Government information, plans & assistance | Appendix A: Glossary of term

Australian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza

Appendix A: Glossary of term

Part 1: Australia's Health Plan for Pandemic Influenza

Part 2: How individuals can help control the spread of the virus

Part 3: More information for decision makers and health professionals

Absenteeism	Absenteeism is when people are absent from work. An estimate of workplace absenteeism in a pandemic will range between 30–50 per cent. This includes absenteeism due to illness; the need to stay at home to care for someone who is ill; the need to stay at home to look after children in the event of school closures; fears about being infected at work as well as due to some people fulfilling other roles in the community (volunteering).
Acute services	Health services (usually hospitals) that provide care or treatment of people with short-term serious injury or illness. Medical conditions requiring acute care are typically periodic or temporary in nature, rather than long term.
Anticipated impact	The future affect of the pandemic (as opposed to current impact) estimated using a forward planning tool.
Antigen (see also Haemagglutinin and Neuraminidase)	Antigen is a protein that induces an immune response.
Antigenic drift	Antigenic drift is minor changes in the surface proteins (Haemagglutinin and Neuraminidase) of an influenza virus that usually occurs gradually.
Antigenic shift	Antigenic shift is abrupt and major changes in the surface proteins of an influenza virus.
Antiviral	A type of drug used to help prevent or treat illnesses caused by some viruses, including influenza.
Border measures	A range of measures that can be taken at airports and seaports to delay the spread of illness to or from affected countries (or jurisdictions). Border measures may include: recommending that people do not travel to or from affected countries requiring air and sea crew to report to Australian authorities on arrival anyone on their vessel who is sick asking travellers whether they have been in contact with people who have influenza symptoms screening travellers to check for symptoms of influenza isolation of potentially infected persons entering the jurisdiction refusing international vessels entry into Australia’s air or sea ports.
Community transmission	Community transmission is the passing of a disease from an infected individual to another individual outside of a known group of contacts, and outside health care settings.
Contact	A person close enough to an infected person so as to have an opportunity to acquire the infection. The exact definition of a contact depends on the nature of the illness.
Contact tracing	The process of identifying and managing people who have been ‘in contact’ with someone who has an infectious illness.
Contain	The process of stopping spread of illness beyond a confined area. Key containment measures for an influenza pandemic include border measures, quarantine or isolation, social distancing, infection control, contact tracing and use of antivirals.
Cough and sneeze etiquette	Measures individuals can take when we cough, sneeze or blow our nose, to reduce the chance of spreading the virus. This is sometimes referred to as respiratory hygiene.
Endemic	A disease that is routinely found in a given area or country.
Epidemiology	The study of the incidence, prevalence and the cause of disease in populations.
Flu clinic	Flu clinics are specially planned facilities that will be set up during a pandemic for safe medical assessment and management of people with suspected pandemic influenza.
FLUBORDERPLAN	The National Pandemic Influenza Airport Border Operations Plan (Fluborderplan) outlines the processes to deploy and operate border control measures at designated Australian international airports in response to the threat, or actual transmission, of pandemic influenza. It outlines the roles and responsibilities of Australian Government, state and territory government agencies and the airline sector in this response. Plan endorsed by Council of Australian Governments (COAG).
H5N1 avian influenza	A strain of influenza type A virus affecting mainly birds but transmissible to humans after close contact with sick or dead birds—it causes severe influenza-like symptoms and may result in death.
Haemagglutinin (see also Neuraminidase and Antigen)	A protein found on the surface of influenza viruses, which is responsible for binding the virus to the cell that is being infected.
Hand hygiene	A general term referring to any action of hand cleansing for example, hand washing, antiseptic hand wash, antiseptic hand rub.
Health professional	For the purposes of this document health professional refers to all people (doctors, nurses, support staff working in designated influenza services, aboriginal health workers, dentists, pharmacists, ambulance officers, laboratory and specimen collection technicians, allied health professionals, and aged care, disability service and community care workers) who provide a health service.
Health sector	The health sector is government departments responsible for health, in addition to the private and public health system, and health professionals.
Health care worker, frontline	Health professionals who are: working in a service that forms part of the health sector response to pandemic influenza sanctioned by the state or territory health department, and providing direct clinical or personal care to suspected and confirmed cases of pandemic influenza, and are considered to be at high risk of exposure to the pandemic influenza virus. For example, health professionals who work in a flu clinic or general practitioners providing care in areas with no flu clinics.
