Disaster medicine and public health preparedness
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2020
Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirators During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic.
N95 respirators are personal protective equipment most often used to control exposures to infections transmitted via the airborne route. Supplies of N95 respirators can become depleted during pandemics or when otherwise in high demand. ⋯ Consultation with federal, state, and local public health officials is also important. We use the framework of surge capacity and the occupational health and safety hierarchy of controls approach to discuss specific engineering control, administrative control, and personal protective equipment measures that may help in optimizing N95 respirator supplies.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2020
Epidemiological Characteristics on the Clustering Nature of COVID-19 in Qingdao City, 2020: A Descriptive Analysis.
As an emerging infectious disease, COVID-19 has involved many countries and regions. With the further development of the epidemic, the proportion of clusters has increased. ⋯ More attention should be paid to the epidemic of clusters in prevention and control of COVID-19. In addition to isolating patients, it is essential to track, screen, and isolate those who have come in close contact with patients. Self-isolation is the key especially for healthy people in the epidemic area.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2020
Outbreak Trends of Coronavirus Disease-2019 in India: A Prediction.
The objective of this paper is to prepare the government and citizens of India to take or implement the control measures proactively to reduce the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic may be controlled if the Government of India takes proactive steps to aggressively implement a lockdown in the country and extend it further. This presented epidemiological model is an effort to predict the future forecast of COVID-19 spread, based on the present scenario, so that the government can frame policy decisions, and necessary actions can be initiated.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2020
How Is COVID-19 Affecting South Korea? What Is Our Current Strategy?
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 is expanding globally. South Korea is one of the countries most affected by COVID-19 from the very early stages of this pandemic. ⋯ To curb the transmission of the virus, health-care professionals, committees, and governments have combined many approaches, such as extensive COVID-19 screening, effective patient triage, the transparent provision of information, and the use of information technology. This experience could provide some valuable ideas and lessons to others who are fighting against COVID-19.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2020
Predicted Effects of Stopping COVID-19 Lockdown on Italian Hospital Demand.
Italy has been one of the first countries to implement mitigation measures to curb the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. There is currently a debate on when and how such measures should be loosened. To forecast the demand for hospital intensive care unit (ICU) and non-ICU beds for COVID-19 patients from May to September, we developed 2 models, assuming a gradual easing of restrictions or an intermittent lockdown. ⋯ Italian hospital demand is likely to remain high in the next months. If restrictions are reduced, planning for the next several months should consider an increase in health-care resources to maintain surge capacity across the country.