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Tourism resorts and facilities can bring people from all over the world into a close proximity. Visitors and staff may only stay a short time before moving on. These factors can affect spread of diseases.
The workplace has long been identified as an exposure point for common communicable diseases. With new technology, we now have a better understanding of a greater range of diseases, how they are spread and their impact on our health. As a result, we can be better prepared to reduce the health risks associated with communicable diseases.
A communicable disease is a disease/illness that can be passed from one host to another (that is, a host may be human or non-human). An infectious illness may be due to different germs such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. These germs survive on hands and objects such as taps, toys and bench tops. The length of time a germ survives on a surface will depend on the characteristics of the germ itself, the surface it has contaminated and how often that surface has been cleaned. Washing with detergent or soap and water is a very effective way of removing germs.
Communicable diseases are usually transmitted in one of five ways:
Airborne
Coughing and sneezing by an infectious person disperses infectious droplets into the atmosphere which are in turn inhaled by others. Examples of respiratory diseases include the common cold, influenza, chicken pox, measles and whooping cough (pertussis).
Insects and animals
Infected mosquitoes, flies and animals can transmit disease to humans through their bites or by contaminating food and water. Examples include mosquito-borne diseases such as Ross River virus or dengue fever and gastrointestinal illness, leptospirosis (from animals) and Australian bat lyssavirus.
Contact
Some diseases are transmitted person-to-person by direct contact eg. school sores, conjunctivitis and sexually transmitted diseases .
Spread from faeces to mouth
Gastrointestinal illness is caused by bacteria, viruses or parasites. It often occurs when germs from the faeces get on to someone's hands and then into someone else's mouth eg. salmonella, hepatitis A.
Contact with body secretions or blood
Direct contact with blood can cause spread of infection eg. hepatitis B. Other body fluids like urine can also be infectious.
The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland website has more information including advisory standards, brochures and guides.
TheQueensland Health website has fact sheets and other information on communicable diseases
Staying Healthy in Child Care website gives full details of common infectious diseases and is published by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
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