Background: There will be little time to prepare when an influenza pandemic strikes; hospitals need to develop and test pandemic influenza plans beforehand.
Methods: Acute care hospitals in Ontario were surveyed regarding their pandemic influenza preparedness plans.
Results: The response rate was 78.5%, and 95 of 121 hospitals participated. Three quarters (76.8%, 73 of 95) of hospitals had pandemic influenza plans. Only 16.4% (12 of 73) of hospitals with plans had tested them. Larger (chi(2) = 6.7, P = .01) and urban hospitals (chi(2) = 5.0, P = .03) were more likely to have tested their plans. 70.4% (50 of 71) Of respondents thought the pandemic influenza planning process was not adequately funded. No respondents were "very satisfied" with the completeness of their hospital's pandemic plan, and only 18.3% were "satisfied."
Conclusion: Important challenges were identified in pandemic planning: one quarter of hospitals did not have a plan, few plans were tested, key players were not involved, plans were frequently incomplete, funding was inadequate, and small and rural hospitals were especially disadvantaged. If these problems are not addressed, the result may be increased morbidity and mortality when a virulent influenza pandemic hits.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7132733 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2009.10.002 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of hospitalized pediatric patients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia before and after the COVID-19 pandemic in China: a retrospective multicenter study.
BMC Infect Dis
January 2025
Department of Emergency Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, 212001, China.
Background: In China many respiratory pathogens stayed low activities amid the COVID-19 pandemic due to strict measures and controls. We here aimed to study the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of pediatric inpatients with Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) after the mandatory COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, in comparison to those before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: We here included 4,296 pediatric patients with MPP, hospitalized by two medical centers in Jiangsu Province, China, from January 2015 to March 2024.
Combating COVID-19 and its co-infection by Aspergillus tamarii SP73-EGY using in vitro and in silico Studies.
Sci Rep
January 2025
Chemistry of Natural and Microbial Products Department, Pharmaceutical and Drug Industries Research Institute, National Research Centre, 33 El Buhouth St, Dokki-Giza, Egypt.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant mortality and morbidity for millions of people. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is capable of causing severe and fatal diseases. We evaluated the antiviral properties of Aspergillus tamarii SP73-EGY isolate extract against low pathogenic coronavirus (229E), Adeno-7- and Herpes-2 viruses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFight or Flight: Emergency Health Care Workers' Willingness to Work during Crises and Disasters. A Cross-Sectional Multicenter Study in the Netherlands.
Disaster Med Public Health Prep
January 2025
Centre for Research and Education in Emergency Care, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; REGEDIM, Free University Brussels, Brussels, Belgium; Department of Emergency Medicine, ZNA Camp Stuivenberg, Antwerp, Belgium.
Objective: Expanding staff levels is a strategy for hospitals to increase their surge capacity. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether emergency health care workers (HCWs) are willing to work during crises or disasters, and which working conditions influence their decisions.
Methods: HCWs in the emergency departments (EDs) and intensive care units (ICUs) of 5 Dutch hospitals were surveyed about various disaster scenarios.
SARS-CoV-2 Diversity and Transmission on a University Campus across Two Academic Years during the Pandemic.
Clin Chem
January 2025
Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States.
Background: Institutions of higher education (IHE) have been a focus of SARS-CoV-2 transmission studies but there is limited information on how viral diversity and transmission at IHE changed as the pandemic progressed.
Methods: Here we analyze 3606 viral genomes from unique COVID-19 episodes collected at a public university in Seattle, Washington from September 2020 to September 2022.
Results: Across the study period, we found evidence of frequent viral transmission among university affiliates with 60% (n = 2153) of viral genomes from campus specimens genetically identical to at least one other campus specimen.
Predicting airway immune responses and protection from immune parameters in blood following immunization in a pig influenza model.
Front Immunol
January 2025
Nuffield Department of Medicine, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Whereas the intranasally delivered influenza vaccines used in children affect transmission of influenza virus in the community as well as reducing illness, inactivated influenza vaccines administered by intramuscular injection do not prevent transmission and have a variable, sometimes low rate of vaccine effectiveness. Although mucosally administered vaccines have the potential to induce more protective immune response at the site of viral infection, quantitating such immune responses in large scale clinical trials and developing correlates of protection is challenging. Here we show that by using mathematical models immune responses measured in the blood after delivery of vaccine to the lungs by aerosol can predict immune responses in the respiratory tract in pigs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!