Author: Sana Rehman
The book depicts the interesting but alarming picture of multiple historical infection outbreaks. It signifies how the previous infection outbreak occurred and impacted the mental, physical & psychological wellbeing of humans. Also, unlike other disaster management book, it stressed upon the formulation of mental health response to combat against unique elements of a pandemic outbreak. The has book been divided into 13 sections including, introduction, history of the pandemic, psychology of pandemic, social, public & epidemiological aspects of the pandemic, the importance of culture in managing pandemic, preparing for an outbreak, Neuropsychiatric complication of pandemic, social distancing, the mental health of isolation or quarantine, mental health care for survivors, mental health assistance to family and vaccination.
The book is significant as it provided the historical evidenced based strategies, which would help in dealing with the contemporary COVID-19 pandemic. According to the introductory chapter, the most prevalent infection outbreaks were ZIKA Virus, MERS, SARS, HIV Pandemic, Ebola, Haemorrhage Fever, The Antoine Plague, The Justinian Plague, The Black Death, The Athenian Plague (430 B.C), SARS, Spanish Flue Pandemic (1918-1920), Swine Flue or H1N1/09 pandemic, Ebola Outbreak (2014-2016), Zika (2015-2016), and Smallpox in Yogoslavai (1972). The effects of these outbreaks developed the uneasiness & anxiety in previous centuries across the globe were described.
According to the book, the advances in therapies, health care, technologies, and international surveillance efforts could not faint the epidemic potential of an infection outbreak. The impact of infection outbreak on socio-economic life was also observed in the form of expansion, international travel, misuse of antimicrobial agent and attitude towards immunization. Hence the international public health intends to identify the infectious disease to reduce/ overcome the public health risk.
Mental health experts devoted
their contribution, but unfortunately, the psychiatric care in the infectious
outbreak could not get recognition as a discipline. The subspecialty psychiatry
(a) consultation-liaison psychiatry (b) and disaster psychiatry were introduced
and applied to control the mental health responses of the people.
The book highlights the several pandemic responses such as time-lapse and disease
modelling, mental health burden on health workers, quarantine neuropsychiatry,
behavioural contagions and emotional epidemiology and the precarious status of
health care facilities. The book advocates the mental health responses to these
outbreaks following the insanity and plague concept.
The book describes the number of
cultural, religious and burial approaches to mitigate the devastating impact of
a pandemic. Also, it, suggest that the preparation for an outbreak considering
medication, psychotherapies an intervention plan helps to reduce the
devastating consequences of the pandemic (Wolf, 2016).
The book acclaimed the strong relation between infection outbreak and neuropsychiatric complications. The biological and psychological impact of infection has been elaborated in the light of literature. The representation of biological anatomy due to infectious disease has been depicted very interestingly. Furthermore, it has also been elaborated that the treatment and medication of infection diseases cause neuropsychiatric complications such as delirium, dementia, schizophrenia, anxiety and depression (Munjal, 2017). The book also recommended the two effective ways to break the chain the pandemic, i.e. isolation and quarantine.
The history and emergence of quarantine and isolation have been elaborated in
details. Furthermore, it highlighted the mental health of the patients and
population who are exposed to isolation and pandemic. The most commonly
reported psychological issues were depression, anxiety, delirium, hopelessness,
despair, psychological trauma and cognitive impairment. The mental health
issues of people affected by quarantine have also been discussed. The book
demonstrates the psychiatric square of surviving the pandemic its
complications, and its treatment complications. In the acute phase of
suffering, minor symptoms can cause psychiatric symptoms from mood changes to
cognitive impairment.
The role of the health care worker in the crucial time of pandemic has been elaborated cornering their mental health. It was reported that health care workers experience psychological and emotional burnt during the isolation or quarantine. In the light of literature, multiple innervations and facilities were suggested to support them. The book provides a clear picture for providing the psychological first aid with the interventions and medications furthermore, as health care professionals provide self-less health care support.
The health care staff persistent exposure to stressful situation, increased the risk for death, separation from a loved one, traumatization and hopelessness. The findings highlight the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual need for health care professionals such as communication, leadership, support, health assessment, prophylactic medication, relaxation, mindfulness, self-help skill workforce resilience, teamwork, self-appreciation, and psychosocial programs for families. Lastly, the employee assistance program should be introduced to access the psychiatric and pharmacological intervention, antidepressants, psychotic interventions.
Although the provision of mental health support is
hard to provide but a crucial part. The book highlight the importance and need
of mental health facilities to a family member, survivors and health care staff
through grief and loss counselling, medication and psychological interventions.
Finally, the role of vaccination
in controlling the pandemic has been elaborated. Initially, the book
illustrates the discoveries of the vaccine started from 1706s for the
management of smallpox. In 1881 Loius pasture discovered the management for
chicken cholera and anthrax. The twenty centuries several successful
vaccinations have been introduced against Diphtheria, Mumps, Measles and
Rebbula. The polio vaccine has been one of the major development for Herps,
Simplex, HIV, Gonorrhoea and Malaria. Then the dependency and effectiveness of
the vaccine have been elaborated. The economic changes in the development and
preservation of vaccine have been elaborated.
Vaccination policy reported is being a critical element in attaining the immunity against infectious disease. Role of national authorities and agencies such as WHO, European Commission and CDC in immunization agenda has also been highlighted. Vaccination in the context of the pandemic outbreak has also been elaborated. According to the book, the vaccine was working effectively; but due to new strains, the advancement in vaccination was needed.
The adverse effect of the vaccine on the
mental health of patients has also been addressed in details. Overall, the book
provided the historical background of infection diseases along with treatment
modalities. The book has contemporary significance as like other historical
infection diseases; the COVID-19 can also be controlled using pharmacological,
psychological and vaccination (Goldberg, 2020: Li et al., 2020).