How do I Prevent the Spread of Disease in a Low Population Density?

Disease spread and population density are highly correlated. Most diseases require that their host organisms come into close contact with another compatible organism in order to spread, meaning that denser populations of suitable hosts promote faster spread of a disease and that less-dense populations inhibit disease communication. Because disease prevention relies so heavily on contact between potential carriers, lower population densities have an increased chance of controlling disease spread.

Things You'll Need

• Medical specialists
• Portable communication devices
• Communication center
• Isolation zones for infected individuals

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Instructions

• 1

  Isolating part of an affected community can help control disease spread.

  Station medical specialists close to areas of relative population concentration within the at-risk area. These medical specialists should be capable of conducting self-sustaining medical triage operations in order to treat infected population members without exposing non-infected individuals and medical personnel from other population concentrations to the pathogen. Equip the medical specialists with radios or cellular telephones so that they can communicate with a center that will coordinate their efforts and track the spread of the disease.

• 2

  Dispatch the medical specialists responsible for their section of the population to treat individuals within the zone who report symptoms associated with the disease. They will examine potentially infected individuals to ascertain if infection is present, and collect information on whom these individuals have come into contact with in the incubation period of the infection.

• 3

  Transport infected individuals to a designated isolation area within the medical specialist's region of responsibility. This can be any area where uninfected individuals can be kept out and infected individuals kept in so as to prevent disease transmission. In addition, any individuals who have come into contact with the verified infected individual should be isolated within a room in their own dwelling to help prevent disease communication during the incubation period if they later turn out to be infected.

• 4

  Communicate all details of the infection, including symptoms, treatment procedures, apparent spread and mortality to the communication center. This will allow statistics to be gathered while keeping portions of the community separate from uninfected areas in order to contain the disease.

• 5

  Maintain isolation and containment procedures as long as the infection could be incubating in any member of the population. This includes medical personnel conducting treatment operations within the infected areas. Medical personnel will have potentially come into contact with the disease numerous times, and may carry specimens on clothing or equipment. Once the last population member to potentially be infected has been disease free beyond both the incubation period and the maximum lifetime of the pathogen outside of a host, the isolation and containment procedures may be lifted.