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How can disease control officers retain the strengths of their programmes while moving ahead towards more integrated and sector-wide approaches?
Disease control refers to a broad package of strategies for controlling diseases, from primary prevention, health promotion, and health legislation to screening for early detection, treatment and rehabilitation. In order to choose the right strategies for a specific disease in a given situation, the health care manager needs to understand the context in which a disease arises, the factors contributing to its spread and the natural course of the disease.
In this module, a number of diseases, both communicable and non-communicable (NCD), are used as models to demonstrate different aspects and principles of disease control. A wide variety of situations relevant to public health are discussed, including malaria as an acute and vector-borne disease, tuberculosis with its aspects of case holding and its relation to AIDS, and child survival strategies. Refugee situations and outbreaks are discussed, with reference to problems of logistics and water-borne diseases. Mental health problems, traffic injuries and smoking and cardiovascular diseases are the basis for looking at the differences and similarities in control strategies between communicable and non-communicable diseases. Over- and under-nutrition, including micronutrient deficiencies, are discussed in relation to infectious diseases and NCDs. Part of this module is carried out through interactive learning in a Virtual Learning Community.
