Development of Communicable Disease Control Unit at District Level of Health Region 9 During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

Abstract

 In the article, we aimed to develop the communicable disease control unit (CDCU) at the district level of health region 9 during the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) pandemic. The action research was conducted by using the PDCA cycle. The processes including 1) Plan was epidemiology training program about 20 hours 2) Do by conducting epidemiology training program phase 1 (from the fiscal year 2561 to 2562) 3) Check by evaluating coronavirus disease control and measuring the satisfaction of the participants, and also, 4) Act by conducting epidemiology training program phase 2 by developing the processes based on the results of the evaluation of phase 1 such as adding the skill of practice. The results indicated that the knowledge of the participants who were trained in both phases was statistically increased significantly (P < 0.01). In addition, in both phases during the COVID-19 pandemic, CDCU could investigate the diseases and identify close contact cases within 28 days. There were reduced widespread diseases. Besides, 294 CDCU was conducted (3 units/district). The satisfaction of the participants increased from 5 to 8 of 10 items. In conclusion, the development of CDCU might be helped to control the disease rapidly and effectively. Therefore, we recommended continuously developing CDCU to be good performance and sufficient for controlling hazard contagious disease, especially, among vulnerable persons.