Effective risk communication strategy by health authorities in advance for dengue could have prevented the deaths, feel health experts.
Risk communication is an essential function to disseminate information about outbreaks of epidemics and emergencies to people, Dr. Meghana V. Aruru and Dr. Vivek Singh, Associate Professors at Indian Institute of Public Health-Public Health Foundation of India told The Hindu . Risk communication alerts could manifest in different ways-- colour coded risks as developed by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with red indicating the highest threat.
After hurricane Katrina claimed over 1,200 lives and damaged property estimated at nearly $ 108 billion, the FEMA disseminated information through collaboration with State and local public health authorities. Similarly, US-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have dedicated teams of epidemiologists to scour their passive surveillance system to identify disease outbreaks.
