Articles: pandemics.
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Intensive Care Units (ICUs) provide life-supporting treatment; however, resources are limited, so demand may exceed supply in the event of pandemics, environmental disasters, or in the context of an aging population. We hypothesized that comprehensive national data on ICU resources would permit a better understanding of regional differences in system capacity. ⋯ ICU resources vary widely across Canadian provinces, and during times of increased demand, may result in geographic differences in the ability to care for critically ill patients. These results highlight the need to evolve inter-jurisdictional resource sharing during periods of substantial increase in demand, and provide background data for the development of appropriate critical care capacity benchmarks.
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As seen during past pandemic influenza outbreaks, pharmaceutical interventions (PHIs) with vaccines and antivirals are the most effective methods of mitigation. However, availability of PHIs is unlikely to be adequate during the early stages of a pandemic. Hence, for early mitigation and possible containment, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) offer a viable alternative. Also, NPIs may be the only available interventions for most underdeveloped countries. In this paper we present a comprehensive methodology for design of effective NPI strategies. ⋯ If harnessed effectively, NPIs offer a significant potential for mitigation of pandemic influenza outbreaks. The methodology presented here fills a gap in the literature, which, though replete with models on NPI strategy evaluation, lacks a treatise on optimal strategy design.
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Bull. World Health Organ. · Dec 2014
ReviewEffectiveness of travel restrictions in the rapid containment of human influenza: a systematic review.
To assess the effectiveness of internal and international travel restrictions in the rapid containment of influenza. ⋯ Extensive travel restrictions may delay the dissemination of influenza but cannot prevent it. The evidence does not support travel restrictions as an isolated intervention for the rapid containment of influenza. Travel restrictions would make an extremely limited contribution to any policy for rapid containment of influenza at source during the first emergence of a pandemic virus.
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We are not ready for a global pandemic of Ebola virus. The current West African epidemic should serve as a dire warning of things to come.
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Since the detection of Ebola virus in 1976. recorded 13 major epidemics in Africa. The current threat in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone absorbs another victims and threatened pandemic. ⋯ For this reason, there is an absolute necessity to introduce regimes sanitation, quarantine at the suspects and maintain the highest safety measures for emergency responders. Developed procedures require absolute compliance.