The New Zealand medical journal
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Sepsis is a serious and increasing worldwide intensive care problem. In response to intensivists' concerns over the benefits, risks and financial implications of the use of drotrecogin alfa (recombinant human activated protein C), the first adjunctive therapy for sepsis licensed in New Zealand, the New Zealand Region of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) requested an advisory statement from a working party of New Zealand intensivists. ⋯ Despite high cost and moderate benefit, it may be reasonable to treat highly selected New Zealand patients with drotrecogin alfa.
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Resuscitation skills such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are taught as an optional component of the New Zealand school curriculum. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of, and factors influencing, CPR teaching in New Zealand primary and secondary schools. ⋯ This survey indicates that the majority of primary schools are not teaching CPR skills, or other life-saving first aid, and that the majority of secondary schools are treating these subjects as optional, taught only to a small proportion of students. If New Zealand is to achieve widespread community CPR knowledge, it is suggested that greater funding needs to be available to schools for resuscitation/first-aid training and the subject must become a compulsory, rather than optional, component of the school curriculum.