Jefferson Displaced Populations The Humanitarian Crisis Discussion Response

Pathophysiology Assignment
September 13, 2021
Assignment Option 2: Healthcare Error Assessment Report, health & medical homework help
September 13, 2021

I have 3 of my classmates posts. I need you to respond to each one separately. Also, one source at least for each one of them. Don’t write about how good their posts or how bad. All you need to do is to choose one point of the post and explore it a little bit with one source support for each response. The paper should be APA style.

the question was: There are a number of diseases that are consistently seen in displaced populations. Please explain potential causes for these outbreaks.

What are potential solutions for addressing these disease outbreaks?

1st post from my classmate AL need to respond:

Displaced populations are vulnerable to infectious diseases. Groups of people are displaced generally because of a humanitarian crisis that can be caused by conflict, environmental disaster, economic turmoil, or poverty. Groups of people are forced to leave their original living spaces and seek shelter elsewhere. Typically, they are accommodated in refugee camps, but they can also improvise their own living depending on the case, traveling in caravans or in massive groups, which form traveling communities. For example, people have been leaving Venezuela in the past few years because of the economic crisis that the country is going through. Following this massive exile, diseases such as malaria and Chagas have had outbreaks that reach neighboring countries, where Venezuelan refugees are fleeing (Tami et al., 2019).

The potential causes for the outbreaks of infectious diseases in displaced populations are poor sanitation, overcrowding, malnutrition, and the difficulty that is bringing vaccines to these populations (Lan et al., 2015). These are conditions that make it easy for diseased to propagate. Refugee camps and moving crowds of people are very vulnerable to viral and bacterial infections as well as vector-borne diseases from mosquitoes or fleas.

There have been humanitarian strategies to help control the spread of diseases among the displaced. These strategies include vaccinations and other methods. However, it is a big challenge to implement methods to control diseases in those settings (Lan et al., 2015).

At the first stages of displacement, the measures to reduce mortality and control the spread of disease include giving the populations access to clean water and sanitation and treating acute diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea. Afterward, they include addressing specific diseases and non-infectious issues (Paquet & Hanquet, 1998).

In order to address disease outbreaks in the displaced population, it is important to focus on clean water and vaccines, as well as treating the infected patients. For example, cholera is spread by infected water and poor sanitation. Therefore, it is essential to make sure people can boil the water they consume and wash their hands often and carefully. This means that sources of heat (which can be fire) and sources of water are available. Mosquitoes spread malaria, and in this case, it is important to drain any stagnant water and fumigate the areas where there can be outbreaks. Access to medical personnel and equipment to affected areas is very important. One solution to this would be to designate specific paths for them to pass, make roads if there are none, or use helicopter, boats and other alternative means of transportation.

References

Lam, E., Mccarthy, A., & Brennan, M. (2015). Vaccine-preventable diseases in humanitarian emergencies among refugee and internally-displaced populations.Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 11(11), 2627–2636. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2015.1096457

Paquet, C., & Hanquet, G. (1998). Control of infectious diseases in refugee and displaced populations in developing countries. Bulletin De LInstitut Pasteur,96(1), 3–14. doi: 10.1016/s0020-2452(98)80024-9

Tami, A., Grillet, M. E., Paniz-Mondolfi, A., Oletta, J., Llewellyn, M. S., Hernández-Villena, J. V., & Márquez, M. (2019). Resurgence of vector-borne and vaccine-preventable diseases in Venezuela in times of a complex humanitarian health crisis: a regional menace. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 34(s1). doi: 10.1017/s1049023x1900030x

2nd post from my classmate ABD GH need to respond:

Until late 2018, statistics show, according to Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre IDMC, that the number of displaced people internationally has exceeded 41 million due to armed conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations. (“Internally Displaced People”, n.d). Whatever the reason people are displaced, along with fleeing their homes, people will also lose basic healthcare especially in countries that suffer from poverty where they have already shortness in resources. By Speaking of “humanitarian aid”, food, water and clothing come to mind as the essential needs, but I think health care isn’t less important than other needs and it’s a critical issue to address. However, health care providers will be under pressure to treat patients with chronic diseases, especially in poor countries where the health system cannot operate effectively, plus they should be aware of any disease outbreak associated with the surge of people.

Displaced people are highly vulnerable to diseases such as measles, polio, meningococcal meningitis, yellow fever, cholera, and the list can extend (Lam, McCarthy & Brennan, 2015). What complicates the situation in emergencies is the healthcare system can become destroyed and that makes people unable to receive the regular vaccination not only emergency health issues. Colombia, as an example, ranked first in internally displaced people (IDPs), according to the UN. Almost 7 million IDPs were registered in Colombia (Alsema, 2018). The country has experienced more than 90% of people displaced to urban areas (Albuja & Ceballos, n.d). However, due to the conflict, the public health is being threatened because of the weak health services. The coverage of diseases such as polio was less than 1% due to the fail of the vaccination program. (“Colombia’s cycle of violence”, 2006). Further, I can imagine in such communities that lack health care, sanitation, and basic life needs, with a surge of people in a small place, the diseases that could be transmitted through the air or personal contacts such as Ebola and Hepatitis A.

