Public Health

Health protection

Healthcare services

Health improvement

Communicable

infectious disease that can be passed from one person to another

Not all infectious diseases are transmissible from person to person- e.g. tetanus

Non-communicable

Health Protection

Our efforts to protect individuals & populations from communicable and non-communicable diseases

Communicable disease

Serious threat to public health- COVID-19

Vaccination, R numbers, media, contact tracing

Factors- prevention, surveillance, isolation, treatment

Prevention

Pharmaceutical- antibiotics, vaccines

Non-pharmaceutical- mask wearing, social distancing, hand hygiene, isolation

Isolation- when cases identified those infected should isolate themselves to prevent transmission

Surveillance- of spread of infection, arising variants

Treatment- prophylaxis or combating infection

EPRR- emergency preparedness, resilience and response

Responsible body- UK health security agency (AXA) + NHS England + local NHS organisations

Local health protection teams- work with community teams, GPs and hospitals

Health Protection Notification regulations- registered medical practitioners have a statutory duty to report notifiable infectious diseases

Must notify local authority/health protection team

Don’t need to wait for confirmation to report it - as soon as you suspect it

Labs must also report notifiable organisms

Civil Contingencies Act

Framework for responding to emergencies

Inc health cries, natural disasters, terrorist acts

Emergency powers, provisions in times of crisis

Category 1

National health bodies for the emergency response

Category 2

Other organisations e.g. Thames water

Cabinet Office Breaching Room A- COBRA Meetings