PUBH621 Epidemiology Assessment Task 2 Ruic. Ten items, each awarded 0-5 marks, totalling 50% of...

Question

PUBH621 Epidemiology Assessment Task 2 Ru
ic.
Ten items, each awarded 0-5 marks, totalling 50% of Unit grade
1 Standard of presentation with written communication, referencing and grammar
2. What is a notifiable disease?
3 What are the signs and symptoms of Tuberculosis? What is the disease burden of TB (e.g.
incidence, prevalence, mortality) in Australia?
4. What is contact tracing in epidemiology and what are the recommended steps for contact
tracing for TB in Australia?
5. Tuberculosis Contact Tracing guidelines for Northern Te
itory and Victoria - differences
etween these different regions in the procedure recommended.
Report for Local Media
6. General information on TB including the Australian situation
7. Pulmonary TB infectiousness and risk factors?
8. Who are the high risk groups for contact tracing?
9. What procedures for the identified household contacts including follow-up?
10. When the student (index case) would be able to join his/her class and would the
parents, teachers, clasmates need to concerned about developing TB?

PUBH621 Assessment 2:
Simulated contact tracing and exposure assessment
Due: 5pm, 19th November 2018
Please note that assignments can be submitted via Turnitin between 1st and 19th November.
About one third of the world’s population ca
y tuberculosis (TB) mycobacteria. Only between 10 and 20
per cent of those people will go on to develop active tuberculosis disease. Sometimes the disease can
progress for weeks or months before it is suspected. In the course of a year, someone with active TB can
spread the disease to up to 15 people, and without proper treatment, around 10 of that group may die. In
Australia, around 1,200 cases are reported each year, 85 per cent of which are in migrant populations. The
key to controlling TB is early identification, treating it with antibiotics and tracing those who have had
close contact with the TB patient, for investigation of whether they are also infected.
For this assignment, you are to assume the role of a Public Health Officer within a state or te
itory
Health Department, undertake appropriate contract tracing and exposure assessments for a notified
tuberculosis index case.
Students should explore relevant websites and articles to support a report with responses for questions 1-
5. Assessment 2 will count 50% towards grades for this Unit. Recommended word count 2,500,
excluding references and appendices.

1. What is a notifiable disease? Include website/s with information about notifiable diseases in
Australia (5 marks)
2. What is contact tracing in epidemiology? (5 marks)
3. Please download Tuberculosis Contact Tracing guidelines for the Northern Te
itory and
Victoria. Can you identify any important differences? (10 marks)
4. A student at a secondary school in a small community has been diagnosed with smear positive
pulmonary TB while being hospitalized. The news has been published in a local newspaper. There has
een considerable anxiety in the local community and parents of the other students. Only the parents
and 8 year old
other are identified as contacts, and no evidence of TB is found among them. As the
esponsible Public Health officer, you want to give helpful information in an informed but not over-
technical form. You might tell the community what they should know, without raising panic or
encouraging complacency.You are required to prepare a report for the local media and community to
address their concerns. Please include in the report
i) What is the disease burden of TB in Australia? (e.g. incidence, prevalence, mortality) (5 marks)
ii) How is pulmonary TB transmitted & how infectious is it? (high, moderate, low) (5 marks)
iii) Who are the high risk groups for contact tracing, and in what clinical circumstances should more
distant contacts or other members of the community present to the clinic for testing? (5 marks)
iv) What procedures have been taken for the identified contacts, including follow-up (5 marks)
v) When would the index case student return to class & how does the community know they are safe
from infection from this source? (5 marks)
5. Quality of writing, reasoning, references and co
ect formatting also earns up to (5 marks)

