| Course | PHE 321 Biological Concepts for Public Health |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 7 |
| Paper type | undergraduate project proposing an integrated disease prevention plan |
| Length | About 1,010 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Southern New Hampshire University |
| Program | BS Public Health |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PHE 321 Module 7
Project Two: Find, Treat, Watch. An Integrated Chagas Disease Plan for a South Texas Health District
[Student Name]
Southern New Hampshire University
PHE 321: Biological Concepts for Public Health
Project Two
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The organization, setting and figures below are a composite written as a model document. No real employer, client, colleague or patient is described.
Project Two: Find, Treat, Watch. An Integrated Chagas Disease Plan for a South Texas Health District
Project One estimated that between about 40 and 80 residents of the district carry Trypanosoma cruzi, that a dozen or more may develop heart or digestive complications and that an infected newborn can be expected every decade or so. The prevention biology paper ranked the available tools. This project combines them into a plan with three verbs: find infected people, treat those who will benefit and watch the environment for local risk. It is designed for a district with limited staff and builds on clinics and laboratories already in place.
Goal and Objectives
The goal is to prevent congenital infection and late complications of Chagas disease among district residents. Objectives for the first two years are: offer Chagas testing to at least 80% of pregnant women born in endemic countries receiving prenatal care at the district's two public clinics and the federally qualified health center; test 100% of infants born to positive mothers by nine months of age; link at least 75% of positive blood donors to a clinical evaluation within three months of notification; train at least 30 primary care clinicians in the district on when and how to test; and receive veterinary reports of canine Chagas disease from all six veterinary practices in the district.
Component One: Prenatal and Newborn Testing
Because congenital transmission occurs in about one in twenty pregnancies of infected mothers (Howard et al., 2014) and infant treatment is highly effective, prenatal testing is the plan's first priority. Women born in Mexico or Central America will be offered antibody testing at their first prenatal visit, using two tests as recommended. Positive mothers will receive counseling and a plan to test their newborns with a direct parasite test early and an antibody test after maternal antibodies fade, at around nine months. Positive infants will be treated through a referral agreement with the regional children's hospital. Positive mothers will be offered treatment after breastfeeding ends, and their other children will be tested.
Component Two: Donor Follow-Up
Blood donors who test positive currently receive a letter. The plan will ask the regional blood center to share positive donor contacts with the district, with donor consent, so a nurse can call each donor, explain the result and arrange an evaluation that includes an electrocardiogram. Rassi et al. (2010) note that the risk of complications and the value of monitoring make evaluation worthwhile even for adults with long-standing infection.
Component Three: Clinician Education
Most local clinicians have never ordered a Chagas test. The district will offer a one-hour session at the regional hospital and the health center, with a one-page guide listing who to test, such as people born in endemic countries with unexplained heart rhythm problems, which tests to order and where to refer. Garcia et al. (2015) stressed that physicians must learn about the disease before its true burden in Texas can be recognized.
Component Four: Watching the Environment
Veterinarians will be asked to report dogs diagnosed with Chagas disease to the district each month. Bern et al. (2011) describe dogs as part of the local cycle, so canine cases mark places where bugs and parasites are active. When cases cluster, the district will offer the households a home visit with guidance on sealing entry points, moving woodpiles and kennels and identifying bugs, plus testing for family members. This keeps environmental work proportionate to the small local risk.
Partners, Timeline and Budget
Partners include the district's two clinics, the federally qualified health center, the regional blood center, the regional children's hospital, six veterinary practices and the state health department's laboratory. In months one to three, the district will sign agreements, adopt the testing protocol and train clinic staff. Months four to six will begin prenatal testing and donor follow-up. Clinician education and veterinary reporting will start in months seven to nine. Months ten to twenty-four will continue all components and evaluate them. Costs for year one appear in Table 1.
Table 1. First-Year Budget
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Laboratory testing for about 250 pregnant women and follow-up tests | $11,500 |
| Public health nurse time for donor and family follow-up (0.1 position) | $7,800 |
| Clinician education sessions and guides | $2,200 |
| Home visit materials and bug identification cards | $1,600 |
| Data system changes and reporting forms | $2,900 |
| Total | $26,000 |
Note. Treatment drugs are available through national programs; specialist care is billed to patients' coverage or charity care.
Ethics and Respect
Testing for an infection linked to migration requires care. Some residents may fear that health records could expose immigration status or lead to stigma, as the history of other diseases associated with immigrant communities shows. The plan will offer testing as a routine part of prenatal care for women born in endemic countries rather than as a special investigation, explain clearly that results are confidential health information and never ask about immigration status. Materials will be in Spanish and English and reviewed by promotoras from the federally qualified health center. Positive results will be delivered in person, with a clear plan for next steps, so that a diagnosis does not arrive as an unexplained letter. Consent will be voluntary, and declining testing will not affect any other care. These steps are not only right; they affect whether women accept testing at all, and therefore whether the plan works.
Evaluation
Process measures will track the share of eligible women offered and accepting testing, infants tested on schedule, donors reaching evaluation, clinicians trained and veterinary reports received. Outcome measures will track positive results found and treated. The prenatal results will also produce the first local measure of prevalence, replacing the assumed range in Project One. Frieden (2010) notes that clinical interventions with long-term protective benefit sit low on the health impact pyramid, and infant treatment, which can cure for life, is a clear example; counting cures among infants will therefore be the plan's most important outcome even though numbers will be small.
Conclusion
The plan concentrates effort where the biology promises the greatest benefit, preventing infection in newborns and finding adults before damage advances, while watching the environment through sentinel dogs rather than spraying. It costs little and uses institutions already in place.
