Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Smith, James A.
• Judd, Jenni

Titel

COVID-19: Vulnerability and the power of privilege in a pandemic

Ist Teil von

• Health promotion journal of Australia, 2020-04, Vol.31 (2), p.158-160

Ort / Verlag

West Perth, WA: Australian Health Promotion Association

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

Wiley Online Library Journals Frontfile Complete

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization announced that COVID-19 was characterised as a pandemic—a global first for coronavirus. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness such as the common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. A novel coronavirus is typically a new strain of the infectious disease that has not been previously identified in humans. COVID-19 is the most recent version of a novel coronavirus. COVID-19 has received significant public and government attention over the past weeks after it was first detected in the Wuhan province of China in December 2019, with subsequent epidemics in China, Italy, Republic of Korea and Iran. As of 12 March 2020, 125 000 cases were reported from 118 countries and territories globally, with predictions this will continue to rise rapidly. This has led to an array of public health measures being advocated by the WHO, including four critical areas for action—(a) prepare and be ready; (b) detect, protect and treat; (c) reduce transmission; and (d) innovate and learn. This has been complemented, to varying degrees, through concurrent action by local, state and national governments worldwide. There can be a tendency in the health promotion profession to think of infectious diseases from a biomedical viewpoint. As such, the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases is sometimes perceived to be the responsibility of the clinical realm. Yet, the reality is that both nonclinical and clinical public health responses are required—and sometimes we need to relax professional boundaries to work collaboratively for the health and wellbeing of our communities. We need to work in partnership with health surveillance teams, epidemiologists, environmental health scientists, public health physicians, infectious disease physicians, general practitioners, nurses, allied health professions, health policy-makers, health planners, health geographers and many others, to reduce the risks associated with pandemics. We also need to work across sectors to achieve the best possible outcomes.