Evaluation on a trans-provincial disaster relief and disease prevention drill by a Hubei Provincial Health Emergency Team for Acute Infectious Disease Control and Prevention

ZHENGLiguo; GUANXuhua; ZHANGTianbao; LIULi; andLIUYang

doi:10.13919/j.issn.2095-6274.2017.02.001

Abstract：Objective This study objective was to test the rapid response capability of a health emergency team for acute infectious disease control and to enhance team members' professional skills in disaster relief and disease control. Methods An assessment scheme and score chart was formulated and applied;a health emergency team organized for a trans-provincial disaster relief drill;rapid assembling, trans-provincial mobility, wilderness survival, on-site first aid and health epidemic prevention were set up as the evaluating tasks for trainning the team to find out the weaknesses. Results (1) The team members' complete rate of load-carrying equipment,which included uniform identifications, camping and office supplies was 100.0%;they completed the drill tasks without external support, which included camping in the wild, hiking while carrying a load and being self-sufficient;team members demonstrated the ability to carry out health emergency tasks under extreme conditions. (2) The levels of emergency response capacity were found to be different among team members. Points were lost in the medical first aid skills, the cardiopulmonary resuscitation score for red team was 6.5 and 9.5 for the blue team;the score for first aid of a bone fracture was 7.8 in the red team and 7.0 in the blue team. Points were also lost in anti-epidemic skills, such as rapid assessment for post-disaster public health risks (red team 6.4, blue team 5.6), water source assessment and treatment (red team 9.0, blue team 5.0) and vector control (red team 6.5, blue team 5.0). Conclusions The drill increased participants' emergency response capabilities and skill levels but it also exposed their weaknesses. Dedicated training is needed to improve the weaknesses identified, and the drill pattern and assessment method needs to be further improved.