Marking guide for Health Minister Report
Marking guide for Health Minister Report
Poor (0-45%) Borderline Pass (46% - 59%) Credit (60-69%) Distinction (70-79%) High Distinction (80 100%)
Introduction (/10) Missing introductory paragraph as specified by the guidelines Does not recap the outbreak or give indication of the impact of the outbreak, too brief (<250 words) Good intro creates picture of the outbreak but does not clearly set out the impact of current outbreak Engaging but may be missing some key information such as morbidity and or mortality Engaging, complete and well written,includesindication that will alert impending problem for state, country, etc.
History of disease made relevant to Outbreak (/10) No reference to previous outbreaks of this disease or insufficient detail and problems described Some reference to previous outbreaks of this disease, gives some information on the problems associated with previous outbreaks Reference to previous outbreaks of this disease and information on the problems but lacking in detail Gathers examples andbriefly recaps previous outbreaks of this disease with references Gathers examples andbriefly recaps previous outbreaks of this disease with references and contrasts with the current outbreak includingpolicychanges
Microorganisms role in Outbreak (/20) May give some information on microorganism or disease but without linking to outbreaks Does not cover all aspects in instructions and lacks sufficient estimations of the potential problems associated with the organism Covers all aspects but contains insufficient estimations of the potential problems associated with the organism Covers all aspects as listed in instructions but lacks some detail in assessing or prediction potential problems (locally, nationally and internationally Assesses the challenges andpredicts the problemsthat arise from outbreaks with this organism
Implications/ Importance to Local or World communities (/10) Does not give any examples that can be used to inform future control strategies Does not give any examples that can be used to inform future control strategies Gives an example from a previous outbreak but does not explain well how this illustrates effective control of outbreaks Gives an example from a previous outbreak that illustrates well how outbreaks can be more effectively controlled Gives examples from previous outbreaks that illustrate how outbreaks can be more effectively controlled
Methods of Control and Resources needed to control (/20) Lacks examples of resources required to bring this sort of outbreak under control Gives few examples of resources required to bring this sort of outbreak under control, but lacks detail Gives few examples of resources required to bring this sort of outbreak under control, but may lack some detail Covers the resources (including logistics) required to bring this sort of outbreak under control, but may lack some detail and suggestions for policy initiatives Comprehensively covers the resources required to bring this sort of outbreak under control and suggests new policy initiatives that could help prevent future outbreaks
Conclusion (/10) Missing concluding paragraph as specified by the guidelines Does not summarise the findings of the report and give warnings on potential consequences, too brief (<250 words) A conclusion that is general but does not leave the reader with a strong impression of next steps that need to be taken A conclusion that leaves a strong impression but may lack sufficient galvanising points such as future policy directions and risks A conclusion that galvanisers the reader into action, clearly setting out future directions that is backed up be previous evidence presented
Presentation of report (/10) Lack of organisation, poorly proofread, no attempt at illustration Poorly proofread, poor attempts at illustration (illustrations that do not inform) Well proofread, illustrations with legend that inform and are referred to in the text Well organised, proofread and careful selection of illustrations that are informative, not simply decorative Professional level presentation with updated data and figures to add relevance and deepen the readers understanding
Referencing (/10) Poor referencing style, insufficient number of references (<10) Some inappropriate in-text referencing (i.e. use of hyperlinks), insufficient referencing Someweak websites or lacks some referencing but overall good in-text referencing, reference list well formatted Websites chosen are appropriate, good in-text referencing and reference list. Minor formatting errors Professional level referencing, less than a couple of minor formatting errors
This is where you assemble the information provided by a teamother than your ownby visiting that team's final task reports to provide a report to the virtual Health Minister. Your report must be in your own words rather than copy and pasted from final versions. You can commence as early as Week 9, due Sunday week 13.
It is important to follow the guidelines carefully in regards to the headings and sections required in order to maximise your mark.Also use the marking guide to see what we look for when marking each section of your report. Total for this assignment is 40% or around 40 hours. Your posted mark will be out of 100. You will be submitting this to Turnitin (see submission instructions below).
Consider "Why is the Health Minister reading this report?", and "What action do I want to see from the Health Minister after he reads this report?".
