Disease Prevention And Management Health Services In Gold Coast, Australia

Introduction to the Gold Coast

Discuss about the Disease Prevention and Management Health Services.

Gold Coast is a highly developed city with highest biodiversity in Australia. Its 50% land area is used in vegetation. It is famous for Gondwana rainforests and Coastal wetlands of the Southern Bay (Dredge& Jamal, 2013). Gold Coast has broad range of precious and unique wildlife habitats and natural landscapes from the surrounding area of wetlands and coasts. Due to various reasons, local ecological unit face tremendous pressure due to economic, climate and social development. One of such major issues could arise due to extensive influx of international and local athletes, spectators, support staff, tourists that in turn would increase major public health issues, especially in the context of infectious disease. In response to this, respective authoritative bodies and public health advisors of Gold Coast are collaboratively working in order to protect the wildlife, landscapes and recognize the significance of healthy natural surroundings in structuring a sustainable and strong future. The city maintains quality of life of its residents by majorly focusing on the environment. The health officers coordinate, plan and incorporate strategies to reduce negative impacts associated with health and environment within the city that further protects businesses, visitors and residents (“Environmental health services“, 2016). Assessments of food outlet, restaurants, local hotels, public swimming pools, entertainment and event parks are carried out by the health officers to understand probable risks related to public health.

The health care setup in Gold Coast delivers a wide range of secondary and tertiary health services across the public hospitals, different health sectors including community health centers. Primary health services include oral health care for the children and the adults and child health care. Disease prevention is one of the major missions of this city. The management of individual operational division is accountable for risk management in the respective areas. The quality and safety coordinators support the management in recognizing, documenting and eliminating risks (Zingg et al., 2015). Some major disease outbreak or high rated risks are escalated to the higher-ups. The health associated risk management structure comprises plans, which would enable to recognize ways to manage health of the residents, document and monitor risks, contain procedures for rising risk reports. The framework also includes health planning that is part of operational and strategic activities, which also include various health facilities, maintenance of risk register, which is used to report, monitor various health related risks. Also, a reviewing and monitoring process that takes care of governance systems and risk control.

Outlining infrastructure associated with infection control and management

Infectious diseases contribute majorly to morbidity and mortality within the community and thereby, a major public health priority. A proper infrastructure of infection control and management should include timely detection, investigation, surveillance and control within the community. Control of communicable diseases should emphasis on prevention of disease spread from one person to another, from animals to individuals and insects to people. The response and monitoring of communicable diseases include contact tracing, case management and preventive strategies by adhering to the Public Health Act (2005), Queensland Health. Expert advice should be provided on communicable disease control and work in association with health professionals, clinicians, industry, community and governments (Render et al., 2011). New developments in plan should be implemented along with the key players in order to control and prevent infectious diseases within the health care setup.

The major diseases of concern are tuberculosis, mosquito-borne disease, influenza, Legionella and so on. The causative agent of Tuberculosis (TB) is Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria spread when an affected individual sneezes or coughs and another healthy individual inhale the expelled droplets that contain the germ. The bacterial infection proceeds step by step that includes inhalation bacterial multiplication, T-cell activation, and formation of tubercle, break-down and cavitation of tubercle. Once inhaled, the immune system responds by engulfing bacteria, forming tubercle, which contains bacteria that enable spreading. In majority of the situations, bacteria die but these can survive and become dormant, in which cases infected individuals develop active diseases at later stage, may be after a previous infection or sometimes later. Approximately 1/3^rd of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As per the 2013 annual report, Australia’s majority of the population demonstrated TB with an occurrence rate of almost 20 per 100,000. The rate fluctuated among the indigenous population since last decade. Nevertheless, the rate remained practically steady in 2013 with an occurrence rate of 5-6 per 100,000 (Contreras & Rodríguez, 2011).  

Dengue fever is viral disease, spread by Aedesaegypti. North Queensland towns have Aedesaegypti, which are inclined to dengue outbreak while the virus is introduced by the travelers. Though Queensland has dengue mosquitoes, no dengue outbreak has been recorded in the present years. Dengue indications include extreme tiredness, sudden fever onset, intense headache, joint and muscle pain, appetite loss, abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting. Red rashes are visible throughout the legs and arms. More than 8000 cases of mosquito-borne disease have been recorded that include alphaviruses, flaviviruses and malaria. Presently, almost 40% population in the world live in the areas where chance of dengue transmission is higher. The World Health Organization (WHO) demonstrated that almost 50-100 million incidences happen annually that comprise 22,000 deaths majorly among the children (Murray, Quam, & Wilder-Smith, 2013).

Major diseases of concern and relevant etiology and epidemiology

Influenza stems from infection with A, B and C type flu viruses. Type A is most common and cause most serious illness. Type B is related with mild form of disease, common in children population and Type C is rare. Aquatic birds are primary reservoir for the influenza viruses. The viruses replicate differently within the birds’ intestinal tract. Influenza indications include sore throat, high fever, runny nose, coughing, headache, and so on.