qfile_636777825557046630_123195_1.pdf qfile_636777825557046630_123195_2.pdf

Azra S · Accepted Answer

TB as a notifiable disease in Australia
TB as a notifiable disease in Australia
What is a notifiable disease? 
Notifiable diseases are the kinds of health conditions that must mandatorily be reported to health and government authorities upon detection. For infectious diseases, reporting to health authorities early on can help in preventing and controlling the disease from spreading to others. 
Notifiable diseases differ from state to state, region to region and country to country. Usually these are recorded in the form of lists that are not static. They change according to current public health needs. Different Notifiable diseases have different urgency of reporting criteria and time requirements.
Diseases like cholera, yellow fever, plague and some other diseases are notifiable diseases according to regulations of all states and territories. Some diseases are of international concern and are dictated by the International Health Regulations specified by the World Health Organization.
Tuberculosis represents a notifiable disease in Australia at the national level. It is monitored using NNDSS which is a surveillance system for notifiable diseases. All health professionals and organizations must report cases of TB under both territory and state legislations to health authorities. The legislations for notifiable and communicable diseases  are provided under the National Health Security Act 2007. (Australian Government Department of Health, 2015). 
What are the signs and symptoms of Tuberculosis? 
Tuberculosis develops as a result of a bacterium (M. tuberculosis complex) that spreads through air from one person to another. TB disease requires timely and optimal diagnosis and treatment or it can prove fatal. Those who are infected with TB bacteria but do not show signs of sickness still require treatment to prevent the disease from occurring later. 
Latent TB Infection and TB Disease
TB bacteria spread through the air when a TB infected person coughs or speaks. People in the vicinity may inhale these bacteria and as a result become infected as well. 
TB can be classified into: Latent TB and TB disease.
Sometimes TB bacteria survive in the human body but do not make the host sick. Such individuals infected with TB are said to have latent TB infection. In most cases of TB bacteria inhalation, the human body successfully fights the bacteria and stops it from multiplying. People with latent TB do not feel the effects of TB, stay healthy and do not spread infection.
If TB bacteria become active, they begin to multiply. If this happens, the condition of a person changes from latent TB infection to TB disease. That is why, those who have latent TB infection are also usually treated to prevent TB disease altogether.
TB bacteria grow in the infected person’s lungs. Those suffering from TB disease have several symptoms such as-
Severe cough for more than 3 weeks
Chest Pain
Cough with blood or sputum 
Fatigue
Weight loss
Lack of appetite
Chills/Fever
Sweating at night
TB disease is treated with medicine and drugs that are to be taken timely and as prescribed. Improper or impeding the intake of drugs can cause reoccurrence of the disease and may even make them resistant to drugs. TB bacteria that become drug resistant are more difficult and costly to treat (Wejse et al, 2008).
What is the disease burden of TB (e.g. incidence, prevalence, mortality) in Australia? 
Disease burden of a particular disease refers to its impact on a country as measured by financial cost, morbidity, mortality or other indicators. 
Australia has a good reputation of keeping control over the disease burden of TB since the mid-1980s. TB incidence rate has been recorded at about 5 to 6 cases per 100,000 persons. The National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System noted a total of 1,339 tuberculosis (TB) notifications in 2014. This was interpreted as a rate of 5.7 per 100,000 persons (Australian Government Department of Health, 2015). 
Multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases in Australia are also very low compared to other countries at approximately 1-2% of notifications per year being classified as MDR-TB. Australia’s overseas-born population constitute the majority (86%) of TB notifications while the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population are recorded to exhibit around 6 times higher TB rates than the non-Indigenous population (Australian Government Department of Health, 2015). 
The incidence of tuberculosis (per 100,000 people) in Australia was reported at 6.1 in 2016 while the mortality rate was noted at 0.2 cases per 100,000 people. Tuberculosis mortality cases in Australia have continuously decreased since 2002 ending at 0.2 cases per 100,000 people in 2016.
What is contact tracing in epidemiology and what are the recommended steps for contact tracing for TB in Australia? 
In epidemiology, contact tracing refers to the identification and diagnosis of people who could have contracted an infection from an infected person through contact. 
Contact tracing has been used as a measure to control and stop the spread of infections in a community. It entails tracing people who have been in contact with an infected person in order to provide them with necessary counselling, testing and treatment if necessary, at the earliest time possible.

PUBH621 Epidemiology Assessment Task 2 Rubric. Ten items, each awarded 0-5 marks, totalling 50% of Unit grade 1 Standard of presentation with written communication, referencing and grammar 2. What is...

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