Host	A living animal (including humans) or plant from which a micro-organism (bacteria or virus) obtains nourishment and shelter.
Infectious	Capable of spreading disease or a disease that is capable of spreading (also known as communicable).
Infectivity	In epidemiology, infectivity refers to the ability of a pathogen (such as a virus) to establish an infection. It should be contrasted with virulence, which refers to the damage done by the pathogen once the infection is established.
Influenza (the flu)	The flu is a highly contagious disease of the respiratory tract, caused by influenza viruses.
Influenza services	All health services that provide care to influenza patients, including flu clinics, hospitals, general practices.
Influenza Type A	Type A influenza is a influenza virus that occurs in humans and animals.
Influenza Type B	Type B influenza is a influenza virus that occurs only in humans.
Intervention	The introduction of a preventative or therapeutic measure.
Isolation	Separation, of infected persons (cases) from other people for the period they are likely to be infectious, in order to prevent or limit the direct or indirect transmission of the virus.
Mitigated	Control measures applied. Verses unmitigated (no control measures applied).
Morbidity	State of disease. The term morbidity rate refers to the numbers of cases of illness in a population divided by the total population considered at risk of that illness.
Mortality	Death—mortality rate is the measure of the number of dead (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a population scaled to the size of that population, per unit time.
National Incident Room (NIR)	The NIR is the operations centre in the DoHA for coordinating national responses to health emergencies.
National Medical Stockpile (NMS)	The NMS is a national strategic reserve of medicines (vaccines, antibiotics, chemical and radiological antidotes) and equipment for health workers.
Neuraminidase (see also Haemagglutinin and Antigen)	This is a protein spiking from the surface of the influenza virus, responsible for releasing the influenza virus from the cell.
P2 Mask	A P2 mask (P2 respirator) is a device specifically designed to provide protection to the wearer’s respiratory tract from small infectious particles. A P2 mask is a particulate filter, personal respiratory protection device which, when tested against AS/NZS 1716:2003, does not show penetration of particles with a mass median diameter of 0.3 micro meters, of more than 6%.
Pandemic	A Pandemic is an epidemic on a global scale. Only Type A influenza viruses have been known to cause influenza pandemics.
Personal protective equipment (PPE)	PPE is equipment that can be worn by an individual to protect them or others from infection.
Post-exposure prophylaxis	A dose or doses of a drug (usually antibiotic or antiviral) given immediately after exposure to a disease (such as influenza), but before onset of illness.
Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs)	A PAPR is a specialised device providing respiratory protection, where a battery powered blower pulls contaminated air through filters, then moves the filtered air to the wearer’s facepiece.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis	A dose or doses of a drug (usually antibiotic or antiviral) given before exposure to an infectious disease, to protect the person from being infected.
Preparedness	Undertaking measures to ensure that the health sector is adequately prepared for the event of an influenza pandemic.
Primary care	Health services providing initial care of a patient before they are referred or transferred elsewhere. General practice surgeries and emergency departments are common sites for primary care.
Prophylaxis	Medical or public health procedure designed to prevent infection, rather than treat or cure existing disease.
Quarantine (see also Isolation)	The limitation of freedom of movement for a period of time of well persons who are likely to have been exposed to the virus (contact) to prevent their contact with people who have not been exposed.
Reassortment	Reassortment occurs when the genes from two different and distinct virus strains rearrange and recombine to produce a new, genetically different strain.
Resilience	The capacity to cope with stress or change, and capacity to adapt.
Serial interval	Average length of time between an initial primary case developing symptoms and subsequent secondary cases developing symptoms.
Social distancing	Social distancing is a community level intervention to reduce normal physical and social population mixing in order to slow the spread of a pandemic throughout society. Social distancing measures include school closures, workplace measures, cancellation of mass gatherings, changing public transport arrangements and movement restrictions.
Strain	A group of organisms within a species or type that are genetically similar. Influenza viruses are described by their Type (e.g. Type A, B or C), their subtype (e.g. H5N1), and then their strain (e.g. Hong Kong strain).
Unmitigated	No control measures applied (versus mitigated—control measures implemented).
Vaccine	Vaccine is a medication that stimulates the production of antibodies to protect against a specific disease.
Vaccine, candidate	A vaccine based on the H5N1 strain of the influenza virus. This vaccine may provide partial protection if H5N1 develops into a pandemic strain that is easily transmissible between humans.
Vaccine, customised	A vaccine based on the actual pandemic virus, which cannot be developed until the next pandemic virus emerges.
Vertical transmission	The transmission of disease from mother to child either while the child is unborn, during birth or after birth from breast milk.