[Obligation to register communicable disease cases].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Child↗
Biomedical subjects
W Effelsberg
Publications and source records attributed to W Effelsberg.
[Ethical judgments in environmental medicine].
Among the main tasks of environmental medicine within the framework of the German Public Health Service are the assessment and management of risks involved in environmental problems. The article points out that both tasks involve ethical judgments in crucial matters. An important part of risk management is to establish limit and guiding values. The examples of drinking water regulations and WHO Air Quality Guidelines show that these values depend mainly on decisions on standard settings. It is pointed out that these cannot be derived from knowledge gained from research in natural science and that our present heterogeneous civilization is not conductive to a generally recognised basis for an evaluation. It is suggested to solve this dilemma by a process of mutual agreement on a reciprocal basis. The models of "proxy consent" and "presumed intent" are discussed. Public Health Service must therefore systematically reflect, expose and develop the standard settings of its judgments and actions.
Air Pollution↗
[Procedures of the public health office during an outbreak of infectious enteritis in community institutions].
On the occasion of a local epidemic of infectious enteritis in a Community centre, the Public Health Office had an opportunity to develop a procedure to deal with such outbreaks. Models for the tasks of Public Health Offices are suggested. These consist of investigation, control measures, documentation of the epidemic and assessment of the chosen procedures. Typical problems include pressure of time due to the large number of cases, the dilemma between the need to inform the population vs. professional secrecy, and the dual role of the Public Health Office in providing assistance in both medical consultation and epidemic control measures.
Communicable Disease Control↗
[Swimmers' dermatitis in an excavation pool--an incentive for the status analysis of the water and for the preparation of an ecology-friendly utilization concept].
In recent years, swimmer's itch occurred in several ground water lakes dud excavation pools in sporadic or epidemic outbreaks in the upper Rhine valley. They were caused by Trichobilharzia szidati. The Public Health Offices in Offenburg and Freiburg have been dealing extensively with this problem. They were also requested to comment on the use of lakes within a framework for regional development (Landschaftsrahmenplan) by the Southern Upper Rhine Regional Authority. An ecological study of water quality was prepared in summer 1989 in Offenburg. Hydrological and biological criteria were applied. Eutrophication due to excessive nutrient input proved to be the main problem. Measures for reduction were proposed that also included determining water use. Thus, specific use should either be prescribed from the beginning for each lake and made possible via ecologically oriented long-term maintenance measures, or use should be adapted to the natural succession process. Thus, after gravel quarrying, water sports including bathing would be possible, followed by fish farming and finally reservation as protected area.
Animals↗
[Duck bilharziasis in the medical anthropologic perspective. Interview data as a principle for public health control measures].
Trichobilharzia szidati causes a parasitic disease of water fowl that may lead to a badly itching but otherwise harmless dermatitis in man (swimmer's itch). At an outbreak at a small lake in Offenburg that is used for swimming, the state health office as the agency responsible for water quality control assessed the situation from an epiemiological perspective and took protective measures. A medical anthropological field study, employing the techniques of observation and interviews, looked into illness experience, behaviours and attitudes and thus provided an empirical basis for this assessment.
Animals↗
[Alternatives to institutionalization in accordance with the Institutionalization Law: problems, recommendations for a solution and medical anthropologic interpretations].
Police authorities, Public Health offices and Law Courts cooperate in solving the problem of psychiatric patients who have to be referred to a psychiatric hospital according to state mental health acts. Such referral, however, is only permissible as a last resort, i.e. if all other alternatives fail. The present study first presents this legal situation and points out that the alternatives are not always fully explored with the necessary energy. The importance of these alternatives is explained from a psychiatrist's point of view. A practical approach is suggested with the main burden resting with the relevant police authorities who (in West Germany) are responsible for arranging proper sociopsychiatric care of such persons. The problem is then discussed in accordance with a medico-anthropological system model demonstrating the typical characteristics of social, medical and legal attitudes and those of the pertaining "subcultures" to such problems.
Commitment of Persons with Psychiatric Disorders↗