public health ethical concern

Public Health Ethical Concern
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Public health ethics is described as the process of identifying, analyzing and resolving ethical and moral conflicts that arise in public health practice that eventually guide the decision-making process. Public health ethical concerns are diverse. One ethical concern revolves around infection control.
Measures for infectious control generally affect the freedom of a large population. Such measures are usually justified because of their public health benefits and the patients at large. Moreover, measures applied raises ethical concern questions. For instance, while individuals infected with infectious diseases threaten the health of other individuals and society at large, public health measures such as isolation, quarantine, and surveillance often require a violation of basic human rights. People may be detained in quarantine for long period of time. Social injustices and racism are likely to occur in such cases. For instance, Ebola outbreak in sub-Saharan Africa results in restricted movement of Africans to other European countries and a high degree of scrutiny, detention, and isolation. Quarantine causes the societal impact of restricting and preventing movement. (Day et al., 2006).
The role of policymakers such as International Health Regulations provides for adapted response and containment at the source instead of on the present measures. The aim is to prevent and control the spread of infectious diseases and provide a public health response that do not interfere with the individual rights of movement and the society at large.

Also, governments, stakeholders and medical practitioners must prepare at all times in the event of an outbreak of infectious disease (WHO 2009). One policy that applies instantly is the closure of all borders to contain the situation. The government through the health practitioners should on frequent occasions create awareness and educate the public on the importance and need for drastic measures such as isolation and quarantine. The society should understand the necessity of such measure and their importance on their health.
In conclusion, legislation regarding infectious control measures must be put in place, well understood and accepted by the public. In the event of a crisis, actions must be drastic and swift, as there is limited time to discuss the aspects of human rights violations. When the situation is contained, it is important to discuss the ethical as well as the legal aspects of infection control measures for the society, affected and infected people to understand their implications. Also, it is important to apply the relevant scientific principles to ensure preparedness and quick response mechanism for infectious diseases to minimize loss of human life.
References
Day T, Park A, Madras N, Gumel A, Wu J. (2006). When Is Quarantine a Useful Control
Strategy for Emerging Infectious Diseases? Journal of Epidemiology. 163:479–485.
WHO: Whole-of-society pandemic readiness. WHO guidelines for pandemic preparedness and
The response in the non-health sector (Geneva, July 2009). Retrieved from:
HYPERLINK “http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/CP045_20090808_WOS_Pandemic_Readiness-” http://www.who.int/csr/disease/influenza/CP045_20090808_WOS_Pandemic_Readiness-
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