Published
I was looking the the other Disaster/Pandemic thread that Florida1 started. She mentioned that after the hurricanes, that they had problems getting basic supplies and food stores were often closed for weeks after the storm.
That concerns me. I wonder in case of disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and pandemics if the nurses who work in the area have problems like that. I'd be worried about leaving my family if there was no heat or electric. After loosing electric in the ice storms in the Carolinas a few years back, my husband bought us a generator. I try to keep enough gas stored so that I could run that and maybe have an extra tank of gas for getting back and forth to work, if things were shut down. I never want to wait in the cold on those gas lines again; or have to risk driving around to find necessities!
What disasters have you been through? What lessons did you learn about what things would make life easier if it happens again to you? What can we learn from your experience, and how can we prepare for so we dont have to go through th esame problems you did?
Where there any sepcial tricks or issues that came up that helped you at work? Any special problems that nurses in disasters face?
I have a confession- my home first aid kit is pretty anemic right now :) DH burned his hand prety badly at work last week. I hadnt checked my kit in awhile, and was shocked to see how low I was on some stuff. I only had one roll banfage and had to make a run to WallyWorld the next day! If the stores were shut or the roads iced in or otherwise impassible that would have been an issue. Maybe not life threatening- but its a small example of how not being well prepared can be a problem.
I'd have been so embarrased to admit to hubby I couldnt take care of it, or come thru when he needed me to.
What do you do to prepare? I'm going to restock my kit, and get some more OTC stuff to keep on hand too. What else should I be thinking about?
Laura
Dr. Osterholm At The Vancouver Conference
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/06/dr-osterholm-at-vancouver-conference.html
Dr. Osterholm looks at the bigger picture. We are dependent upon
trade, but our supply lines are fragile. They are likely to fail given
a severe global pandemic. That is the bottom line that few are
willing to acknowledge.
North American pandemic planning hasn't factored in its dependency on
Asian markets, Osterholm told attendees to the "Are You Ready for
a Pandemic?" conference.
The impending pandemic will most likely originate in Asia, the
"roulette table" for serious H5N1 flu virus genetic mutations that cause
pandemics, warned Osterholm. If that happens, trade supply lines
will die along with the influenza's victims, he added.
But international influenza researchers predict the next pandemic will
be similar to the 1918-19 Spanish Flu, which killed more than 40
million people.
The next pandemic will be global in just weeks and will last 12 to 18
months, Osterholm said, although noting that the economic effects
will be instantaneous.
The problem is that pandemic planning in North America has been
based on all other factors such as trade and electricity being normal,
but that won't be the case, said Osterholm.
Pandemic Drill In Laurel, Maryland
A very interesting pandemic drill with some very innovative
ideas from the community of Laurel, Maryland.
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/06/pandemic-drill-in-laurel-maryland.html
Instead of knocking on every door, or relying on telecommunications
that might be down, officials distributed hundreds of placards to
households to display on their front door or window.
Residents could display the number of ill in a household, along with the
total number of inhabitants.
Monitoring crews, equipped with wireless PDA's and binoculars, drove the
neighborhoods and entered in the information which was used to print
Rx labels for needed medications.
When It Comes to Preparedness, the Ball Is in Our Court
Excellent analysis from Avian Flu Diary. There is so much worth
reading in this one piece.
I pulled out only the one section on the suggestion that families
should stockpile their own Tamiflu.
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/06/ball-is-in-our-court.html
...the working group has determined that the number of courses of
antivirals the United States needs on hand for a pandemic would be
at least 195 million.
Roughly 2.4 times more than the government intends to purchase.
They urge that the private sector, mostly businesses - but `families and
individuals as appropriate' - stockpile the rest.
This would provide:
6M doses for deployment overseas to try to stop an outbreak
79M treatment courses for the infected here in the United States
103M courses to provide prophylaxis for healthcare and emergency
service workers
5M courses for outbreak control in Nursing homes, prisons, and other
closed settings
2M courses for people who are severely immuno-compromised
With an anticipated Federal and State Stockpile (currently lagging behind
the goal) of 81 million courses, this means that the private sector would
have to make up the 114 million course shortfall.
The ball is indeed, as they say, in our court. My wife suffers from an innumo-compromised condition that has the past few months caused her health problems. Looking ahead to what may lay in the future we've begun to stockpile her medications in earnest, including Tamiflu. An interruption in the supply system would open the door for opportunistic infection, and we have already seen what that means in her case.
No thank you, I will not sit idly by and wait for the lines to form and prices to react to increased demand along with shortages caused as much by the inability to move the supplies to the areas of highest demand as any actual production shortfalls.
