The Role of Health Educators in Dealing with Biological Threats in the United States

1
The Role of Health Educators in Dealing with
Biological Threats in the United States

• Presentation By Amanda McDonald

2
Current Issues

• Health educators play an important role in
  helping the nation be prepared for and deal with
  potential biological attacks.
• With the current war this is a popular topic that
  everyone has in mind.
• Bioterrorist threats, unfortunately have been a
  public health concern since Sept. 11, 2001.

3
The Health Educators Role

• The role of health educators in dealing with
  biological threats involves several things.
• Expelling misconceptions
• Expelling wrong information
• Minimizing panic from real or perceived attacks

4
Biological Agent Categories

• Before health educators can decrease panic, and
  expel misconceptions and wrong information they
  must be knowledgeable about specific biological
  agents.
• There are three categories of biological agents.
  
• Category A
• Category B
• Category C

5
Category Descriptions

• Category A
• Agents that have the greatest potential for
  adverse public health impact with mass
  casualties, most of which require broad-based
  public health preparedness efforts.
• These agents are considered to have the highest
  risk of being used against the U.S. targets and
  would have the greatest chance of impacting
  public health.

6
Category Descriptions Cont.

• Category B
• Agents that have some potential for large-scale
  spreading with resultant illness, but generally
  cause less illness and death.
• Category C
• Agents that are currently believed not to present
  a high bioterrorism risk to public health, but
  that could emerge as future threats.

7
Category A

• Small Pox (Variola major)
• Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis)
• Plague (Yersinia pestis)
• Botulism (Clostridium botulinum)
• Tularemia (Francisella tularensis)
• Viral hemorrhagic fevers (Filoviruses,
  Arenaviruses)

8
Category B

• Q Fever (Coxiella burnetii)
• Brucellosis (Brucella spp.)
• Glanders (Burkhloderia mallei)
• Mellioidosis (Burkholderia pseudomallei)
• Encephalitis (AlphavirusesVenezuelan equine,
  eastern equine, western equine, encephalomyelitis)

9
Category C

• Febrile encephalitic and respiratory illnesses
  (Nipah virus)
• Hanta Disease (Hantavirus)

10
Anthrax

• Anthrax-an acute infectious disease caused by the
  spore-forming bacterium Baccillus anthracis.
• Occurs frequently in cattle, goats or sheep
• Inhalation Anthrax
• Most lethal form
• Results from inhalation of 8,00-50,000 spores
• Symptoms resemble viral respiratory illnesses,
  mild fever, muscle aches, malaise

11
Anthrax cont.

• Cutaneous Anthrax
• Most common form
• Characterized by generally painless skin lesions
• May experience fever, malaise, headache, and
  swelling of lymph nodes
• Gastronintestinal Anthrax
• Usually follows eating raw or undercooked
  contaminated meat
• Characterized by serve abdominal pain, fever,
  infection, lesions on tongue, difficulty
  swallowing, nausea, and bloody diarrhea.

12
Small Pox

• Only known disease that has been eradicated
  through public health efforts
• Has killed more people than other infectious
  diseases, approx. one half billion in the 20th
  century
• Characterized by high fever, malaise, skin
  lesions, prostration with headache and backache,
  abdominal pain, delirium
• The only category A disease that can be
  transmitted from one person to another

13
Tularemia

• Discovered in Tulare County, CA
• Is a disease carried by animals passed to humans
  (zoonosis)
• Can be divided into two categories,
  ulcerogladular and typhodial

• Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, cough,
  muscle pain, chest pain, vomiting, pain in the
  joints, sore throat, abdominal pain, diarrhea,
  pain during urination and stiff neck.

14
Plague

• Two Forms
• Bubonic (skin)
• Pneumonic (lungs)
• Occurs as a result of a flea bite, pneumonic can
  develop as secondary
• As a bioterrorism agent it could be aerosolized
  directly into lungs

15
Botulism

• Has been called the most poisonous substance
  known
• Disease that affects the cranial nerves that
  serve the muscles of the face and neck
• Occurs through the ingestion of food or through a
  wound in which an anaerobic condition develops

• Symptoms
• Drooping eyelids
• Weakened jaw clench
• Weakness
• Blurred vision
• Respiratory dysfunction
• Muscle paralysis
• Airway obstruction

16
Hemorrhagic Fevers

• Caused by filoviruses such as Ebola or Marburg
• Occurs through direct contact with blood or body
  secretions
• Characterized by nausea, fever, chest pain,
  cough, diarrhea, pharyngitis and headache
• Patients typically bleed from the eyes, nose and
  ears. Capillaries lose their ability to contain
  blood.
• Have extremely high death rates and are very
  contagious

17
Core Competencies for Public Health Workers

• After basic knowledge of biological agents,
  public health workers also need to have some
  procedures incase of an emergency
• The CDC created several core competencies that
  public health workers ought to develop in
  preparing for a state of emergency.

18
Core Competencies

• Describe the public health role in emergency
  response in a range of emergencies that may arise
• Identify and locate the agency emergency response
  plan
• Describe the public health worker functional role
  and responsibilities in emergency response and
  demonstrate his/her role in regular drills
• Demonstrate correct use of all communication
  equipment used for emergency communication

19
Core Competencies Cont.

• Describe the role of the public health workers in
  emergency response within the agency, media, with
  general public and a personal level
• Identify limits to his/her own knowledge, skills
  and authority and identify the key system
  resources for referring matters that exceed these
  limits
• Apply creative problem solving and flexible
  thinking to unusual challenges within his/her
  functional responsibilities and evaluate the
  effectiveness of all actions taken
• Recognize deviations form the norm that might
  indicate an emergency and describe appropriate
  action

20
School Setting

• Elementary and Secondary teachers could begin to
  address bioterrorism topics by inviting guest
  speakers, and modifying existing curricula
• They have a great opportunity to educate our
  students on important world issues.

21
Worksites

• Health educators could provide workshops to
  provide information on biological agents to
  employees
• Articles on bioterrorism could be included in the
  employee newsletter

22
Medical Settings

• Health educators need to work with professionals
  in identifying suspicious illnesses and
  unexplained outbreaks
• They can also reach communities through free
  educational campaigns about bioterriorism

23
Community Settings

• Health educators can provide workshops or health
  fairs and work with agencies such as the American
  Red Cross or the American Cancer Society to
  enforce community knowledge and awareness on
  biological agents.

24
Government Agencies

• Health educators in public health settings need
  to coordinate the efforts of public health
  planners and other officials to ensure their
  counties are adequately prepared to deal with a
  biological attack. Also work in collaboration
  with CDC.

25
Recommendations

• Regardless of where the health educator is
  employed reducing panic due to biological threats
  is of high importance
• The educator needs to promptly respond to panic
  with accurate and specific information
• Educate the public against use of medications to
  protect themselves from perceived biological
  threats
• Educate the public of the greater health risks
  from natural disease, obesity, diabetes, AIDS,
  and tobacco use.

26
Recommendations cont.

• Become advocates for greater resource allocation
  to public health efforts.
• Constantly update knowledge about the pathogens
  and conditions described

27
References

• Perez M., Pinzon-Perez H, Sowby S.(2002). The
  Role of Health Educators in Dealing with
  Biological Threats in the United States.
  American Journal of Health Education 33 (4),
  216-224.