Epidemiology in Public and Global Health - Essay Example

This was the country’s worst ever cholera outbreak, considering the fact that the country had never suffered any cholera outbreak for over half a century. The purpose of this paper is therefore, to examine the factors that led to the outbreak of this epidemic in Haiti, the health promotion/health protection strategies that can be used to successfully mitigate the outbreak, as well as the role of a BSN nurse in addressing the outbreak. Summary of article Piarroux e.t al (2011) article, ‘Understanding the Cholera Epidemic in Haiti’ seeks to establish the source of the cholera outbreak, as well as the health protection strategies to mitigate its spread.

In mid-October 2010, the Haitian Ministry of Health reported the outbreak of cholera resulting from vibrio cholerae 01, a strain of cholera that is common in Asia. The epidemic came as a surprise because there was no incidence of cholera that had previously been reported in Haiti for more than half a century. Several hypotheses were drawn as to the likely causes of the outbreak, which included the hypothesis that the La Nina phenomenon experienced in the country was thus responsible for the growth of vibrio cholerae, and the other hypothesis of the importation of cholera disease from a country suffering from endemic cholera outbreaks (Piarroux e.

t al, 2011). Through the use of advanced software, ScTScan, for field survey and the compilation of statistical data, the researchers were able to trace the source of the cholera outbreak that was now spreading rapidly across the communities living in the lower regions of the Artibonite River. It was thus confirmed that the source of the cholera outbreak was River Artibonite, but not the earth quake as was initially thought. Epidemiological studies carried out by the researchers also seemed to support the hypothesis that the cholera outbreak in Haiti was imported.

This is because there was an established correlation of time and place between the eventual arrivals of the Nepalese military, which majority of their members came from a place experiencing a cholera outbreak (Piarroux e.t al, 2011). This hypothesis was further confirmed by the remoteness of the Merille region in central Haiti and the fact that there were no other incomers in the region. The importation of the cholera strain in the Artibonite River basin may be hugely attributed to the asymptomatic carriage of the bacterial in the soldiers’ stool residue (Piarroux e.

t al, 2011). This is because one of the most common transmission modes for cholera is through the fecal-oral route. Fecal-oral transmission in the Artibonite region can be directly attributed to the dumping of raw sewage into the Artibonite River from the Nepalese army camp, from where it flowed downstream into the rice fields along the river. This is evidenced by the fact that the majority of the cholera infections were recorded from the rice fields where 67% of the population there drank the untreated water from the river basin and canals (Piarroux e.

t al, 2011). Impact on nursing practice Nurses play an important role in the control and mitigation of any disease outbreaks. This is because a nurse, during the discharge of her professional duties, places not only her health at risk but also her security and welfare, so as to help administer the relevant medical treatment to a patient. It is thus the first and paramount