Health crisis
Encyclopedia
A health crisis or public health crisis is a difficult situation or complex health system
that affects humans in one or more geographic areas, from a particular locality to encompass the entire planet. Often lead to losses in health, lives and money, but sometimes are created maliciously for political or industrial benefit.
Its severity is often measured by the number of people affected by its geographical extent, or the disease
or death of the pathogenic process which it originates.
Health system
A health system can be defined as the structured and interrelated set of all actors and institutions contributing to health improvement. The health system boundaries could then be referred to the concept of health action, which is "any set of activities whose primary intent is to improve or...
that affects humans in one or more geographic areas, from a particular locality to encompass the entire planet. Often lead to losses in health, lives and money, but sometimes are created maliciously for political or industrial benefit.
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
or death of the pathogenic process which it originates.
Features
Generally there are three key components in health crises:- Public health problem
- Problem health coordination
- Alarm care. Poor communication of risks to the population orgine social upheaval.
Examples
- 1981: Toxic Oil SyndromeToxic oil syndromeToxic Oil Syndrome or simply Toxic Syndrome was the name given to a disease outbreak in Spain in 1981, which killed over 600 people. Its first appearance was as a lung disease, with unusual features: though the symptoms initially resembled a lung infection, antibiotics were ineffective...
or simply Toxic Syndrome - 1996: Bovine spongiform encephalopathyBovine spongiform encephalopathyBovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
(BSE), commonly known as mad-cow disease - 1998: Doñana disaster, also known as the Aznalcollar Disaster or Guadiamar Disaster
- 2001: Anthrax attacks2001 anthrax attacksThe 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to...
in the United States, also known as Amerithrax - 2002: Prestige oil spillPrestige oil spillThe Prestige oil spill was an oil spill off the coast of Galicia caused by the sinking of an oil tanker in 2002. The spill polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline and more than one thousand beaches on the Spanish, French and Portuguese coast, as well as causing great harm to the local fishing...
- 2003: Severe acute respiratory syndromeSevere acute respiratory syndromeSevere Acute Respiratory Syndrome is a respiratory disease in humans which is caused by the SARS coronavirus . Between November 2002 and July 2003 an outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong nearly became a pandemic, with 8,422 cases and 916 deaths worldwide according to the WHO...
(SARS) - 2004: Avian influenza, sometimes avian flu, and commonly bird flu
- 2006: Côte d'Ivoire toxic waste dump
- 2009: Flu pandemic2009 flu pandemicThe 2009 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus , albeit in a new version...
- 2010: Haiti earthquake2010 Haiti earthquakeThe 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
- 2011: Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunamiThe 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...
. E. coli O104:H4 outbreak
Prevention and control
- Using the health warning systems. A health system responsive to the needs of the population is required to refine the instruments to ensure adequate preparation before their hatching.
- Transparency of the institutions public or private. The perception of crisis can escape the control of experts or health institutions, and be determined by stakeholders to provide solutions propagate or concerned. This requires a difficult balancing of the need to articulate clear answers and the little-founded fears.
- Adequate information policy. Irrationality arise when information is distorted, or hidden. Face a health crisis involves: respect for society, coordination of organizations and an institution with scientific weight to the people and to the media, who acted as spokesman in situations of public health risk, to get confidence citizens. The technical capacity of health professionals is more proven than the public officials, which suggests a greater share of the former and better training of the second.
- Evaluate the previous crisis or others experiences. Crises are challenges that must be learned from both the mistakes and successes, since they serve to bring about to the devices and improve the response to other crises. It is important to perform analysis of previous responses, audit risk and vulnerability, research and testing, and drills to prepare themselves against future crises.
- Having objectives: "first, to reduce the impact of illness and death, and second, to avoid social fracture".
- Preparing contingency plans. Preparation is key to the crisis because it allows a strong response, organized, and scientifically based. Action plans must meet the professional early enough and properly trained, and politicians must be consistent in their actions and coordinate all available resources. It is essential to invest in public health resources to prepare preventive measures and reducing health inequalities to minimize the impact of health crises, as they generally always the poorest suffer most.
See also
- Crisis theoryCrisis theoryCrisis theory is generally associated with Marxian economics. In this context crisis refers to what is called, even currently and outside Marxian theory in many European countries a "conjuncture" or especially sharp bust cycle of the regular boom and bust pattern of what Marxists term "chaotic"...
- Disease mongeringDisease mongering]Disease mongering is a pejorative term for the practice of widening the diagnostic boundaries of illnesses, and promoting public awareness of such, in order to expand the markets for those who sell and deliver treatments, which may include pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and other...
- Health administrationHealth administrationHealth administration or healthcare administration is the field relating to leadership, management, and administration of hospitals, hospital networks, health care systems, and public health systems...
- Health careHealth careHealth care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
- Health policy
- MedicalizationMedicalizationMedicalization is the process by which human conditions and problems come to be defined and treated as medical conditions and problems, and thus come under the authority of doctors and other health professionals to study, diagnose, prevent or treat...
- National Health ServiceNational Health ServiceThe National Health Service is the shared name of three of the four publicly funded healthcare systems in the United Kingdom. They provide a comprehensive range of health services, the vast majority of which are free at the point of use to residents of the United Kingdom...
- Primary health carePrimary health carePrimary health care, often abbreviated as “PHC”, has been defined as "essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost...
- Routine health outcomes measurementRoutine health outcomes measurementEvidence-based practice describes a healthcare system in which evidence from published studies, often mediated by systematic reviews or processed into medical guidelines is incorporated into clinical practice. The flow of information is one way; from research to practice...