Disaster medicine and public health preparedness
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Apr 2014
Surge in Hospitalizations Associated With Mechanical Ventilator Use During Influenza Outbreaks.
Information on surges in critical care services including mechanical ventilator use during seasonal influenza outbreaks is limited. To potentially facilitate preparedness plans for future pandemics, we retrospectively quantitated surges in all-cause mechanical ventilator use during peak influenza for 12 consecutive years in all certified hospitals in Maryland. ⋯ Surges in ventilator use were temporally associated with PIOP and were positively correlated with influenza season intensity, as measured by hospitalizations associated with acute respiratory illness. This information may assist resource planning for future pandemics. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;x:1-7).
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Feb 2014
Effects of humidity on foil and vial packaging to preserve glucose and lactate test strips for disaster readiness.
Efficient emergency and disaster response is challenged by environmental conditions exceeding test reagent storage and operating specifications. We assessed the effectiveness of vial and foil packaging in preserving point-of-care (POC) glucose and lactate test strip performance in humid conditions. ⋯ Both packaging designs appeared to protect glucose and lactate test strips for at least 1 week of high humidity stress. Documented strip failures revealed the need for improved manufacturing process.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Feb 2014
Informing the gestalt: an ethical framework for allocating scarce federal public health and medical resources to states during disasters.
During catastrophic disasters, government leaders must decide how to efficiently and effectively allocate scarce public health and medical resources. The literature about triage decision making at the individual patient level is substantial, and the National Response Framework provides guidance about the distribution of responsibilities between federal and state governments. ⋯ We adapted medical triage and the federalism principle to the decision-making process for allocating scarce federal public health and medical resources. We believe that the logic model provides a values-based framework that can inform the gestalt during the iterative decision process used by federal leaders as they allocate scarce resources to states during catastrophic disasters.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Feb 2014
Infectious disease frequency among evacuees at shelters after the great eastern Japan earthquake and tsunami: a retrospective study.
After the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami, the World Health Organization cautioned that evacuees at shelters would be at increased risk of infectious disease transmission; however, the frequency that occurred in this population was not known. ⋯ After the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and tsunami, outbreaks of ARI and acute gastroenteritis occurred in evacuation shelters.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Dec 2013
Foreign medical teams: what role can they play in response to a catastrophic disaster in the US?
Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that a catastrophic event in the continental United States (US) can overwhelm domestic medical response capabilities. The recent focus on response planning for a catastrophic earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone and the detonation of an improvised nuclear device also underscore the need for improved plans. ⋯ While several policies and plans outline the role of the US in providing medical assistance during foreign disasters, further planning is necessary to identify how the US will integrate foreign medical assistance during a domestic catastrophic event. We provide an overview of considerations related to federal roles and responsibilities for managing and integrating FMTs into the overarching domestic medical response to a catastrophic disaster occurring in the continental US.