Pandemic Flu Planning Research Assignment.
This checklist will help you to take steps to lessen the impact of a severe influenza pandemic on you and your family. Many of these steps are good advice to help you and your family during any disaster, like an earthquake or flood.Pandemic Flu Planning Research Assignment.
At home preparedness
Store water, food, and other essentials
Prepare to get by for at least a week on what you have at home. You may be unable to get to a store, or stores may not be open or may have limited supplies for weeks. Public services may also be disrupted, so prepare for outages in electricity, water, and garbage services. Keep extra supplies on hand (they can also be useful in other types of emergencies, such as power outages and natural disasters).
Examples of non-perishable food:
- Canned meats, such as tuna, chicken, turkey, Vienna sausage
- Canned beans, fruits, vegetables, soups
- Protein or fruit bars
- Dry cereal or granola
- Dried fruit
- Peanut butter and jelly
- Nuts and trail mix
- Crackers
- Comfort food, including cookies, candy, instant coffee, tea bags
- Canned juices
- Bottled water
- Baby formula and canned or jarred baby food
Pandemic Flu Planning Research Assignment.
Examples of other emergency supplies:
- Pet food, cat litter
- Disposable diapers
- Feminine supplies
- Flashlight
- Portable radio
- Batteries for flashlights, radios, games, thermometers
- Manual can opener
- Plastic garbage bags
- Tissues and toilet paper
- Entertainment–games, crafts, books, movies, etc.
- Supplies for persons with special needs–the elderly or disabled
- Some extra cash
Make household emergency plans
- Prepare for possible changes in healthcare. For example, medical advice and healthcare may be more difficult to obtain during a severe pandemic and healthcare providers and medical facilities may be overwhelmed. There may not be enough medical supplies, healthcare providers, and hospital beds for all persons who are ill.
- Difficult decisions about who receives medical care and how much treatment can be administered will be necessary. Talk about these possibilities with your family and loved ones.
- In a severe pandemic, you may be advised to stay away from others and from public places as much as possible. Plan to limit the number of trips you take to shop or run errands. Also, remember public transportation routes and times may be limited.
- Think about how you would care for people in your family who have disabilities if support services are not available.
- Decide who will take care of children if schools are closed.
- For general preparedness, agree on a point of contact where all family members can check-in if you are separated during any emergency.
Store medical and health supplies
Get an extra supply of your regular prescription drugs. Ask your healthcare provider for a prescription. If your insurance will not agree to cover the extra supply, you may need to pay out-of-pocket. Keep health supplies and nonprescription drugs on hand.
Examples of medical and health supplies:
- Prescribed medicines and supplies, such as glucose meters and blood-pressure monitoring equipment
- Soap and water
- Alcohol-based hand cleaner, such as Purell® or store-brand
- Medicines for fever and pain, such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen
- Diarrhea remedy, such as Pepto-Bismol® or Kaopectate® (not generally recommended for children)
- Throat lozenges
- Cough syrup containing Dextromethorphan
- Thermometer(s)
- Vitamins
- Fluids with electrolytes, like Gatorade® and Pedialyte® (preferred for small children)
At work preparedness
- Prepare to stay home.
Staying at home from work when you are sick is the most important thing you can do to protect others. - Know policies.
Ask your employer or union about sick leave and policies about absences, time off, and telecommuting. - Encourage planning.
Every business, organization and agency should have a plan for making sure essential work can get done if large numbers of employees are absent over many months. You may be asked to perform duties that are not typically part of your job. - Explore other ways to get your work done.
Find ways to reduce personal contact, such as increased use of e-mails or phone conferences. Plan to work from home whenever possible.
Preparedness in your community
- Know your neighbors.
Talk with family, friends, and neighbors to make sure everyone is prepared. Be ready to help neighbors who are elderly or have special needs if services they depend on are not available.Pandemic Flu Planning Research Assignment. - Know school policies.
Know policies about illness and being absent. Be prepared for school closures. - Volunteer with community groups.
Assist with planning for emergency response to disasters and pandemic influenza.
Prevent the spread of the virus
- Stay home from work and school when you are sick.
- Stay away from others as much as possible when they are sick.
- Wash hands frequently. Use soap and water or an alcohol-based hand cleaner, such as Purell® or store-brand.
- Cover your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing. Try using the crook of your elbow or your shoulder for cover, instead of hands.
- Throw away used tissues right away. If you use tissues to cover your cough or blow your nose, dispose of them in the nearest waste bin immediately after use, then wash hands.
- Set an example for your children. Show them how to limit the spread of viruses and germs.
Potentially one of the most serious of all public health crises is pandemic flu. In this week’s Application, you will describe plans for responding to such a pandemic.
Begin by browsing through the flu.gov/about_the_flu/h5n1/#, found at http://www.flu.gov/, and familiarize yourself with the resources on the site. Then complete the following steps:
ORDER A CUSTOM-WRITTEN, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
Read the “Executive Summary” and Appendix 3: “WHO Global Pandemic Phases and the Stages for Federal Government Response” from the following document on the site: “Interim Pre-Pandemic Planning Guidance: Community Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Mitigation in the U.S.” found at http://www.flu.gov/planning-preparedness/community/community_mitigation.pdf Access the influenza plan for your own state and scan it for information to respond to the exercise below.
For this exercise, assume that cluster(s) of avian influenza appear in your state. These are still localized but show some evidence of human transmission (phase 5).
Assignment:Pandemic Flu Planning
Drawing on the resources from this Web site and your other Learning Resources this week, address the following questions in a two-page paper:
What epidemic control steps do you recommend? What legal authorities may have to be invoked? What factors will determine or deter the success of your plan? Are you likely to control the outbreak so that it does not proceed to the pandemic phase 6? Would you add anything to the government’s plan, or do you think this is adequate?
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your Pandemic Flu Planning Research Assignment.