Disaster medicine and public health preparedness
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2020
COVID-19 and Global Health Security: Overview of the Global Health Security Alliance, COVID-19 Response, African Countries' Approaches, and Ethics.
Public health emergencies can arise from a wide range of causes, one of which includes outbreaks of contagion. The world has continued to be threatened by various infectious outbreaks of different types that have global consequences. ⋯ Pandemic response policies and processes all need to be trusted for effective and ethical pandemic response. As the world can learn during the past few years about frequent infectious disease outbreaks, (these) diseases respect no borders, and, therefore, our spirit of solidarity must respect no borders in our efforts to stop the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and be better prepared to respond effectively to a health crisis in the future.
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Disaster Med Public Health Prep · Oct 2020
Optimizing Pandemic Preparedness and Response Through Health Information Systems: Lessons Learned From Ebola to COVID-19.
Strengthening health systems and maintaining essential service delivery during health emergencies response is critical for early detection and diagnosis, prompt treatment, and effective control of pandemics, including the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Health information systems (HIS) developed during recent Ebola outbreaks in West Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) provided opportunities to collect, analyze, and distribute data to inform both day-to-day and long-term policy decisions on outbreak preparedness. ⋯ In reviewing literature of how HIS could have further supported mitigation of these Ebola outbreaks and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, 3 key areas were identified: governance and coordination, health systems infrastructure and resources, and community engagement. In this concept study, we outline scalable HIS lessons from recent Ebola outbreaks and early COVID-19 responses along these 3 domains, synthesizing recommendations to offer clear, evidence-based approaches on how to leverage HIS to strengthen the current pandemic response and foster community health systems resilience moving forward.
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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
Shelter Hospital: Glimmers of Hope in Treating Coronavirus 2019.
Since the first report of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, the outbreak of the disease has been continuously evolving. Until March 17, 2020, 185, 178 cases had been confirmed, including 81,134 cases in China and 104,044 cases outside of China. In this comment, we report the unexpected beneficial effect of a deployable rapid-assembly shelter hospital on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. We describe the shelter hospital maintenance, treatment mode and primary treatment methods, which will provide a valuable experience in dealing with public health emergencies, such as COVID-19, for other countries and areas.