OUR RESPONSE TO MEASLES OUTBREAK
HELLO FELLOW STEEMIANS, FELLOW ULOGGERS #ulog and to @surpasinggoogle
Today I'm gonna share to you about what I'm up to this week of duty as a Community Health Nurse.
WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING IN MY JOB
The main job of a Community Health Nurse is to render quality service to the community people regadrless of their age group, religion and ethnicity. My aim as a health care provider is to give the Basic Health Services to the clients that is served both in community and health-center setting namely: National Immunization Program, Prenatal and Postnatal Care, Newborn and Child Care; Provision of Family Planning Services/ Counselling; Noncommunicable Disease Screening and Management and National Tuberculosis Program. These health services are being rendered across our country free of charge especially for the poor and indigent people.
THE LOCAL OUTBREAK
Furthermore, it is also our job to monitor the health status of the community and to keep track of the probable disease that would likely spread in no time. Just this month, Measles has plagued the Mindanao portion of here in Philippines. According to the recent survey, there are currently 4, 168 cases of MEASLES that have been confirmed by blood samples. 723 cases have been confined in Public and Private Hospitals and are under serious treatment. 13 deaths caused by the said disease have been reported by the Department of Health and the bulk of these cases are prevalent in CARAGA REGION wherein I'm residing. It was believed that the infection emanated from Surigao del Sur.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF MEASLES
Measles is a highly contagious disease caused by rubeola virus. It is a disease that is endemic which means it is continuously present in a community. It is characterized by fever, cough, coryza (runny nose) and conjuctivitis. However, its pathognomonic sign is the appearance of Koplik Spots(very small grayish-white spots with bluish centers) that can be found in the mouth and insides of cheeks and throat.
The most common complications that could likely result to death are sever diarrhea and vomiting, difficulty of breathing, respiratory tract infections and febrile seizures.
Patients who are immuno-compromised could likely acquire pneumonia in conjunction with Measles. This can be fatal if not treated the soonest.
DOH's INTERVENTION
The disease has contiously spread all over butuan. So the DOH's intervention for this is to immunize more children of age rage as many as possible to avoid further cases.
Just this morning, we went house-to-house visits and fixpost immunization. We brought paraphernalias for this day: sterile syringes, cotton balls with alcohol, safety needle boxes, master lists of children, diluents and MMR (Measles Mumps Rubella Vaccine kept cool inside a small vaccine carrier with cooldogs in it.
We endured the scorching hat outdoors just to reach those children and vaccinated them aseptically.
We had 38 children vaccinated for today. Not bad for a first day of MRR community vaccination!
Me as well as my team is looking forward for a huge number of children to be vaccinated on our next schedule.
Until next time guys.
Most of the children are suffering from measles. your post help to prevent this disease.Thanks for your information.