Disaster medicine and public health preparedness
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2015
ReviewGlobal Health Security Demands a Strong International Health Regulations Treaty and Leadership From a Highly Resourced World Health Organization.
If the Ebola tragedy of West Africa has taught us anything, it should be that the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR) Treaty, which gave unprecedented authority to the World Health Organization (WHO) to provide global public health security during public health emergencies of international concern, has fallen severely short of its original goal. After encouraging successes with the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic, the intent of the legally binding Treaty to improve the capacity of all countries to detect, assess, notify, and respond to public health threats has shamefully lapsed. Despite the granting of 2-year extensions in 2012 to countries to meet core surveillance and response requirements, less than 20% of countries have complied. ⋯ The bottom line is that the global community can no longer tolerate an ineffectual and passive international response system. As such, this Treaty has the potential to become one of the most effective treaties for crisis response and risk reduction worldwide. Practitioners and health decision-makers worldwide must break their silence and advocate for a stronger Treaty and a return of WHO authority.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2015
Rising to the Challenge: The Ebola Outbreak in Sierra Leone and How Insights Into One Nongovernmental Organization's Response Can Inform Future Core Competencies.
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play a critical humanitarian role in the developing world. Over 100 NGOs currently operate in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa that ranks 183 out of 187 in the United Nation's Human Development Index. Following a brutal 11-year war that ended in January 2002, the country has been unsuccessful at building a sufficiently resourced, robust, and anticipatory public health and medical care infrastructure. ⋯ Smaller NGOs endeavored to assist during this crisis as well. One of them, Caritas, has actively sought public health knowledge and has applied public health principles to reduce and contain Ebola virus disease transmission. The Ebola outbreak illuminates the importance of building basic public health capabilities within the core competences of NGOs.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Aug 2015
School Closure Decisions Made by Local Health Department Officials During the 2009 H1N1 Influenza Outbreak.
The goal of this study was to gain insights into the decision-making processes used by California public health officials during real-time crises. The decision-making processes used by California public health officials during the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic were examined by a survey research team from the University of California Berkeley. ⋯ Public health decision-makers do not appear to have a standard process for crisis decision-making and would benefit from having an organized decision-making model. The survey showed that ethical, logistical, and political criteria were considered but were not prioritized in any meaningful way. A new decision-making tool kit for public health decision-makers plus implementation training is warranted.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Aug 2015
ReviewCore Competencies in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance: A Systematic Review.
Disaster response demands a large workforce covering diverse professional sectors. Throughout this article, we illustrate the results of a systematic review of peer-reviewed studies to identify existing competency sets for disaster management and humanitarian assistance that would serve as guidance for the development of a common disaster curriculum. A systematic review of English-language articles was performed on PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, ERIC, and Cochrane Library. ⋯ Eighteen papers (47%) defined competency domains and 36 (94%) reported list of competencies. Nineteen articles (50%) adopted consensus-building to define competencies, and 12 (31%) included competencies adapted to different professional responsibility levels. This systematic review revealed that the largest number of papers were mainly focused on the health care sector and presented a lack of agreement on the terminology used for competency-based definition.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Jun 2015
Redistribution of Emergency Department Patients After Disaster-Related Closures of a Public Versus Private Hospital in New York City.
Sudden hospital closures displace patients from usual sources of care and force them to access facilities that lack their prior medical records. For patients with complex needs and for nearby hospitals already strained by high volume, disaster-related hospital closures induce a public health emergency. Our objective was to analyze responses of patients from public versus private emergency departments after closure of their usual hospital after Hurricane Sandy. ⋯ However, for patients from the closed public hospital, this redistribution was also influenced by hospital ownership, because patients redistributed to other public hospitals at rates higher than expected by proximity alone. This differential response to hospital closures demonstrates significant differences in how public and private patients respond to changes in health care access during disasters. Public health response must consider these differences to meet the needs of all patients affected by disasters and other public health emergencies.