References
Bern, C., Kjos, S., Yabsley, M. J., & Montgomery, S. P. (2011). Trypanosoma cruzi and Chagas' disease in the United States. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 24(4), 655-681. https://doi.org/10.1128/CMR.00005-11
Frieden, T. R. (2010). A framework for public health action: The health impact pyramid. American Journal of Public Health, 100(4), 590-595. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.185652
Garcia, M. N., Aguilar, D., Gorchakov, R., Rossmann, S. N., Montgomery, S. P., Rivera, H., Woc-Colburn, L., Hotez, P. J., & Murray, K. O. (2015). Evidence of autochthonous Chagas disease in southeastern Texas. American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 92(2), 325-330. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.14-0238
Howard, E., Xiong, X., Carlier, Y., Sosa-Estani, S., & Buekens, P. (2014). Frequency of the congenital transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi: A systematic review and meta-analysis. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 121(1), 22-33. https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.12396
Rassi, A., Jr., Rassi, A., & Marin-Neto, J. A. (2010). Chagas disease. The Lancet, 375(9723), 1388-1402. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60061-X
What the PHE 321 Module 7 instructions ask for
For Module Seven, PHE 321's second project asks you to propose an intervention grounded in the biology of the disease and the burden you estimated. Expect five to seven pages in APA 7. Restate the burden and the ranking of tools that justify the plan. Set a goal and measurable objectives for each component. Describe each component in enough detail to carry out, explaining the biological reason it works. Name partners and their roles, provide a timeline and a simple itemized budget and state any costs covered elsewhere. Build an evaluation with process and outcome measures, and show how the plan will improve the data on which it was based. Keep the plan proportionate to the burden.
How this PHE 321 Module 7 project two example is built
South Texas's district plan, Find, Treat, Watch, starts from Project One's 40 to 80 estimated infections. Prenatal testing for women born in endemic countries comes first, justified by Howard and colleagues' one-in-twenty congenital rate, with newborn testing at birth and at nine months. Positive donors get a nurse call and evaluation, backed by Rassi and colleagues. Clinician education answers Garcia and colleagues' call. Veterinary reports of canine cases, framed by Bern and colleagues, target home visits. Table 1 totals $26,000. Evaluation counts testing, follow-up and infant cures, which Frieden's pyramid places low and powerful, and the PHE 321 plan replaces the assumed prevalence with measured data. Respect shapes testing.
Where the PHE 321 Module 7 rubric puts the points
Graders of the PHE 321 intervention project usually look for components clearly justified by biology and burden, measurable objectives, enough operational detail to implement, realistic partners and roles, a timeline and itemized budget, an evaluation with process and outcome measures and proportionality to the estimated burden. Plans that excel complete existing programs, such as follow-up for screening already in place, rather than building from scratch, and show how evaluation will improve the underlying data. Graders value attention to the sequence of testing that the biology requires. Clear structure, a readable table and correct APA 7 citations complete the stronger work. Respect for patients' concerns counts.
PHE 321 Module 7 help: the mistakes that cost points
Intervention projects in this course lose marks with components that do not follow from the biology, objectives that cannot be measured, budgets with no detail, plans far larger than the burden justifies or evaluations limited to counting events. Some also forget follow-up after a positive test. For a different disease, share your Project One estimate, the prevention paper from Module Six and your instructions, so the design rests on that groundwork. Knowing which clinics and laboratories exist locally helps keep the plan practical. Our PHE 321 plans justify each component biologically, size it to the burden and use evaluation to sharpen the data. A list of local clinics helps.
Get PHE 321 Module 7 written to your instructions
Send the PHE 321 Project Two guidelines along with your burden estimate and prevention paper. The plan will set measurable objectives, design each component with its biological rationale, name partners, give a timeline and itemized budget and build an evaluation that also improves your data, delivered in 24 to 48 hours with the first one free. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.
More PHE 321 papers and related BS Public Health samples
- PHE 321 Module 1 Discussion: Agent, Host and Environment for One Parasite
- PHE 321 Module 2 Agent Biology Short Paper: How Trypanosoma cruzi Moves and Multiplies
- PHE 321 Module 3 Host Response Short Paper: From a Silent Infection to a Failing Heart
- PHE 321 Module 4 Discussion: Kissing Bugs, Kennels and the Places Disease Lives
- PHE 321 Module 5 Project One: Estimating the Burden of Chagas Disease in Three Counties
- PHE 321 Module 6 Prevention Biology Short Paper: What the Biology Says About Stopping Transmission
- PHE 321 Module 8 Discussion: Closing Reflection on the Ecological View of Disease
- PHE 101 Module 7 Project Two: A Layered Plan to Prevent Entrapment
PHE 321 Module 7 questions, answered
Where can I find a free PHE 321 Module 7 Project Two sample?
This page carries the full PHE 321 Project Two plan, an integrated Chagas disease program with prenatal testing, donor follow-up, clinician education and sentinel reporting.
Why prioritize prenatal Chagas testing?
Because about one in twenty babies of infected mothers is infected, infant treatment is highly effective and treating mothers can protect later pregnancies.
When should babies of infected mothers be tested?
With a direct parasite test early after birth and an antibody test at around nine months, after the mother's antibodies have faded.
How can a plan improve the data it is based on?
By recording results from new testing, such as prenatal screening, which produces a local prevalence measure to replace assumptions.
What should a PHE 321 intervention budget include?
Itemized costs such as testing, staff time, education materials and data changes, plus a note on costs covered by other programs.