COMMUNICABLE DISEASE TOOLKIT FOR IRAQ CRISIS
The purpose of the Communicable Disease Toolkit is to provide health
professionals in UN agencies, NGOs, donor agencies and local authorities
working on the Iraq crisis with up-to-date guidelines and standards for
controlling communicable diseases.
It comprises:
(These files are in Adobe PDF format. You may need to download Adobe
Acrobat Reader to view them)
The Communicable Disease Profile for Iraq aims to provide
up-to-date information on the major communicable disease threats faced by
the emergency-affected population. The list of endemic and epidemic
diseases has been selected on the basis of the burden of morbidity and
mortality and include acute lower respiratory tract infections (ALRI),
cholera, bacillary dysentery, measles, leishmaniasis, malaria, meningitis
and tuberculosis. Diseases that have global eradication or elimination
goals are also included. The document outlines the burden of communicable
diseases in Iraq for which data are available, provides data on recent
outbreaks in the country, and presents disease-specific guidelines on the
prevention and control of these diseases. The Profile also includes an
annex on the incidence of major communicable diseases and vaccination
coverage rates in the six countries neighbouring Iraq.
The Health Surveillance Forms and Case Definitions have
been developed to provide early warning of epidemics, and in event of a
potential biological or chemical weapons (BCW) incident - to detect cases
of unknown disease occurring in a cluster. The surveillance forms will
also monitor ALRI, injuries/trauma and malnutrition. Alert thresholds for
epidemic-prone diseases, malnutrition and mortality are included in Guidelines
for use of surveillance forms. Case definitions are provided for main
epidemic-prone diseases and include an annex on signs and symptoms that
may be expected from chemical or biological agent exposure.
The control of communicable diseases represents a major challenge to
those providing health care services in Iraq and neighbouring countries.
It is hoped that this toolkit will facilitate the co-ordination of
communicable disease control activities between all agencies working in
the region.
Contact the Communicable Diseases in Complex Emergencies Programme, Communicable Disease Cluster, HQ/Geneva |
