Infectious disease outbreaks are getting more frequent in the past 40 zears. Globalisation and the increased movement of people meant the potential spread is also bigger. Outbreaks may arise during humanitarian crisis, as these cause widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses, with which the community is unable to deal with. In December 2016 IASC has widened the activation criterial for Level 3 emergencies to include infectious disease events. Children in particular are vulnerable during infectious dis-ease outbreaks for a variety of reasons. Beyond the imme-diate impacts on their health and that of their caregivers, the social and economic disruptions caused by outbreaks also present risks to children’s well-being and protection.
This Guidance Note aims to provide humanitarian child protection practitioners, particularly child protection ad-visors and program managers, with guidance on how to engage in responses to infectious disease outbreaks to ensure children’s protection needs are taken into account in preparedness for, and during responses to, the out-breaks. The Guidance Note draws upon lessons learned during infectious disease outbreaks globally in a variety of contexts.
The note is in two parts:
Part 1: explains why children are particularly vulnerable, describing their specific susceptibilities to infection
Part 2: describes recommended preventive and responsive actions.