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Preventing Disease Transmission
during Flood
Flood
inundated Jakarta
on 17 January 2013 forcing approximately twenty thousand people to
evacuate. The Provincial Health Office of DKI Jakarta, supported by the
Ministry of Health, has already been tackling health issues.
Diarrhea, influenza, skin diseases and conjunctivitis are the
common diseases affecting people during and after flood. People also need
to be aware of the risk of accidents caused by electrocution, falls, and
snake bites.
Most cases of diarrhea are due to viruses or toxins so they do not
require antibiotics. Rehydration is critical for people having diarrhea. Most influenza-like symptoms in flood
situation are caused by viruses, again antibiotics
are not needed for this type of flu or influenza-like diseases. Instead,
hand hygiene and people covering their mouth with masks are more important
measures to prevent flu or flu-like symptoms from spreading. People need to
be reminded to make sure they cover their mouth and nose when they cough or
sneeze, and dispose tissues to closed rubbish bag. Practicing these behaviors and good hygiene minimize
the risk of respiratory disease outbreak, particularly for people in
evacuation centers.
Leptospirosis is another disease that can happen after flooding, as
flood water could carry leptospirosis-infected
rat urine. Fever, aches and pains are symptoms of leptospirosis.
Immediate treatment with antibiotics could prevent leptospirosis
from causing worse impact to internal organs.
The risk of
getting communicable disease from flooding can be greatly reduced by
avoiding flood water as much or as far as possible. Children should not
play in the flood water. Authority, or other supporting organizations,
should ensure access to clean and safe water for drinking, food
preparation, washing and sanitation. When clean water source is difficult
to provide, chlorination of water should be undertaken. This method is
highly effective against nearly all waterborne pathogens as long as people
do it correctly. Health workers or water experts could help since special
test kits are needed. Once people understand how to use chlorine
effectively, households could use chlorine liquids or tablets or powders to
have clean and safe water.
Good hygiene
practice, safe food preparation techniques and practicing boiling or
chlorination of water are what people could do. It is highly important that people seek medical help or go to
the nearest clinic as soon as possible when they or someone around them
develops any symptoms like fever, cough, diarrhea,
red eye, or jaundice etc. Early detection and treatment could
prevent more severe impacts and further spread of the diseases.
In emergency
phase, authorities are to conduct rapid health assessment of the situation;
establish temporary emergency health clinics with adequate health workers;
intensify surveillance, particularly to monitor the common diseases like
diarrheal and respiratory diseases, and Leptospirosis,
which mimic diseases such as typhoid, influenza like illnesses, hepatitis
and sometime even like dengue l. This intensified surveillance help early
detection, verification and prompt treatment
Vigilant
disease surveillance would be much more effective when
it is conducted by all health related organizations, be it private,
government, NGOs’ etc. Daily monitoring of diseases trends is very
essential
In the longer
run, authority could activate Disaster-Preparedness Programs and Early
Warning Systems (already in place); improving surveillance on a local and
national level (already progressing); promoting water sources’ quality
regulation and monitoring; enforcing high standards of hygiene; improving
water treatment and sanitation; active and efficient disease control
programs (already exist)
For supporting
information, you could also see the flood advisory provided by the Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health, Ministry of Health at Info Penyakit
. Flooding and communicable diseases fact sheet provided by the World Health Organization is available at Technical guidelines.
For more information please contact:
Ms Nursila Dewi,
Communication Officer,
WHO Country Office for Indonesia,
Jakarta.
Tel:
021-520 4349, facs: 021-520 1164,
e-mail: dewin@searo.who.int
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