Before you can prevent something, you have to understand the possibility of it happening. As such, you need to know what influences a lowered immune system and situations that will make you vulnerable to acquire an illness.
http://howik.com/Minimize_Infection_in_Schools_and_Offices
what are the important of biological factors in that Places?
what are the different ways of contmination?
which of them are contagious?
what are the different ways of control infection ?
It will be indeed difficult to identify factors that could contribute to infections in a particular demographic area unless a proper surveillance system is on place. Primary prevention should be the utmost important. In schools, vaccination programs could be carried out regularly to boost children's immune system. In addition, cleanliness, particularly food handlers in the canteen, should have regular checks, nutritious food should be supplied. Environmental surroundings should be kept clean through frequent community clean-ups to prevent mosquito born or food and water borne diseases. As for the office workers, routine health screening among workers would be essential, preventive face masks could be used and supplied in offices by the employee for those with viral infections or air borne diseases. Vaccination programs could be routine organized. These are essentials for preventive measurements.
Actually to prevent contagious infections immunity plays the major role and to boost innate immunity one must be healthy enough. For this one must eat healthy with enough protein content and water. Apart from this personal hygiene is also very important, Wash hands before and after eating. Maintain proper body temperature because exposure to very low and high environmental temperatures may hamper immunity. Apart from this for some infections innate immunity does not exist in these cases one must be vaccinated to build up immunity.
Hand hygiene, avoid kissing, avoid sneezing and coughing on hands. Having complete the vaccination scheme, and apply a very simple rule: don't touch your face (eyes, nose, mouth).
Infection in schools or offices is a large topic. We have to understand the type of infection before one can take action. Infection can be direct contact which is kissing, sexual activities, coughing and sneezing. Another type of infection can be indirect type which can be transmitted by vectors (flies, mosquitoes, fleas etc). diseases like dengue, malaria, chikungunya are caused by mosquitoes and there are several infection caused by other vectors. Once the infection is confirmed one has to understand the source of infection. The source can be from the school/office cafeteria, or even from one of the students/workers. The source of infection maybe from home so understanding the incubation period and the period of communicability of the infection would confirm whether the disease (infection) source is from home or from the school. If it from the school /office then necessary prevention can be taken such as investigations and necessary treatment can be given .One of the main activity of prevention is health promotion among the students/office mates regarding the necessary action to take. Simple hand washing or vaccination etc can be done. My point is before embarking on activities of prevention, confirm the diagnosis and source of action. then only take the necessary action in the respective place.
The main interventions are approriate immunisation, exclusion of people who are infectious, hand hygiene / hand washing, respiratory etiquette, environmental cleaning (followed by disinfection when necessary), and education
For schools and childcare facilities http://www.hpsc.ie/hpsc/A-Z/LifeStages/SchoolHealth/
http://www.hpsc.ie/hpsc/A-Z/LifeStages/SchoolHealth/
When we talk of infection in any public set up, we are talking of communicable diseases. Knowledge is first tool to meet the challenge. Knowledge enhancement about the disease, pathogen, prevention and treatment should be the responsibility of school/ offices. Health promotion programs about hygiene, water and sanitation would help. Engagement of the staff/ school children and teachers in their respective set up would bring ownership of the program.
Plz see the followings:
Chapter 11 :COMMUNICABLE DISEASE CONTROL
o Communicable disease, the leading cause of childhood morbidity, are easily transmitted in the school environment.
o Immunization, sanitation, tuberculosis surveillance, and, rarely mass prophylasis and treatment effectively control some communicable diseases in schools.
o Practices such as quarantine, disinfection, daily or periodic physical inspection, physician permission for absentee returns, and food handler examination are of limited or unproven contrl value, and are expensive in terms of health professional time and children’s lost school time.