You should consider the research of the team members as this may be helpful in improving your mark. Put yourself in the position of a team leader and you are now writing thesummaryreport that will inform the "Health Minister" about the outbreak. The report should educate the Minister with regards to:
what is required to identify the culprit
manage the situation
prevent it in future
The team members will have provided much of the information on the above, but you may still have to research some aspects to get the best mark (see marking guidelines below) and cover theheadings that must be usedin this report. You must also use the assignedkey wordsunder each heading. Consider what you have learned from reading the final reports of the different team members. Some of their tasks would make excellent topics for a paragraph e.g., the publicity officer may have provided approaches to limit hysteria arising from the outbreak. How does the Health Minister decide if your report is good? It should help the Health Minister sound like an expert when confronted by the press! An additional important aspect is that there should be no doubt in the ministers mind as towhat resources are requiredto tackle the outbreak effectively.
Your report is in the form of an assignment (that will include relevant illustrations) that you upload asa pdf filethrough the link in the Assignments section online.Format and illustrations are important. You will be submitting directly to Turnitin so make sure that you have made proper attribution throughout your report in order to avoid plagiarism. You will not receive a similarity report as it is assumed that you have written the report in your own words.
You should wait until the date after final task reports are due before starting to create a report to the Health Minister. The body isa minimum of 2500 words(don't count tables, figures or references in the word count). It must have each of thesix headingsthat are listed below.Each of the first five sections must have at least one illustration in each section, this can be either a picture, graph or table. You getextra marks for constructing your ownrather than just cutting and pasting from the internet. If you update an existing table, use the description in your figure legend: Updated and adapted from (citation).There is a page limit of 12 A4 pages, the word count should not exceed 4000 words.
You must include the headings listed in bold in your report. Consider the marking scheme (see next page) when checking your report e.g., dont forget a conclusion! Some students dont get good marks for the conclusion as it is too brief, i.e. it is worth 10% of the mark so it should be around 250 words. On thenext page there is the marking guide: Please print the next page out so that you can evaluate your own report.
Read the following careful and check by giving yourself a mark!
Introduction. Should have a general introduction that sets the scene forthe outbreakand is engaging, such that the reader wants to find out more. Should include expected morbidity/mortality (can be general description rather than actual numbers) associated with outbreaks of this type. Students lose marks here when they fail to describe the current outbreak that the group had been working on. It is also important to draw the Health Ministers attention to the implications for community, state and country. Mandatory keywords: morbidity or mortality.Minimum 250 words/10 marks
History. What is the history of this disease agent/disease and how is this made relevant to the current outbreak. Many students fail to give examples of previous outbreaks and the problems previous outbreaks have caused. We will have covered in the Health Minister tute how various policies can make a difference to successive outbreaks, this should be considered here. Mandatory key words: history /10 marks
Microorganisms role in outbreak. A discussion of the microorganisms role in outbreak (in other words what are the characteristics of the organism that enable it to cause disease). Use the following subheadings to make sure you get the marks for each subsection: How did it come to be in the source of the outbreak, how does it cause disease, how is it spread, how is it treated, what are the challenges to manage the infection and infection control. Students often lose marks when they dont put effort into the challenges. Mandatory key words: source, characteristics, cause disease, spread, treatment, infection control, challenges to management /20 marks
Implications/Importanceto local / world communities. This section can help you show the minister reading your report why action needs to be taken. Some clues that can help this section follow the previous section where you talked about the challenges. Use what you have learnt by the way previous outbreaks have been responded to and give examples of what lessons have been learnt from previous outbreaks. Mandatory key words: control /10 marks
Methods for control/prevention. What resources will the government need to invest in order to bring this under control and prevent similar outbreaks in future. This follows from the previous section but now you give more details. Create subheading: How is it detected, what laboratory resources are required, do government organisations need to get involved? Are there extra staff that need to be brought in? What are the logistics of providing these extra resources (think how difficult it was to control Ebola in 2014). Could the government consider new policy initiatives to help prevent future outbreaks and what might these look like? Again, giving examples from previous outbreaks will earn you extra marks. This section is worth 20%, of the mark, this is a section that often students lose marks because they dont give specific examples and fail to use subheadings. Mandatory key words: diagnosis, resources, logistics, public awareness campaign, surveillance, policy initiatives /20 marks
Conclusion. Summary of the impact of the outbreak and repeats some of the major points that point to future strategies to reduce likelihood of repeat outbreaks. If the minister is short of time, this may be the second paragraph after the introduction that they read! It should not leave the Health Minister in any doubt about future policy directions and risks.It must be a minimum of 250 words.Mandatory key words: impact, future strategies /10 marks
Marks are also assigned for the presentation of report and referencing (20 marks) e.g., well organised, easy to read and use of illustrations that are referred to in the text of the report and are not simply decorative (extra marks for tables or graphs constructed or updated originals to reflect recent data by student rather than simply copied),properly referenced. Make sure you put into practice what you have learnt from referencing during the semester. It is not acceptable to have paragraphs without references (except concluding paragraph), or for them to be in the incorrect format (should be Author year) and there must be a reference list at the end in proper format. There should be at least 20 references. You should also go to the primary reference if quoting facts and figures presented by another student. You should only reference another students report if you are using something that they created for their report like an idea or an illustration they created.
