University Name: PUBH6006 Ebola Emergency Response Plan

This report addresses the creation of a community engagement and mobilization strategy for an emergency response plan in the event of an Ebola virus outbreak. The strategy emphasizes a step-by-step approach, ensuring active community participation alongside authorities and health agencies. The report begins with an introduction to Ebola, its transmission, and the need for coordinated responses, highlighting the importance of prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. It discusses the Australian Health Management plan and contrasts top-down and bottom-up approaches to emergency preparedness, advocating for a bottom-up approach to involve communities in decision-making. The intervention strategy outlines stages of preparedness, response, action, and stand-down, emphasizing community-based preparedness and the roles of national, local, international, and regional bodies. The report details health emergency preparedness components, including participation, consultation, engagement, organization, capacity building, and action, and concludes by emphasizing the need for a flexible, evidence-based approach that empowers communities. The report references key literature to support its findings.

Running head: COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
Name of the student
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Introduction
Ebola is a highly contagious disease spread through direct contact with body fluids from
the infected humans or animals. It is characterised by a viral haemorrhagic fever that starts
between two days and three weeks after contracting the virus. It is one of the most deadly and
virulent pathogens infecting humans. The first Ebola outbreak occurred in 1946 near the Ebola
River Zaire (Kourtis et al., 2015). More than 20 Ebola outbreaks have occurred in the past 40
years and became a case of death of more than 1500 humans (Kourtis et al., 2015). The main
route of transmission of Ebola virus are through direct contact with the body fluid of an infected
individual through breaks in the skin or inoculation in the eyes, nose and mouth (Khalafallah et
al., 2017). Controlling and managing Ebola outbreaks require a combination of both the
coordinated service medical services as well as community engagement including a wide range
of facilities like rapid detection, access to the laboratory services, contact tracing of the infected
individual, and care and treatment for those who are exposed to the disease and a proper disposal
of the dead who was infected with this virus (Laverack & Manoncourt, 2016). The paper focuses
on managing such emergency situations and developing intervention strategies to respond to the
health emergency by involving communities and the healthcare authorities in the intervention
plan.
Discussion
To respond to such a health emergency, an effective intervention plan must be
implemented through prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. The Australian Health
Management plan, the national government health sector must outline the arrangements between

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the Australian government and State and Territory government for the management of such
emergency situation. To support a coordinated and an integrated approach, it must also give an
outline of the responsibilities to the stakeholders of other health sector who will be involved in
the process. The orders must be written in the for the decision makers and inform about the
planning of the operation in both the state and territory governments and also the broader
Government of Australia (Health.gov.au, 2019).
Approaches to health emergency preparedness-
Top-Down versus Bottom-up Approach:
A top down approach starts from a large, originated and a basic unit placed in the highest
rank. The decisions are made at a central level and it assumes a predication of the order of events
and also assumes that it is the responsibility of the state to deal with the emergency or crisis that
either fails or succeeds. Whereas, in bottom down is build up from details with the involvement
and it is a system of a collective responsibility and response of both the state and local
communities and facilitates a multi layered governance structures. It includes a range of systems
like public, private, community and the media (Parsons et al., 2016). In top down approach the
decisions made and implemented are mire quicker in the emergency cases. This is particularly
important when an immediate response in needed. It helps in aligning the response gaols with the
strategy goals, however, when applying a top down approach, the communities are left out
sharing their opinions (Parsons et al., 2016). This can lead to an unspecific situations can lead to
misunderstandings resulting into a fail response since community does not know the response
plan in details. Involving the community members first, that is, following a bottom up approach
allows the community members to take part in the decision making process and enables the

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decision to be made collaboratively with the government authorities. It improves communication
and empowers the community by motivating them to take part actively in the effective response
process (Laverack & Manoncourt, 2016). However, applying a bottom up approach is time
consuming and required a coordinated effort when compared to that of the top down approach
and it is sometimes not applicable and suitable for sensitive projects.
Intervention strategy for responding to an emergency situation:
When managing Ebola outbreaks in a certain location, the intervention strategy for
emergency response plan should be implemented following a bottom up approach by involving
both the community members as well as medical by establishing a pre agreed arrangement by
developing services in the plan involving a range of health services required to control such
emergency situations (Laverack & Manoncourt, 2016). The approach of the intervention
strategies must involve the following stages:
1. Preparedness-
 By establishing the pre agreed arrangements through the development of plans.
 Researching and finding out the strategies for managing such Ebola outbreaks.
 Ensuring resource availability and instant response and monitoring the emergence of the
disease.
2. Response-
 Preparing to commence the enhanced arrangements
 Recognizing and characterizing the disease

4COMMUNITY HEALTH AND DISEASE PREVENTION
 Communicating effectively with the community and creating awareness among the
community members and confirm the arrangements that are made by the governance
system.
3. Action- Action should be planned based on both initial and targeted group of activities.
The initial action is given when the information on the disease is occasional. It is done by
preparing and supporting the need of the health systems and managing them. Initial
action is taken by providing information to support the best practice health care and
practice by empowering and creating awareness among the communities and the
responders to manage the risk of exposure to such diseases.
4. Stand-down- This is done by supporting and maintaining a quality care and prevent any
activities that are not required and the transition activities to seasonal arrangements.
Monitor for the potential impact that the outbreak can have and monitor on whether there
is any chance of further outbreak. The plan should include developing an antiviral
resistance.
In case of any emergency, the preparedness relies on a complex mechanism that are difficult
to execute and needs a coordinated approach to address and problem solving. There are a lot of
approaches available for emergency preparedness and the framework to execute the strategies for
preparedness is based on the level of implementation of the preparedness and strategic
approaches for preparedness.
Community-based emergency preparedness-
During an emergency crisis, preparedness can only be achieved by the involvement and
active participation of local governments, commercial organizations, local leaders, civil society

