Articles: pandemics.
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The lancet oncology · Jul 2022
Impact of health insurance type on access to vaccination and mortality due to COVID-19 on patients with cancer in Colombia: a cohort study.
In Colombia, all paid workers earning minimum wage or higher contribute part of their salary for access to the national health-care system through a type of insurance called contributive plan, which supports the remaining low-income population that is enrolled on the subsidised plan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Colombia documented high mortality rate in patients with cancer, with higher mortality among low-income patients, according to data from our national registry of COVID-19 infection in patients with cancer. The aim of this research was to establish the differential access to COVID-19 vaccination depending on health insurance type, and its impact on mortality due to COVID-19 infection. ⋯ None.
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The lancet oncology · Jul 2022
Cancer registry operations in the Caribbean during the COVID-19 pandemic: a report of lessons learned and opportunities identified to support strong and sustainable health systems.
Population-based cancer registries (PBCRs) are crucial for cancer prevention and control planning. Building and maintaining resilient information systems within cancer registries that enable consistent and uninterrupted operations during public health emergencies is important. We report on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the operations of Caribbean PBCRs, together with opportunities, lessons learned, and strategies to strengthen and sustain PBCR operation and data quality. ⋯ Financial support for the Hub is provided by the Caribbean Public Health Agency and the US National Cancer Institute, with in-kind support from International Agency for Research on Cancer, the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Caribbean PBCRs are funded by their respective Governments. This work received no specific funding.
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Coronavirus disease 2019 was declared a national emergency in the United States on March 13, 2020, at which time the Children's National Hospital Emergency Department in Washington, DC, mobilized to develop and implement a unit-based Incident Command System. Anticipating that the unique and challenging nature of this pandemic might require a large interprofessional team, emergency nurses, emergency physicians, and emergency physician assistants were placed in traditional Incident Command System roles to provide an organizational framework for the ED response. This framework served multiple purposes but most importantly it helped to efficiently streamline and coordinate communications within the emergency department, with hospital leadership and with other hospital departments. ⋯ This paper highlights a unique concept of applying the Incident Command System model to a single hospital department in a disaster scenario, using existing ED staff to function in various roles not typically held during regular operations. Given that policies and procedures can be ever-changing during a pandemic, emergency departments can implement an interprofessional incident command structure to provide a framework for communications and operational planning that allows for agility based on evolving priorities. The Children's National Hospital ED Incident Command System model established during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic can serve as a guide for other emergency departments during a disaster response.
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The lancet oncology · Jul 2022
Oncological surgeries in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic: an epidemiological, cross-sectional, descriptive study.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected health-care systems worldwide. Elective procedures, including cancer surgeries, were suspended in most hospitals in consequence of the need to prioritise emergencies and to reduce the risk of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The objective of this work was to understand the variation in the number of cancer surgeries after the partial suspension of these services in Brazil during the pandemic. ⋯ None.
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The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic initiated the implementation of numerous disease mitigation strategies aimed to prevent transmission of the SARS-CoV-2. Given the similarity in mode of transmission, we posit that these strategies have also had a collateral benefit in minimizing the transmission of influenza during the 2020 to 2021 season in California. ⋯ Further study is recommended to determine which specific variables had greater impact on transmission of respiratory viruses, and therefore can be utilized to prevent future outbreaks of respiratory illness.