Remember:Check the next page for the marking guideSave your file in pdf format to the Assignments section and use good naming format for your uploaded file e.gSmithJims321321HealthMinisterReport.pdf. Submission is through the Assignment pagehttps://rmit.instructure.com/courses/97022/assignments/658563It is very important to check that your assignment has uploaded correctly by going to the Grades section.It is your responsibility to check the file is a pdf and that it opens.
This assignment will be marked in late June. An announcement will be posted when the marks are released early July.
Next page: Health Minister marking guidePlease see the task to use below
Scientific Advisor
Polio extinction, so close
Contents
Introduction
A human-only paralytic virus
3 poliovirus types
The disease they cause
Virulence of the types
Polios early days
Natural history of polio types
Where polio was found
The time of year polio was found
Polio still exists
Current status of polio
Conclusion
Introduction
Although now in Australia poliovirus no longer exists, unfortunately there are still two countries in the world that are dealing with this endemic - Afghanistan, and Pakistan (Centres for Disease control and prevention [CDC], 2021a). With polio almost extinct, some people may not know what polio is. This report will explain the virus structure, the history of the global eradication of this virus and the status of the poliovirus types currently circulating.
A human-only paralytic virus
Approximately 90 years ago Australian researchers (Frank M. Burnet and Jean Macnamara) purposed that there was more than one type of polio virus. It took 20 years for this hypothesis to be proven, which was done by David Bodian, MD, PhD (at the john Hopkins University School of Medicine) (The college of Physicians of Philadelphia, n.d.). The three types of wild poliovirus are: Poliovirus type 1 (PV1), type 2 (PV2) and type 3 (PV3). The 3 types of polioviruses contain different proteins on their capsid surface. However, all 3 types of polio bind to CD155 receptors which can only be found in the human body, therefore making this virus a human only pathogen (He et al. 2003). Once in the body the virus types multiply in the intestines(World Health Organization [WHO], n.d) and can cause either no harm or it can attack the central nervous system (Centres for Disease control and prevention [CDC], 2021b). Poliovirus type 1 has a more exposed surface protein making it more virulent than PV2 and PV3.
In the 21st century, Dr Jason Roberts (Senior Medical Scientist at VIDRL) took genetic information and still images of the poliovirus and put it into a supercomputer to generate a live simulation of the virus (ABC Catalyst, 2013). This simulation allows scientist to study the virus at an atomic level, the mechanics of the virus and how it behaves in certain environments and response to drugs.
Polios early days
Although the first epidemics of polio were recorded in Norway, Sweden, and the U.S in the late 19thcentury there is evidence that polio may have existed way back in the 14th 16thcentury in Egypt (Britannica, n.d.). Evidence such as carvings of priests with deformed legs and mummified remains showing similar leg deformities of those polio infected individuals reported in the 19thcentury. It is believed that polio epidemics only began in the 19thcentury due to the advances in hygiene (Britannica, n.d.). Mothers of this century were not exposed to the polio virus therefore not creating antibodies that would then be passed onto their newborns (The college of Physicians of Philadelphia, n.d.).
Polio was rampant worldwide before the mid-1950s (Estivariz et al. 2021). It seemed to appear annually around the summer and autumn months. The virus was very prevalent in western Europe and north America, so much so that parents would avoid taking children to highly crowded areas such as swimming pools and cinemas (Britannica, n.d.). Children seem to be more susceptible to polio virus for the simple fact of hygiene, children arent as hygienic as adults and as poliovirus transmission is via the faecal-oral route children are easy targets (Blake et al., 2014).
With all this fear of contracting polio virus, scientists and pharmaceutical companies got to work to create a vaccine which was created and distributed throughout the United States in 1955 dramatically decreasing the incident rate of polio (Estivariz et al. 2021). Poliovirus type 2 was eradicated worldwide in 2015 and Poliovirus type 3 eradicated in 2019, following the roll out of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 (Estivariz et al. 2021).