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organizations and also individual citizens. The communities actively take role in the
preparedness and reinforce it for any emergencies ranging from local to national procedures to
pandemic and disasters. The preparedness for community must be supported by the local and the
national plans indicating the community’s presentation in the national policy development to a
greater extent (who.int, 2019).
National/ local based preparedness-
National government ensures to safeguard the wellbeing of the community through the
involvement of rights and obligations. National or any subnational policies outlines the
responsibilities of the local government and other stakeholders for the preparedness of
emergency. To combat with the risks involved both at local or national level as well as for any
large scale disasters of international ramifications, efforts must be made for preparedness to
manage such emergency situations (who.int, 2019).
International or regional-
The responses that surpasses the capabilities of local and also national authorities, both
global and regional preparedness is important. National authorities and government bodies when
managing such emergency situations regarding health consequences, they benefit from
commodities and external supplements and resources for taking any national action. This
involves both technical as well as financial assistance to empower country and community for
emergency preparedness (who.int, 2019).
Health Emergency Preparedness-
 Participation- To aid in the management of such a crisis, risk and emergency
communications must be executed to provide public with facts and information

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about any unexpected emergency which is beyond the control of the organization
and needs an urgent response (Emergency.cdc.gov, 2019). Community must be
involved in the execution of the emergency response and to distribute facts and
information in emergency cases (Emergency.cdc.gov, 2019).
 Consultation- When an emergency situation or a crisis occurs, accurate and
important information must be distributed and delivered to the community to
ensure people’s safety. In relation to the concern of people about Ebola virus, they
should know how it spreads or transmits and how it pose risk on the individuals.
 Engagement- Communities should be engaged by including them in the efforts for
response and participate in the response process to promote effective actions
(Emergency.cdc.gov, 2019).
 Organization- Australia has a strong health system facilitating to take measures
and provide an effective health response for any crisis management, even during a
bioterrorism event or any natural disaster or in any outbreaks of communicable
diseases (Health.gov.au, 2019).
 Capacity building- The communities must also be involved in all the activities for
implementing emergency proceedings. Local and international NGOs play a
crucial role in the community based emergency preparedness by through the
availability and involvement of adequate resources to support the capacity of the
state
 Action- When the risk is severe and at a very critical stage, the action is targeted
to support and deliver quality care to the community and to the infected
individuals. The targeted actions should ensure a proportionate response by

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communicating and engaging the community in the decision making process by
considering their point of view and empowering and motivating them to
participate in an effective response process.
 Possible empowerment- Engaging community in the strategy improves
communication and empowers the community by motivating them to take part
actively in the effective response process (Storey et al., 2017).
For an emergency preparedness, a logical report must be made by focusing on the threats
involved in the crisis. The logic model gives a structural framework for accessing preparedness
in the States and in all Public Emergency capacities and identifies gap in the skills, expertise and
knowledge of both the public health as well as the preparedness professionals. A competency
health model is applied to all health emergency preparedness systems and provides individual
with competencies. Preparedness of public health emergency is a complex and diverse process
and requires engagement of community and society to prepare for health threats or risks caused
by communicable disease like Ebola.
Conclusion
To respond to such a health emergency, an effective intervention plan must be
implemented through prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. The plan must include
the key approaches following the use of existing systems and the governance for responding to
such outbreaks. A stringer link must be built with arrangements of the Emergency Services for
capitalizing in the existing system without any duplication. The plan must also recognize the
ability to implement this plan in response to any such outbreaks that is threatening to the health
systems. The plan must also adopt to a flexible approach that can be adjusted as per the needs

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and requirements of the people experiencing it. The intervention plan must support Evidence
Based Decision Making by analysing both the risks and benefits of the public health measures. It
should give a clear, proper and a detailed guidance on the National surveillance data and also
recognize the role of communication activities as an important factor in managing the response
involving the basic guidelines, mechanisms and principles for facilitating this. In case of any
emergency, the preparedness relies on a complex mechanism that are difficult to execute and
needs a coordinated approach to address and problem solving therefore, communities must be
engaged and motivated and give empower to take part in the response process.

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References:
Parsons, M., Glavac, S., Hastings, P., Marshall, G., McGregor, J., McNeill, J., ... & Stayner, R.
(2016). Top-down assessment of disaster resilience: A conceptual framework using
coping and adaptive capacities. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 19, 1-
11.
Laverack, G., & Manoncourt, E. (2016). Key experiences of community engagement and social
mobilization in the Ebola response. Global Health Promotion, 23(1), 79-82.
Kourtis, A. P., Appelgren, K., Chevalier, M. S., & McElroy, A. (2015). Ebola virus disease:
focus on children. The Pediatric infectious disease journal, 34(8), 893.
Khalafallah, M. T., Aboshady, O. A., Moawed, S. A., & Ramadan, M. S. (2017). Ebola virus
disease: Essential clinical knowledge. Avicenna journal of medicine, 7(3), 96.
Storey, J. D., Chitnis, K., Obregon, R., & Garrison, K. (2017). Community engagement and the
communication response to Ebola. Journal of health communication, 22(sup1), 2-4.
Emergency.cdc.gov. (2019). Retrieved 30 August 2019, from
https://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/ppt/CERC_Introduction.pdf
Health.gov.au. (2019). Retrieved 30 August 2019, from
https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/519F9392797E2DDCC
A257D47001B9948/$File/AHMPPI.pdf

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who.int. (2019). Retrieved 30 August 2019, from
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/254883/9789241511827-
eng.pdf;jsessionid=1C2975FD0602F5AA328EC475455C0F19?sequence=1