In this task, students will act as Public Health Officers within a state/territory Health Department notified of a tuberculosis index case and undertake appropriate contract tracing and exposure...

Running Head: Simulated Contact Tracing and Exposure Assessment
Simulated Contact Tracing and Exposure Assessment
PUBH621 Assessment 2
Simulated Contact Tracing and Exposure Assessment
Student Name:
Student ID:
University:
Notifiable Disease
Any disease which needs to be reported to the government authorities on detection and confirmation (Communicable Disease Network Australia, 2018). The Notifiable Diseases can be communicable diseases, bloodborne diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, vaccine preventable diseases, vector borne diseases, zoonoses, listed human diseases and bacterial diseases.
The information reported helps the authorities to monitor the prevalence of disease and provide necessary warnings for the potential outbreaks of disease. According to Communicable Disease Network Australia (CDNA), the prevalence and status of nationally notified communicable diseases is informed to Commonwealth’s National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS) which helps to frame policies for public health and combating the national outbreaks of reported diseases. CDNA recommended more than 80 communicable diseases as nationally notifiable. The list includes Anthrax, Avian Influenza in Human, Botulism, Cholera, Chlamydial infection, Dengu Virus infection, Hepatitis A,B,C,D, and E, Influenza, Malaria, Measles, Mumps, Plague, Tetanus, Tuberculosis and many more.
The surveillance of communicable diseases at the national level involves recognizing the nationwide trend, guiding the development of policy and allocating resources, investigating the requirement of national programs for disease control, reporting the statistics of notifiable diseases to WHO. The rate of notification of these diseases is assessed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Signs and Symptoms of Tuberculosis
The Tuberculosis can be characterized by the symptoms like a bad cough for the last 3 weeks, coughing out the sputum, shortness of breath and pain in chest. The other symptoms involve chills, fever, fatigue, and weight loss (unintentional), no appetite, enlarged lymph nodes and sweat at night. The bacteria of TB usually develop in the lungs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). During the latent or inactive condition, the bacteria stays inside the body however causes no visible symptoms. During the active Tuberculosis, the person gets influenced by visible signs and symptoms. The disease also adversely affects the lungs, kidneys, brain and spine. The person may experience back pain, and blood in the urine (Leader,2018).
The notifications for TB for the last one year are reported to be 10% higher than the earlier 5 years reports. In Australia the incidence of TB is notified to be lowest in the world which is around 5 people in every 1 lakh population has TB in Australia (Department of Health, 2018).
A retrospective analysis of epidemiology of TB in Australia showed that the prevalence of disease was fairly stable by 2015 (5.3 person in every 1 lakh population annually). The importation of the TB cases through overseas visiting and migration was also one of the greatest contributors to the number (Jones, Johnston, Appuhamy & Kaczmarek, 2017).
Contract Tracing in Epidemiology
In Epidemiology the process of contact tracing is used to mitigate the impact of various infectious diseases. It includes the diagnosis, identification and follow-up of the (index patients) people who might have come in the contact of a person who is already infected with the disease. The practice ensures that these patients are aware of their exposure to infection and adopt required measures to solve them. All the close contacts are recognized and investigated to recommend possible preventive measures to solve the disease (World Health Organisation, 2014).
Recommended steps for contact tracing for TB in Australia
According to World Health Organisation (2017), the process of contact tracing involves three steps: contact identification, contact listing and contact follow up, to monitor the symptoms of TB and conduct examinations for the signs of infection.
The process tests the exposure of the Tuberculosis Bacteria in the people who have been in contact with the patients already diagnosed with the untreated active state of Tuberculosis. The people depicted to be at risk of incepting the TB infection are recommended to undergo one of the following three tests: Chest X Ray, Tuberculin Skin Test or the Quantiferon Blood Test (Government of Western Australia, 2018).
The identified people are given medicines to treat the Tuberculosis and stop the disease from transforming into active state. It is known as Preventative Treatment. The diagnosed people are also given counseling and education to prevent the further spread of infection.
The most relevant priorities for the control and prevention of tuberculosis are timely recognition and the medical treatment of symptoms, early detection of the new cases of TB occurring due to contact of the existing TB patients, and...