According to the Australian surveillance report, influenza occurred in the month of September, during 34^th and 35^th week. Aged adults, who are more than 75years old are affected majorly with Influenza. Infection is prevalent among the aged population, which indicates lack of immunity probably due to age related factors (Paul Glezen et al., 2013).  

Legionella is a pathogen that includes L. pneumophilia and causes legionellosis, which is a type of pneumonia and demonstrates mild flu, known as Pontiac fever. Legionella survives in amoebae like Naegleria spp., Vermamoeba vermiformis, which upon inhalation infect alveolar macrophages, destabilize the host cell mechanism and favor bacterial replication. This gives rise to Legionnaries disease. The transmission takes place via air, in which case respiratory droplets contain bacteria. Inside the host system, incubation may take two weeks. Advanced stages of Legionnaries disease demonstrate problems with nervous system and gastrointestinal tract that leads to nausea and diarrhea. There are presently 45 known species have been identified, out of which almost 5 have been reported in Australia causing legionellosis (L. pneumophila, L. micdadei, L. longbeachae and so on). L. pneumophila has been recognized as one of the major cause of more than 80% death in Victoria (Phin et al., 2014). Epidemic and sporadic forms of Legionnaries disease arise in Australia and the infections are thought to be responsible for almost 5-15% of community-acquired pneumonias. Outbreaks are associated with water systems and spa baths.

Health service capacity are the clinics, emergency services, ambulances and hospitals present within a city. Considering the outbreak of communicable diseases like influenza, whooping cough, the Gold Coast health established efficient influenza management practices, necessary for protecting patients in care facilities. A podcast has been designed that provides helpful messages for influenza management and also management of the service providers and users. This not only informs about prevention measures or management, but also informs about precautionary measures for upcoming season (Skinner, Warrillow, & Denehy, 2011). Ambulance response services include emergency responses to the patients with sudden injury and illness, provide care to the pre-hospitalized patients, arrange for special transport services and coordinate with aero-medical services and so on.      

Health services capacity and critical control points

Critical control points are the factors within the system, where issues are more likely to take place regarding monitoring and measurements. For instance, proper documentation of contagious disease outbreak could be a critical control point in this regard. Also, monitoring of safe care practice to avoid transmission of infection could be another critical control point.

Transport access plays an important role in obtaining quality care from the health care system and the service providers. The Gold Coast city is well equipped with transport facilities that enable the residents to reach to the respective health clinics to obtain adequate resources. The city works in association with Translink that offers various transport options to the common people, which include scheduled tram, train, bus, complementary and community transport services (“City of Gold Coast | Public transport”, 2016). ‘Council cab service’ is one of the major examples of community transport that help the older individuals and disable people to travel to local shopping centers. This shows that the city has a well-structured plan for the wellbeing of the senior citizens.

References

City of Gold Coast | Environmental health services. (2016). Goldcoast.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 27 November 2016, from https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/community/council-environment-health-services-3594.html

City of Gold Coast | Public transport. (2016). Goldcoast.qld.gov.au. Retrieved 27 November 2016, from https://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/thegoldcoast/community-public-transport-12209.html

Contreras, G. & Rodríguez, J. (2011). Mastitis: Comparative Etiology and Epidemiology. Journal Of Mammary Gland Biology And Neoplasia, 16(4), 339-356. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10911-011-9234-0

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21947764)

Dredge, D. & Jamal, T. (2013). Mobilities on the Gold Coast, Australia: implications for destination governance and sustainable tourism. Journal Of Sustainable Tourism, 21(4), 557-579. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2013.776064

(https://epubs.scu.edu.au/tourism_pubs/968/)

Paul Glezen, W., Schmier, J., Kuehn, C., Ryan, K., & Oxford, J. (2013). The Burden of Influenza B: A Structured Literature Review. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(3), e43-e51. https://dx.doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2012.301137

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3753061/)

Phin, N., Parry-Ford, F., Harrison, T., Stagg, H., Zhang, N., & Kumar, K. et al. (2014). Epidemiology and clinical management of Legionnaires’ disease. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 14(10), 1011-1021. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(14)70713-3

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23327249)

Render, M., Freyberg, R., Hasselbeck, R., Hofer, T., Sales, A., & Deddens, J. et al. (2011). Infrastructure for quality transformation: measurement and reporting in veterans administration intensive care units. BMJ Quality & Safety, 20(6), 498-507. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs.2009.037218

(https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(14)70713-3/abstract)

Skinner, E., Warrillow, S., & Denehy, L. (2011). Health-related quality of life in Australian survivors of critical illness*. Critical Care Medicine, 39(8), 1896-1905. https://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ccm.0b013e31821b8421

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21345859)

Wilder-Smith, A., Murray, & Quam, M. (2013). Epidemiology of dengue: past, present and future prospects. Clinical Epidemiology, 299. https://dx.doi.org/10.2147/clep.s34440 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21532478)

Zingg, W., Holmes, A., Dettenkofer, M., Goetting, T., Secci, F., & Clack, L. et al. (2015). Hospital organisation, management, and structure for prevention of health-care-associated infection: a systematic review and expert consensus. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 15(2), 212-224. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s1473-3099(14)70854-0 (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(14)70854-0/abstract?rss=yes)