I. Immunization
o Active immunization is highly effective for control of some communicable diseases.
o School health programs should have effective procedures not only to identify children who need immunization but also to assure their receipt of the required immunizations.
o School children, a captive audience, have proven attractive targets for mass immunization programs.
o Passive immunization after exposure is an acceptable, effective prophylaxis for infectious hepatitis, measles, and diphtheria; but it usually should be limited to close contacts.
o Special gamma-globulins (e.g., Varicella-Zoster Immune Globulin) are not usually indicated for school contacts.
o Contacts with respect to infectious hepatitis prophylaxis include family or household members; day care, kindergarten, or retarded classmates; and recipients of food from infected food handlers.
o Recall immunization is the procedure of choice for children exposed to diphtheria, tetanus, and (if less than 6 years old) pertussis if basic immunizations against these diseases were given.
o Children who have been immunized against measles, rubella, mumps, poliomyelitis, and pertussis (if more than 6 years old) do not need booster doses after exposure to these diseases
II. Isolation and Quarantine
o Children should be kept out of school when they are identified as having a communicable disease.
o The times of isolation vary from disease to another and from country to another.
o Unfortunately, with most of these diseases, the individual has effectively spread the disease for several days in the prodromal state, so isolation is of limited effectiveness.
o The period of disability frequently is longer than the period in which the disease is communicable; therefore, physician sanction to return to school usually is not necessary.
o The period of infectivity usually is limited by the development of host immunity, and the infective period for bacterial infection frequently is shortened by treatment with antibiotics or chemotherapeutic agents.
o Children with pediculosis should be excluded until they are receiving adequate treatment.
o It is not necessary to isolate children who are under treatment for tinea capitis, tinea corporis, tinea pedis, scabies, and pyoderma (if the lesions are dry or covered).
o It is impossible to isolate all young children with upper respiratory tract infections and still have sufficient days of attendance to educate them.
o Quarantine (isolation of exposed susceptibles from other susceptibles) is not advised.
o Infectious diseases in the early school years are so frequent that, if quarantine were practiced consistently, it would result in large numbers of lost school days.
o Generally, school-propagated communicable disease is widely spread by the time it is recognized and runs its course until most susceptibles are infected.
III. Periodic Surveillance
o Routine throat cultures of asymptomatic children for group A streptococci, when there is not epidemic clinical disease, is ineffective as a case-finding and control measure.
o The positives found by mass throat culture efforts are usually untypable carrier strains of low pathogenicity and virulence.
o Stool cultures and serologic tests for syphilis are -not effective case-finding or disease-control measures for foodhandlers.
o Surveillance of tuberculosis of adults in schools was discussed in chapter 10 “ Tuberculosis screening “.
IV. Mass Prophylaxis and Treatment
o Mass prophylaxis and treatment of school children after exposure to infectious disease is seldom indicated.
o The conditions under which mass treatment may be justified are when the disease is virulent and the exposure is intimate and prolonged, as in a boarding-school population.
o Mass prophylaxis and treatment with penicillin may be considered if group A streptococcal disease becomes epidemic in a school population. However, the feasibility of this action needs to be investigated.
o In other situations, throat cultures and close surveillance for onset of clinical symptoms in contacts may be advised.
o Antibacterial medication is not recommended for contacts of persons with meningitis caused by pneumococcus or Hemophilus influenzae.
o Nor is it recommended for general class contacts of persons with meningococcal disease.
o If the contact entails a close degree of intimacy, the use of rifampin may be considered.
o Many strains of meningococcus currently are sulfonamide sensitive; close contacts, if carefully observed for signs of illness, can be given sulfonamide prophylaxis.
o Penicillin does not appear to be effective prophylactically.
o Because time is required to develop antibodies after vaccine administration, meningococcal vaccine cannot be used for post-exposure prophylaxis.
V. Sanitation
o Clean food preparation and proper storage, clean drinking water, sanitary disposal of excreta, readily available hand washing facilities, and thorough laundering of gym and athletic clothing are basics of school sanitation.
Mostafa Abolfotouh Essentials of School Health and Educational Medicine, LAP
LAMBERT Academic Publishing (December 27, 2011). ISBN 978-3-8473-2805-6
http://www.bod.com/index.php?id=3435&objk_id=636559
How do you prevent (head lice) infection in schools and offices?
Rick Speare and I did many school surveys and we treated entire schools. The results were good initially, but school kids have other friends who rapidly reintroduce lice into the schools. The best way is through education because our research found that people who have less symptoms or who are asymptomatic are less inclined to do anything about their infection. They then serve as a host that may reintroduce lice at any time to various circles of acquaintances. We found that many parents are apathetic which can only be addressed through education and direct health promotion campaigns.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine
- Epidemiology