Ayrman
indigo girl posted the following link to a home care toolkit from cidrap in january of this year.
important information from cidrap:promising practices for pandemic planning
toolkit provides guidance on home care for the sick
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu//cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/jan0208homecarepp.html
this portal, promising practices-pandemic preparedness tools, has been updated since then and there are a variety of links and sources relevant to health care workers.
http://www.pandemicpractices.org/practices/article.do?page=home
welcome
this project aims to enhance public health preparedness for an influenza pandemic and conserve resources by sharing promising practices.
cidrap and the pew center on the states (pcs) launched this initiative to collect and peer-review practices that can be adapted or adopted by public health stakeholders. the project was conceived and funded by the pew charitable trusts.
this collection of more than 150 practices represents a yearlong effort. our advisory committee, composed of state and local public health experts in pandemic influenza preparedness nationwide, selected the categories and topics at left.
pandemic planners and others submitted materials, chiefly via surveys. the practices in this project come from 25 us states and 37 counties & cities. if your agency isn't included (click on the map to check) you can still submit practices.
A Quick Response to a Flu Pandemic
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121496565961221997.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Why not make it easier for Americans to get Tamiflu for their families,
this Professor of Pharmacy Administration asks? It sure isn't easy now.
Why not simply have the Food and Drug Administration waive the
requirement of a physician's prescription for the drug? That way every
American can make his or her own decision about purchasing a
medication that could save their lives and those of their families in the
event of a true public health emergency.
A new behind-the-counter (BTC) class of drugs available through
pharmacies that is currently being considered by the FDA would seem
to be a viable mechanism for optimizing consumer access while ensuring
an appropriate degree of distributive control...
HHS Webcast Next Week - home healthcare delivery during a pandemic
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/07/hhs-webcast-next-week.html
This is scheduled for after the long weekend. The national pandemic
plan calls for most people to be treated at home, not in the hospital
perhaps making this one of the most essential topics for families.
That this topic would even need to be discussed, points to the concern
about the ability of the healthcare system to cope with large numbers
of flu victims.
If you missed any of these webcasts, they will be archived for later
viewing.
Key topics:
Assumptions that need to be considered when assigning a care-giving
role to home care agencies during a pandemic
Operational, ethical and legal challenges pandemic planners will face
Strategies home health care agencies can employ to overcome these
challenges
A MA hospital is sending letters to all employees regarding an emergency preparedness grant that the Hospital recieved from the Dept of Homeland Security. In order to be prepared for an outbreak of contagious disease, they are requiring all emplyees to complete a questionaire. They are required to list the names of all persons living in their house-holds and any persons they have close contact with. In the event that an infectious disease is brought into the hospital, the employees and their families would be required to be screened and placed on antibiotics.
I understand the hospital's need to be prepared for this sort of thing, however I do see some problems that could result from having to provide all this info to the hospital.
Has anyone experienced this?
big-chicken
A MA hospital is sending letters to all employees regarding an emergency preparedness grant that the Hospital recieved from the Dept of Homeland Security. In order to be prepared for an outbreak of contagious disease, they are requiring all emplyees to complete a questionaire. They are required to list the names of all persons living in their house-holds and any persons they have close contact with. In the event that an infectious disease is brought into the hospital, the employees and their families would be required to be screened and placed on antibiotics.I understand the hospital's need to be prepared for this sort of thing, however I do see some problems that could result from having to provide all this info to the hospital.
Has anyone experienced this?
big-chicken
Interesting, but I have heard nothing about this.
Fort Detrick unit to track diseases that affect U.S.
http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=167350&postcount=1
Bird flu is just one of many possible problems that they are tracking.
Even before yesterday's name change, the center had begun to focus
more broadly on epidemics that could enter the United States,
endangering civilians as well as government personnel, he said.
For several years, it has written "predictive reports" on avian flu, a
strain of influenza spread by birds that has also killed more than
220 people, most of them in Southeast Asia and Indonesia.
Pandemic Impact vs Duration
http://afludiary.blogspot.com/2008/07/long-and-short-of-it.html
The choices that CDC, HHS, and other involved govt agencies have made
for the national pandemic plan are based in part on our past history of
what worked and what didn't in 1918. Then as now, there is no vaccine.
We do have Tamiflu, but not nearly enough.
One of the less frequently mentioned aspects of a pandemic is that the
better job we do of lessening it's impact and slowing it down, the longer
a pandemic wave is expected to last.
With insufficient antivirals, and no prospects of a targeted vaccine during
the first pandemic wave, our national strategy is to slow down the virus
through the use of NPI's, or Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions.
indigo girl
5,173 Posts
Posted with permission from Effect Measure.
The problem of testing the effectiveness of bird flu vaccines
The Editors of Effect Measure are senior public health scientists and
practitioners. Paul Revere was a member of the first local Board of Health
in the United States (Boston, 1799). The Editors sign their posts "Revere"
to recognize the public service of a professional forerunner better known
for other things.