Action and Possible Empowerment

Community Health and Disease Prevention

The goal of the Emergency plan is primarily aimed at minimising the morbidity and mortality which is usually a result of an outbreak of Ebola. The reduction can be minimised by the limitation of the spread of the disease using proper healthcare services, funds, education and unification of the various communities. 

Action and Possible Empowerment

The action is aimed at prevention of outbreak of Ebola through the maintenance of surveillance for the virus of the disease. Consequently, the nations which are at risk of the ailment are supported through the establishment of prepared plans. The overall guidance to be used in control and measures of Ebola including the outbreak of the disease are contained in a document. The action and empowerment plan could also entail, the provision of support to the children including their families to have access to income opportunities and food (Veenema, 2018).

With such opportunities, they will cope up with the spread of the disease and typically recover from the shock which could be caused by the Ebola virus. Certain basic amenities such as non-food items and food should be offered to the families who have been affected by the spread of the infection. The action and empowerment plan also aims at supporting the survivors of the illness by availing income opportunities

Community Engagement

One of the most significant control measures of the outbreak of various diseases is the community engagement. There are various elements of good control of the outbreak of the Ebola. Such include, control practices, surveillance, a package of infection prevention, social mobilization, safe burials, better services of the laboratory and contact tracing among others. The survival of the victims of Ebola can be enhanced through early supportive care which involves the rehydration symptomatic treatment (Venkat et al., 2015). Currently, there is no improvised treatment which has been found to be having the capacity to neutralise the Ebola virus.

However, there is an ongoing development of drug and immunological therapies and a variety of blood aimed at eliminating the virus. Furthermore, community engagement aimed at reducing the spread of the virus could entail the training of the individuals in the community, healthcare staffs and emergency response teams and this should be done in relation to the growth in isolation of the individuals who could be affected by the disease(Siedner et al., 2014).

The burial of infected person should also be done in a safe and dignified manner to reduce the spread of the Ebola virus. Apart from the above mentioned aspects, there should be certain effective prevention measures such as disease surveillance, case management or investigation, hand washing and control among others. As a way of engaging the community members, there is social mobilization where the society is educated, informed and thus they are prepared to reduce further spread of the disease usually at the community level.

Community Engagement

The males, females, and children of a particular community are educated on the restriction methods of the spread of the Ebola infection. Besides, the teachers are trained to ensure that they keep the children safe while in school. Moreover, the teachers will offer pieces of advice to the kids so that they can wash their kits continuously. Consequently, the children who are already infected with the virus will be isolated from the others to minimise the spread of the infections.

According to the World Health Organization (2014), through the use of surveillance, there will be early detection which helps in the isolation of different circumstances aimed at minimising the spread of the Ebola virus. A team of contact tracers and epidemiologists through the aid of a laboratory service to help in the provision of accurate, safe and rapid testing of the samples of the Ebola virus. All the members of the society will, therefore, be mobilised to forward all the infected individuals for laboratory investigation. 

Consultation

According to Varkey & Ribner (2016), when providing care for the patients, the healthcare employees should take measures and precautions, and this is irrespective of the presumed diagnosis. Such precautionary measures entail safe injection, application of protective equipment, hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene. Further, all the samples which have been drawn from both animal and human should be verified by trained personnel during the investigation of the Ebola infection. Moreover, they should be processed in a well-equipped laboratories.

Another important thing to note is that there should be safe burial practices for the samples to prevent the spread and hence the outbreak of Ebola. Counseling and psychological support are also to be offered to members of the society and families, and this will also involve the verification aimed at finding out if there are certain persons with the virus for isolation thus prevent the spread of the infection (Siedner et al., 2014). Additionally, the community is expected to be nice to patients with the particular victims of who have been infected and this will entail staying closer to them to make them feel like part of the society. Besides, they should be provided with counseling and treatment in areas which have been isolated.

Participation

The government is supposed to participate in the health programs with the aim of offering funds, hospitality and better healthcare services of the patients. The funds which will be provided by the government will be used to ensure that the whole experiment is carried out as planned to prevent the spread of the virus among many individuals (Moon et al., 2015). Another way key through which the government could participate in the prevention of the spread of the Ebola virus is by offering support through the provision of different basic needs.

Consultation

It should also communicate with the society through the radio or even television with the aim of offering guidance and counseling (Shuaib et al., 2014). The government also participates in the prevention of the spread of the disease through the provision of the training to equip various individuals with the ability to minimise the spread of the disease.

 Organization

To prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, there should be the organization of certain special teams. Such a team aims at treating the Ebola virus in a particular nation. The team will provide a special focus on the virus (Forrester et al., 2014). There should also be an information management system which aims at ensuring that there is an update on the epidemiological report and prevention plans to reach all the individuals which are considered as a multisectoral operation. The information system is also used in the conduction of the mass and interpersonal communication sessions for the both the victims and the family members (Gostin, Lucey & Phelan, 2014). 

