Fair prioritization of casualties in disaster triage: a qualitative study.

Background: Disasters may result in mass casualties and an imbalance between health care demands and supplies. This imbalance necessitates the prioritization of the victims based on the severity of their condition. Contributing factors and their effect on decision-making is a challenging issue in disaster triage.

Perceptions on principle of priority setting in disaster triage: A Q-method study.

Introduction: An ethical plan is required to make decisions regarding setting the priority for assisting injured patients through triage. The aim of this study was to explore the measures used to sort patients for ethical decision-making in disaster triage.

Method: The participants were 54 clinicians and non-clinicians among the Iranian experts.

Observed Versus Expected COVID-19 Infections Among National Football League Players During the 2020 Season.

Background: The National Football League (NFL) and National Football League Players Association implemented a set of strict protocols for the 2020 season with the intent to mitigate COVID-19 risk among players and staff. In that timeframe, the league's 32 teams completed 256 regular season games and several thousand meetings and practices. In parallel, community cases of COVID-19 were highly prevalent.

Defining a Research Agenda for Layperson Prehospital Hemorrhage Control: A Consensus Statement.

Importance: Trauma is the leading cause of death for US individuals younger than 45 years, and uncontrolled hemorrhage is a major cause of trauma mortality. The US military's medical advancements in the field of prehospital hemorrhage control have reduced battlefield mortality by 44%. However, despite support from many national health care organizations, no integrated approach to research has been made regarding implementation, epidemiology, education, and logistics of prehospital hemorrhage control by layperson immediate responders in the civilian sector.

Triage of Scarce Critical Care Resources in COVID-19 An Implementation Guide for Regional Allocation: An Expert Panel Report of the Task Force for Mass Critical Care and the American College of Chest Physicians.

Public health emergencies have the potential to place enormous strain on health systems. The current pandemic of the novel 2019 coronavirus disease has required hospitals in numerous countries to expand their surge capacity to meet the needs of patients with critical illness. When even surge capacity is exceeded, however, principles of critical care triage may be needed as a means to allocate scarce resources, such as mechanical ventilators or key medications.

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) Science and the CBRNE Science Medical Operations Science Support Expert (CMOSSE).

A national need is to prepare for and respond to accidental or intentional disasters categorized as chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE). These incidents require specific subject-matter expertise, yet have commonalities. We identify 7 core elements comprising CBRNE science that require integration for effective preparedness planning and public health and medical response and recovery.

Development and Performance of a Checklist for Initial Triage After an Anthrax Mass Exposure Event.

Background: Population exposure to Bacillus anthracis spores could cause mass casualties requiring complex medical care. Rapid identification of patients needing anthrax-specific therapies will improve patient outcomes and resource use.

Objective: To develop a checklist that rapidly distinguishes most anthrax from nonanthrax illnesses on the basis of clinical presentation and identifies patients requiring diagnostic testing after a population exposure.

Ethical prioritization of patients during disaster triage: A systematic review of current evidence.

Introduction: Triage is a dynamic and complex decision-making process in order to determine priority of access to medical care in a disaster situation. The elements which should govern an ethical decision-making in prioritizing of victims have been debated for a long time. This paper aims to identify ethical principles guiding patient prioritization during disaster triage.

Guidance, Training and Exercises for Responding to an Improvised Nuclear Device: First Receivers, Public Health.

All large-scale emergencies and disaster incidents, including the detonation of an improvised nuclear device (IND), have life and death medical consequences. Responders must have realistic plans to save lives and reduce physical and psychological morbidity. Fifteen years after 9/11, considerable progress toward developing and implementing such plans has been made, but gaps in the management of response to an IND loom large.

Implications of Prenatal Exposure to the Spring 2011 Alabama and Missouri Tornadoes on Birth Outcomes.

Objective: Despite emerging evidence of the detrimental effects of natural disasters on maternal and child health, little is known about exposure to tornadoes during the prenatal period and its impact on birth outcomes. We examined the relationship between prenatal exposure to the spring 2011 tornado outbreak in Alabama and Joplin (Missouri) and adverse birth outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional cohort study using the 2010-2012 linked infant births and deaths data set from the National Center for Health Statistics for tornado-affected counties in Alabama (n=126,453) and Missouri (Joplin, n=6,897).

Proposed "Exposure And Symptom Triage" (EAST) Tool to Assess Radiation Exposure After a Nuclear Detonation.

ABSTRACTOne of the biggest medical challenges after the detonation of a nuclear device will be implementing a strategy to assess the severity of radiation exposure among survivors and to triage them appropriately. Those found to be at significant risk for radiation injury can be prioritized to receive potentially lifesaving myeloid cytokines and to be evacuated to other communities with intact health care infrastructure prior to the onset of severe complications of bone marrow suppression. Currently, the most efficient and accessible triage method is the use of sequential complete blood counts to assess lymphocyte depletion kinetics that correlate with estimated whole-body dose radiation exposure.

Health Care Coalitions as Response Organizations: Houston After Hurricane Harvey.

Health care coalitions play an increasingly important role in both preparedness for, response to, and recovery from large scale disaster events occurring across the United States. The actions taken by the South East Texas Regional Advisory Council (SETRAC) in response to the landfall of Hurricane Harvey, and the consequential flooding that ensued, serve as an excellent example of how health care coalitions are increasingly needed to play a unifying role in response. This paper highlights a number of the strategic planning, operational planning and response, information sharing, and resource coordination and management activities that were undertaken for the response to Hurricane Harvey.

Estimation of Time Period for Effective Human Inhalational Anthrax Treatment Including Antitoxin Therapy.

Introduction: Infrequent natural human inhalational anthrax cases coupled with high bioterrorism risk have brought about use of animal models to serve as the basis for approval of novel treatments. For inhalational anthrax, protective antigen (PA) drives much of the mortality, and raxibacumab, an anti-PA monoclonal antibody, has been approved for therapeutic use using the Animal Rule. Given the paucity of human inhalational anthrax clinical data including PA kinetics, the post-exposure period for effective treatment of human disease remains unknown.

Political Leadership in the Time of Crises: Primum non Nocere.

Long before the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the United States was already experiencing a failure of confidence between politicians and scientists, primarily focused on differences of opinion on climate extremes. This ongoing clash has culminated in an environment where politicians most often no longer listen to scientists. Importation of Ebola virus to the United States prompted an immediate political fervor over travel bans, sealing off borders and disputes over the reliability of both quarantine and treatment protocol.