Public health interventions for outbreak management

The rapid assessment and management of acute public health events such as disease outbreaks reduces or prevents disease in affected populations and reduces the negative social and economic consequences.  
This presentation will cover the public health aspects of outbreak management in the context of the risk management cycle – prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.  The underlying premise of early warning surveillance systems is that if we identify and treat risks early, we can prevent or manage potential adverse public health outcomes more readily. Rapid response teams, typically involving epidemiologists, clinicians, laboratory scientists and risk communicators are typically involved in the rapid risk assessment of incoming signals of disease outbreaks and in more formal outbreak investigations. Public health measures should be evidence based and take into account factors that place individuals and communities at higher risk of exposure and disease, including the social, economic, environmental, ethical, policy and disease control program factors that increase or decrease population vulnerability and resilience.  As human behavior drives epidemics, the importance of social and behavioural interventions for disease prevention and control is highlighted. 
Disease outbreaks do not respect international borders.  The International Health Regulations (2005) is the legal framework for collective responsibility to global health security by governments and the World Health Organization.  WHO’s public health event management system protects global health security by ensuring that events are detected early and that international resources are available to countries managing acute public health events that have the potential for international disease spread.