Capacity Building

According to Fearn-Banks (2016), capacity building implies the provision of good hospitality for the victims with Ebola. When more individuals infected with the virus, there will be inadequate beds in the hospital making it difficult to admit more people.

In the emergency plan, it is significant to provide access to healthcare services because it aids in the minimization of the spread of the Ebola virus. Another essential aspect which is considered in the emergency plan is the immunization which should be conducted (Boscarino & Adams, 2015). Such an immunization should offer vaccination to all the individuals in the society with the aim of reducing the spread of the virus. The immunization process also provides adequate time to affect a variety of persons.

The affected areas should be provided with continuous health services by a number of techniques such as an offering of medical equipment, incentive payments to the health employees and free access to health care services (Annan et al., 2017). More isolation centers should be prepared with the aim of isolating the affected individuals because this will allow for better care and minimise the infection of the community with Ebola virus. To determine whether the goal in the emergency plan has been attained or not, there should be continuous evaluation and monitoring of the healthcare services and epidemiological findings.

The bottom-up approach was used because of the various benefits associated with it. Such benefits entailed, it can be adapted to a number of conditions and needs and this because of the fact that the society is known thus easy to work with. The other reason for using the bottom up technique was because of the opportunities it avails for both creativity and innovation to make a difference in the emergency plan (Briand et al., 2014). Moreover, the approach puts a lot of emphasis on both the social and environmental determinants of health since it enables the environment to become healthy. The method is also local unlike the top-down approach, and this is based on the fact that it is built on the community and work relationships. Based on the above mentioned benefits and advantages, the bottom-up approach was selected for the emergency plan.

Participation

To conclude, an emergency plan is vital for the prevention of the spread of various diseases. Various measures should, therefore, be taken to prevent the transmission of the Ebola virus. Some of the strategies include consultation, capacity building, community engagement, organization, participation and actions, and empowerment.

References

Annan, A. A., Yar, D. D., Owusu, M., Biney, E. A., Forson, P. K., Okyere, P. B., … & Owusu-Dabo, E. (2017). Health care workers indicate ill preparedness for Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Ashanti Region of Ghana. BMC public health, 17(1), 546.

Boscarino, J. A., & Adams, R. E. (2015). Assessing community reactions to Ebola virus disease and other disasters: using social psychological research to enhance public health and disaster communications. International journal of emergency mental health, 17(1), 234.

Briand, S., Bertherat, E., Cox, P., Formenty, P., Kieny, M. P., Myhre, J. K., … & Dye, C. (2014). The international Ebola emergency. New England Journal of Medicine, 371(13), 1180-1183.

Fearn-Banks, K. (2016). Crisis communications: A casebook approach. Routledge.

Forrester, J. D., Pillai, S. K., Beer, K. D., Neatherlin, J., Massaquoi, M., Nyenswah, T. G., … & De, K. C. (2014). Assessment of ebola virus disease, health care infrastructure, and preparedness-four counties, Southeastern Liberia, august 2014. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 63(40), 891-893.

Gostin, L. O., Lucey, D., & Phelan, A. (2014). The Ebola epidemic: a global health emergency. Jama, 312(11), 1095-1096.

Moon, S., Sridhar, D., Pate, M. A., Jha, A. K., Clinton, C., Delaunay, S., … & Goosby, E. (2015). Will Ebola change the game? Ten essential reforms before the next pandemic. The report of the Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola. The Lancet, 386(10009), 2204-2221.

Shuaib, F., Gunnala, R., Musa, E. O., Mahoney, F. J., Oguntimehin, O., Nguku, P. M., … & Nasidi, A. (2014). Ebola virus disease outbreak-Nigeria, July-September 2014. MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report, 63(39), 867-872.

Siedner, M. J., Gostin, L. O., Cranmer, H. H., & Kraemer, J. D. (2015). Strengthening the detection of and early response to public health emergencies: lessons from the West African Ebola epidemic. PLoS medicine, 12(3), e1001804.

Varkey, J. B., & Ribner, B. S. (2016). Preparing for Serious Communicable Diseases in the United States: What the Ebola Virus Epidemic Has Taught Us. Microbiology spectrum, 4(3).

Veenema, T. G. (Ed.). (2018). Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness. Springer Publishing Company.

Venkat, A., Asher, S. L., Wolf, L., Geiderman, J. M., Marco, C. A., McGreevy, J., … & Escalante, M. (2015). Ethical issues in the response to Ebola virus disease in United States emergency departments: a position paper of the American College of Emergency Physicians, the Emergency Nurses Association, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. Academic Emergency Medicine, 22(5), 605-615.

World Health Organization. (2014). WHO: Ebola response roadmap situation report 15 October 2014.