Polio still exists
At present (2022) poliovirus type 1 exists in only two countries - Afghanistan, and Pakistan (CDC, 2021a) and so far, this year there has been only one confirmed case in Afghanistan which is depicted in Figure 1. Just because the virus has been eradicated does not mean its completely gone. The virus could resurface from individuals travelling from these two endemic countries. There is also the risk of the virus getting out of laboratory stores. But rest assured laboratories with these types of stored viruses are under strict security measures and protocols.
Challenges that can hinder the eradication of poliovirus are world conflicts, natural disasters, or other pandemics. For example, there is worry that the current Russian invasion of Ukraine is stopping people from getting their immunisations which could cause the virus to spread. The numbers in figure 1 show that there was an increase in poliovirus type 1 cases between 2019 -2020 which was when the pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 (covid-19) had started to occur. Due to the lockdowns and travel bands, it was harder to get polio vaccines to these endemic countries during this time. Without keeping on top of vaccinations this gives the virus a chance to spread and evolve.
Figure 1:
The number of wild Poliovirus worldwide 2016 - 2022
Note:The table shows the number of polio wild virus type 1 confirmed cases and polio wild virus type 1 detected from other sources (i.e., environmental samples) by country from 2016 to 2022. (Data by World Health Organization, 2022)
Conclusion
With the use of supercomputers, vaccines could be improved to eradicate this highly virulent type of poliovirus (poliovirus type 1). It would be a much safer and more efficient way of testing new vaccines and to get a real understanding of how this virus operates. Keeping on top of vaccination programmes and environmental surveillance, especially in the summer and autumn months, is critical in finding out where this virus is and if there are any new strains of the virus. Although there might be some challenges that might slow down this eradication of polio, the world needs to keep going with all its efforts as we are so close in eradicating wild poliovirus.
Word count = 917
Reference list:
ABC Catalyst. (2013, Aug 21). 3D polio virus [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gndl44IiZlc&t=296s(Links to an external site.)
Bigouette, J. P., Wilkinson, A. L., Tallis, G., Burns, C. C., Wassilak, S., & Vertefeuille, J. F. (2021). Progress Toward Polio Eradication - Worldwide, January 2019-June 2021.MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report,70(34), 11291135.https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7034a1(Links to an external site.)
Blake, I. M., Martin, R., Goel, A., Khetsuriani, N., Everts, J., Wolff, C., Wassilak, S., Aylward, R. B., & Grassly, N. C. (2014). The role of older children and adults in wild poliovirus transmission.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,111(29), 1060410609.https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1323688111(Links to an external site.)
Britannica. (n.d.).Polio through history.https://www.britannica.com/science/polio/Polio-through-history(Links to an external site.)
Centres for Disease control and prevention. (2021a, March 19).Our Progress Against Polio.https://www.cdc.gov/polio/progress/index.htm(Links to an external site.)
Centres for Disease control and prevention. (2021b, September 28).What is Polio?https://www.cdc.gov/polio/what-is-polio/(Links to an external site.)
Centres for Disease control and prevention. (2021c, September 28).Diagnostic Methods.https://www.cdc.gov/polio/what-is-polio/lab-testing/diagnostic.html(Links to an external site.)
Estivariz, C. F. Link-Gelles, R. & Shimabukuro, T. (2021, August).Poliomyelitis. Centres for Disease control and prevention.https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/polio.html(Links to an external site.)
He, Y., Mueller, S., Chipman, P. R., Bator, C. M., Peng, X., Bowman, V. D., Mukhopadhyay, S., Wimmer, E., Kuhn, R. J., & Rossmann, M. G. (2003). Complexes of poliovirus serotypes with their common cellular receptor, CD155.Journal of virology,77(8), 48274835.https://doi.org/10.1128/jvi.77.8.4827-4835.2003(Links to an external site.)
The college of Physicians of Philadelphia. (n.d.).Polio (Poliomyelitis).History of vaccines. Retrieved May 6, 2022.https://historyofvaccines.org/history/polio/timeline(Links to an external site.)
World Health Organization. (n.d). Poliomyelitis (Polio).https://www.who.int/health-topics/poliomyelitis#tab=tab_1(Links to an external site.)
World Health Organization. (2022, March 8).Global Wild Poliovirus 2016 -2022 [Table]. Polio Global Eradication Initiative.https://polioeradication.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/weekly-polio-analyses-WPV-20220308.pdf
