Articles: pandemics.
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Decontamination using hand hygiene remains one of the most important and effective methods for reducing healthcare-associated infections and cross-infection between patients. In 1860, Florence Nightingale wrote that nurses should wash their hands frequently throughout the day, demonstrating an early awareness of the effectiveness of this simple procedure. ⋯ This article details the correct procedure required for effective hand hygiene and emphasises the need for nurses to keep up to date with evidence-based guidelines. The article also outlines the differences between hand decontamination using alcohol-based hand gels and soap and water, and the complex factors that can interfere with effective hand hygiene compliance.
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This paper applies a scenario planning approach, to outline some current uncertainties related to COVID-19 and what they might mean for plausible futures for which we should prepare, and to identify factors that we as individual faculty members and university institutions should be considering now, when planning for the future under COVID-19. Although the contextual focus of this paper is Canada, the content is likely applicable to other places where the COVID-19 epidemic curve is in its initial rising stage, and where universities are predominantly publicly funded institutions.
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The COVID-19 pandemic impacts the hematology practice. Intensive chemotherapies for high-grade lymphomas and acute leukemias, multiple myeloma treatments and most hematopoietic stem cell transplantations should be performed as usual. Low-grade lymphomas should only be treated when strictly indicated, maintenance can be postponed. ⋯ Sickle cell anemia patients are highly succeptible to severe COVID-19 course. Thrombocytopenia and procoagulant state are associated with severe courses of COVID-19, requiring an individualized therapy. No data indicate a risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission through blood product transfusion.
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Revue médicale suisse · Apr 2020
[Psychiatry in the time of pandemic : forging new ways without getting lost].
Coronavirus pandemic challenges mental health care providers in different ways. At an individual level, they have to adapt their clinical practice and consider specific issues of teleconsultations to address patient's needs. At a population level, dedicated interventions (e.g. hotlines, health professionals' support) have to strike a balance between « pathologizing » people's reactions and trivializing the psychological effects of a pandemic. Finally, psychiatric leaders must be able to advise decision-makers on mental-health policy and communication.