us to learning about a centenarians

This article comes from Real Change, which is a local newspaper that provides homeless people a job. This newspaper allows the homeless population to voice their thoughts and opinions. In this article, Lester talks about Mayor Ed Murray declaring a state of emergency for the homeless. By declaring a state of emergency, it allows the city to have more power on the topic and to increase option of helping. A state of emergency allows the mayor to have increased funding to use towards the problem. This year alone, the city will spend over $50 million on helping the homeless by providing food and shelter. The mayor wants to help the people by giving them beds and food but he can’t do it alone. He has asked out federal and state partners to help

The sources for this conflict is personal differences which according to the book, “personal differences are influenced by the personality and culture of the individual” (Pg. 328) In this case, the family believed that by making them evacuate the area the state would impose their values on their family. They assumed that they should be together as a family and protect their property. In order to resolve this situation, as director of Public Health Preparedness, I would use a collaborative/ integrative strategy because in this situation it more possible to produce a greater outcome together.

Paternalistic policies can be effective in preventing injuries and deaths in the population (Gostin, 2008). Paternalism exists throughout Contagion. In order to keep the masses safe from contracting the MEV-1 virus, public health agencies initiated safety guidelines for the general public to follow. From a public health aspect, individual interests must yield to those of the wider community to facilitate the public’s health, safety, and well-being. The public health tradition values prevention and views its successes or failures based on the benefits and burdens that accrue to populations rather than to individuals. This

This includes virtually any governmental action needed to control the threat to the population. Therefore, in order to fulfill that responsibility to ensure the public's health state public health authorities could (as they have in the past) temporarily constrain certain civil liberties. They can require private sector participation in public health objectives, shut down potentially harmful industries, destroy contaminated property, deport or prevent the entry of individuals who may infect others, ration supplies, and control the flow of information (Hodge, 2002).

While the arguments in support of compulsory immunization in the 19th century present the intention of community health protection, evidence suggests that methods to educate and bring about appropriate risk awareness with incentives for vaccination will allow for high uptake rates. When state authority acts as protector of society, curbing individual freedom of choice, it is my opinion that the following must be addressed without which the state ethical conduct may be questionable: 1) What are the risks associated with a health behavior such as vaccine refusal at the individual and population level 2) Of what magnitude are these risks 3) What is the strength and basis of resistance from individuals towards adopting a certain behavior 4) Based

Overtime, Emergency Medical Services has evolved. In order to keep the Emergency Medical Services evolving certain key areas will have to be improved. Key areas that need to be enhanced are things such as; adaptability ,preparedness, and emergency responses. In the Emergency Medical Services , I believe that the ability to adapt to different conditions and environments is substantial.I think preparedness will be a key factor in the future for Emergency Medical Services. The emergency response play vital role to the future of Emergency Medical Services. The Emergency Medical Services is advancing, but for this continue changes need to be made for the future.

In today’s society, the thought of quarantine has been reputable with much more fear towards its strict regulations. The negative outlook towards quarantine is expressed most when individuals and organizations have a lack of knowledge related to the processes background and overall significance (Gensini, 2004). By historic definition, the process of quarantine is in fact the confinement and isolation of subjects suspected to carry a transmittable disease (Gensini, 2004). It is the responsibility of the scientific field to express efforts in communicating to the misinformed public of the positive use that quarantine is intended for, rather than having much of the population to continue to oppose of it. With the importance of necessity and overcoming a few challenges along the way, science communication can help the topic of quarantine regulations to be viewed as civilized and acceptable by the public.

The earth as a whole is pretty stable; lives on earth remain relatively safe, growing and increasing in population every day. Diseases and sickness comes to play now and then, but, for the most part, affect the poor and undeveloped countries most heavy; developed countries like the U.S.A. have solutions and vaccine for diseases and thus fear of sickness do not arise often. However, when they do, it is can become a pandemic, a massive widespread of hazardous disease that potentially threatens the human population. To prevent epidemics, countries formed the World Health Organization (WHO) to create the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) to help announce an event of an extreme health hazard that spread (or is spreading) internationally and need international coalition to cure or resolve. There are multiple phrases to pandemic before the PHEIC happens. To explore the phases of a pandemic and when a PHEIC occur, I carried out simulation through a game called Pandemic II to evaluate the phases and the reaction of the world and WHO.