Question 19M.2.SL.TZ1.1h
| Date | May 2019 | Marks available | [Maximum mark: 2] | Reference code | 19M.2.SL.TZ1.1h |
| Level | SL | Paper | 2 | Time zone | TZ1 |
| Command term | Suggest | Question number | h | Adapted from | N/A |
Suggest possible reasons for the difficulty of preventing or controlling a viral epidemic such as the 2014 EVD epidemic in a remote rural region.
[2]
a. poor transport infrastructure/poor communication/bad roads/difficult access/no maps/support slow arriving/scattered population ✔
b. poor education/understanding of disease amongst health workers/local population
OR
continued contact with infected people / other example of unsafe actions ✔
c. more sources of infection such as bats/difficult to find sources of infection ✔
d. lack of/limited access to medical care/doctors/health care workers ✔
e. lack of/no access to/unaffordability of treatment centers/medicalsupplies/equipment/antivirals/drugs/vaccine/treatments ✔
f. refusal/reluctance in local population to be vaccinated
OR
difficult to find/reach everyone to vaccinate them/repeat the vaccination ✔
g. migration of people spreads the infection ✔
h.poor sanitation/lack of clean water ✔
This was a timely question with Ebola epidemics again causing great problems in parts of Africa. Students were expected to have had some practice at analysing data relating to an epidemic because of this Skill in the programme: Analysis of epidemiological data related to vaccination programmes. It was assumed that candidates would understand terms such as ‘case’, ‘fatal case’, ‘infect’ and ‘treat’.
This was a third question where a very wide range of answers were accepted. Even so, not all candidates scored both marks. The commonest weakness was vague answers such as “shortage of resources”. The best answers gave common-sense reasons for special difficulties in controlling an epidemic in the population of a remote rural region.