In my opinion, to manage an outbake, ICS system must be activated to track the source of the disease, quarantine the suspected patients, isolate patients the with proper techniques (e.g. isolation tents) if needed, provide awareness programs such as explain the signs and symptoms of the disease to the public and how to protect themselves, provide prophylaxis vaccination and treat affected people. Managing a disease outbreak needs more than a reaction. Displaced communities must be proactive toward such situations and for sure they won’t be able to find the proper resources without support from their country, if they still operate effectively, or most of the time seeking support from international organizations such as USAID which have played tangible roles to develop the health sector in many countries.

References:

Lam E., McCarthy A., Brennan M. (2015) Vaccine-preventable diseases in humanitarian emergencies among refugee and internally-displaced populations. Department of Global Epidemiology; Rollins School of Public Health; Emory University; Atlanta, GA USA. From https://bblearn.philau.edu/bbcswebdav/courses/19FL… Preventable%20Diseases%20in%20Humanitarian%20Emergencies%20Among%20Refugee%2 and%20Internally-Displaced%20Populations.pdf

The UN refugee agency UNHCR. (n.d). Internally displaced people. From https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/internally-displaced-p…

Albuja S., Ceballos M. (n.d). Urban displacement and migration in Colombia.From http://www.institutodeestudiosurbanos.info/dmdocum…

Alsema A. (2018). Colombia has the highest number of internally displaced people. From https://colombiareports.com/colombia-has-highest-n…

Medecins Sans Frontiere. (2006). Colombia’s cycle of violence. From https://www.msf.org/living-fear-colombias-cycle-vi…

3rd from my classmate ZIZ need to respond:

Population displacement is a huge humanitarian crisis (Lam, McCarthy, and Brennan, 2015). Unfortunately, this crisis is increasing with time due to conflicts, drought, and natural disasters (UNISCO, 2017). No matter why the population was displaced, the chances of diseases outbreak will increase due to the displacement (Lam, McCarthy, and Brennan, 2015). Population displacement could be within the country borders, moving to another country as a refugee, and/or by immigrating to another country in order to have a better life quality. Infectious and communicable diseases outbreaks are popular among displaced populations and there three factors that could increase the spread of infectious diseases which are poor water, malnutrition, and inappropriate sheltering (Paquet & Hanquet, 1998). From my point of view any deterioration in the food, water, and/or sheltering quality will soar the risk of infectious diseases

Even though poor water, food, and sheltering quality have a notable effect on spreading diseases, these factors are not the only reasons for the outbreaks of the diseases. There are several reasons that infectious diseases like measles, cholera, and meningitis are increasing in displaced populations. One of the reasons that the outbreaks numbers upsurges is the increased number of people who live in the same area without proper healthcare especially those who live in refugee camps (Snyder, 2018). For me, I see the refugee camps like a primary school when a kid has an infectious disease and no one notice, he will spread the disease unintentionally to the other kids. The same thing may occur in refugee camps due to lack of healthcare or lack of knowledge about communicable diseases. Another reason for increasing the outbreaks is the disturb of routine healthcare for those who have pre-existing conditions like the elderly or the disturb of routine vaccination programs for children (Lam, McCarthy, and Brennan, 2015) which make these communities vulnerable in resisting these diseases. Sadly, diseases outbreaks are the first reason for death among displaced populations (UNHCR, 1995).

Many solutions have been made by governments and humanitarian agencies to mitigate or end this crisis. One of the solutions is providing vaccinations for those who arrived in camps to reduce the diseases spread between the existing people and the new arrivals (Lam et al, 2016). Another solution is providing access for decent nutrition, sanitize water, and appropriate sheltering which will decrease the chances for some disease outbreaks like Hepatitis A and E (Lam, McCarthy, and Brennan, 2015). I believe providing healthcare services, diseases screening, and vaccinations for those who in camps or who live with the host community will decrease the outbreaks of the diseases. Many organizations around the globe like WHO and UNHCR are spending tremendous effort in this field yet this crisis needs a collaborative operation, funding, and resources among all governmental and humanitarian agencies to overcome this crisis.

References

Displaced Person / Displacement: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2017). Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/displaced-person-displacement/#topPage

Lam, E., Diaz, M., Maina, A. G. K., & Brennan, M. (2016, November 30). Displaced populations due to humanitarian emergencies and its impact on global eradication and elimination of vaccine-preventable diseases. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5129240/.

Lam, E., McCarthey, A., Brenna, M. (November, 2015). Vaccine-preventable diseases in humanitarian emergencies among refugee and internally-displaced populations. Atlanta, GA. Retrieved from https://bblearn.philau.edu/bbcswebdav/pid375076dtc… DMM61312999/VaccinePreventable%20Diseases%20in%20Humanitarian%20Emergen ies%20Among%20Refugee20and%20Internally-Displaced%20Populations.pdf

Paquet, C., & Hanquet, G. (1998). Control of infectious diseases in refugee and displaced populations in developing countries. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0020245298800249#!

Snyder, M. (2018, January 4). Displaced Populations and the Threat of Disease. Retrieved from https://www.outbreakobservatory.org/outbreakthursd… and-the-threat-of-disease

United Nations. (1995, September 11). Refugee health. Retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/excom/EXCOM/3ae68bf424.html

 
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