34. Area of biological damage – Characteristics, Medical Activities for Localization and Eradication

Area of Biological damage- characteristics. Medical activities for localisation and eradication

Written by Anam Hussain

Definition:

Biological area of damage (BAOD) can be defined as an area where the environment an living organisms are under the impacts/affected by the biological damaging factor.

Characteristics:

Biological damaging factors include the likes of: viruses, bacteria, protozoa, prions, fungi and also their toxins. Each of them have specific characteristics which will determine the epidemic process in the BAOD. These characteristics include:

• Contagiousness/infectivity: refers to the proportion of exposed people who become infected
• Virulence: refers to the severity of the clinical manifestations and the course of the disease
• Mortality: refers to the percentage of infected people dying from the infection
• Resistance of bio-agent in the environment: is up most important for the spread of the infection and the size of the BAOD
• Drug resistance: refers to ability of micro-organisms to reduce the effectiveness of medication applied during treatment
• Stage of subclinical disease- extending from time of exposure to onset of symptoms. Usually called incubation period for infectious diseases.

Origin of BAOD:

• Can be caused by an epidemic
• Can be caused by deliberate use of biological weapons
• Can be the result of secondary damaging factors in different disasters
• Can be caused by impaired sanitation and hygiene due to: impaired waste management, contamination of environment, high population density in health centres, lack of hygiene supplies, jeopardised primary healthcare

There are two types of casualties in the BAOD:

• Primary casualties: those directly infected by the source or vector of the disease
• Secondary casualties: those infected by primary casualties

DMS in case of BAOD:

• It is the only area of damage in which search and rescue teams do not enter
• Efforts on disaster medical support are performed primary by medical teams who are assisted by police and armed forces
• Casualties are not taken out of the BAOD as FMS is located directly within it
• Care is provided within the BAOD and measures are taken to control the spread of the biological agent

Medical Standard Operating Procedure (SOP):

1. Active search of infected casualties and casualties which have come into contact with infected ones
2. Isolation and treatment of infected and monitoring of the ones that had contact with infected ones (during isolation)
3. Isolation and treatment of the infected, isolation and monitoring of the one that had contact (during quarantine)
4. Health education activities
5. Passive immunization
6. Strict sanitary control
7. Active immunization