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3.2.15 Major Disease Outbreak
Calculated Priority Risk Index Planning Significance
2.75 Moderate
Description
Infectious diseases are human illnesses caused by microscopic agents, including viruses,
bacteria, parasites, and fungi or by their toxins. They may be spread by direct contact with an
infected person or animal, ingesting contaminated food or water, vectors such as mosquitoes or
ticks, contact with contaminated surroundings such as animal droppings, infected droplets, or by
aerosolization. Kansas’s public health and health care communities must be prepared to rapidly
identify and contain a wide range of biological agents. Each year local public health
departments and the Kansas Department of Health & Environment investigate disease
“outbreaks” of routine illnesses such as food borne illness and sexually transmitted diseases.
There have also been outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as mumps. During
2009, a pandemic “scare” served as a wake-up call to the public health and medical care
communities regarding the requirements for personnel, pharmaceuticals, equipment and public
education during large scale disease outbreaks.
While there are a number of biological diseases/agents that are of concern to the planning area,
the following categories of disease are being addressed in this plan: vaccine preventable
disease, food borne disease, and community associated infections as having significant
recurring impact on the potential morbidity of Region L. The following descriptions are general
and it should be noted that individuals may experience more or less severe consequences
based upon their own circumstances.
While there are a number of biological diseases that are of concern to the planning area, the
planning committee chose to focus its narrative on the ones being followed the most closely,
which are measles, mumps, pertussis, influenza, pandemic influenza, and food borne illnesses.
Vaccine Preventable Disease
Measles
Measles (rubeola) is a respiratory disease caused by a virus. The disease of measles and the
virus that causes it share the same name. The measles virus normally grows in the cells that
line the back of the throat and lungs. Measles typically causes fever, runny nose, cough and a
rash all over the body.
About one out of 10 children with measles also gets an ear infection, and up to one out of 20
gets pneumonia. About one out of 1,000 gets encephalitis, and one or two out of 1,000 die.
While measles is almost gone from the United States, it still kills nearly 200,000 people each
year around the world. Measles can also make a pregnant woman have a miscarriage or give
birth prematurely. Measles spreads through the air by breathing, coughing or sneezing. It is so
contagious that any child who is exposed to it and is not immune will probably get the disease.
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