scholarly journals An Understanding of the Drivers of Infectious Diseases in the Modern World Can Aid Early Control of Future Pandemics

Pharmacy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Taiwo Opeyemi Aremu ◽  
Oluwatosin Esther Oluwole ◽  
Kehinde Oluwatosin Adeyinka
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Healthcare Team ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Early Phases

Infectious diseases have been a significant challenge to health and wellbeing from ancient times, with substantial economic implications globally. Despite the advent of technology, infectious diseases continue to affect people of various social statuses and across geographical locations. Understanding some of the drivers of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, vaccination, and vaccine hesitancy is a step towards thriving in the modern world, achieving fewer morbidities and mortalities, and adequately controlling future pandemics. Pharmacists are strategically placed as healthcare team members to promote early disease control through health education, advocacy, cross-professional and specialty collaboration, communal trust-building, research, and global unity. Not forgetting that infectious diseases in the modern world are about people and science, credible crisis communication during the early phases of disease outbreaks paves the way for well-informed guidance globally.

The Role and Activities of Board-Certified Chaplains in Advance Care Planning

2021 ◽  
pp. 104990912198999
Author(s):  
Jung Kwak ◽  
Soyeon Cho ◽  
George Handzo ◽  
Brian P. Hughes ◽  
Sami S. Hasan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Advance Care Planning ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Healthcare Team ◽  
Care Planning ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Academic Medical ◽  
Advance Care

Background: Healthcare chaplains have key roles in providing palliative support to patients and families, and they are well-suited to facilitate advance care planning (ACP). However, empirical data on the roles and responsibilities of chaplains in facilitating ACP are limited. Objectives: To examine the roles of board-certified healthcare chaplains in ACP in various healthcare settings. Methods: A cross-sectional, web-based self-report survey was conducted with 585 board-certified chaplains recruited from 3 major professional chaplains’ organizations in the U.S. The survey data included chaplains’ demographic and professional characteristics, their roles and responsibilities, and responses regarding communication and participation with other healthcare team members in facilitating ACP, including experienced barriers. Results: More participants worked in community hospital settings (42%) and academic medical centers (19.6%) than in any other setting. Over 90% viewed ACP as an important part of their work, 70% helped patients complete advance directives, and 90% helped patients discuss their preferences about end-of-life treatments. Many chaplains were not consistently included in team discussions regarding decision-making, although most chaplains reported that they could always find ways to communicate with their teams. Conclusion: Professional board-certified chaplains regularly engage in facilitating ACP discussions with patients and families in various healthcare settings. There is a need to recognize and provide systematic support for the role of chaplains in facilitating ACP conversations and to integrate chaplains into routine interdisciplinary team and family meetings.

scholarly journals Threshold Effects of Infectious Disease Outbreaks on Livestock Prices: Cases of African Swine Fever and Avian Influenza in South Korea

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 5114
Author(s):  
Hyung-Chul Rah ◽  
Hyeon-Woong Kim ◽  
Aziz Nasridinov ◽  
Wan-Sup Cho ◽  
Seo-Hwa Choi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
African Swine Fever ◽  
Threshold Effect ◽  
Impact Response ◽  
Threshold Effects ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Retail Prices ◽  
The Impact

In this paper we demonstrate the threshold effects of infectious diseases on livestock prices. Daily retail prices of pork and chicken were used as structured data; news and SNS mentions of African Swine Fever (ASF) and Avian Influenza (AI) were used as unstructured data. Models were tested for the threshold effects of disease-related news and SNS frequencies, specifically those related to ASF and AI, on the retail prices of pork and chicken, respectively. The effects were found to exist, and the values of ASF-related news on pork prices were estimated to be −9 and 8, indicating that the threshold autoregressive (TAR) model can be divided into three regimes. The coefficients of the ASF-related SNS frequencies on pork prices were 1.1666, 0.2663 and −0.1035 for regimes 1, 2 and 3, respectively, suggesting that pork prices increased by 1.1666 Korean won in regime 1 when ASF-related SNS frequencies increased. To promote pork consumption by SNS posts, the required SNS frequencies were estimated to have impacts as great as one standard deviation in the pork price. These values were 247.057, 1309.158 and 2817.266 for regimes 1, 2 and 3, respectively. The impact response periods for pork prices were estimated to last 48, 6, and 8 days for regimes 1, 2 and 3, respectively. When the prediction accuracies of the TAR and autoregressive (AR) models with regard to pork prices were compared for the root mean square error, the prediction accuracy of the TAR model was found to be slightly better than that of the AR. When the threshold effect of AI-related news on chicken prices was tested, a linear relationship appeared without a threshold effect. These findings suggest that when infectious diseases such as ASF occur for the first time, the impact on livestock prices is significant, as indicated by the threshold effect and the long impact response period. Our findings also suggest that the impact on livestock prices is not remarkable when infectious diseases occur multiple times, as in the case of AI. To date, this study is the first to suggest the use of SNS to promote meat consumption.

scholarly journals The Process and Impact of Stakeholder Engagement in Developing a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Communication and Decision-Making Intervention

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 108-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly N Michelson ◽  
Joel Frader ◽  
Lauren Sorce ◽  
Marla L Clayman ◽  
Stephen D Persell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
Pediatric Intensive Care ◽  
Healthcare Team ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Core Elements ◽  
Stakeholder Input

Stakeholder-developed interventions are needed to support pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) communication and decision-making. Few publications delineate methods and outcomes of stakeholder engagement in research. We describe the process and impact of stakeholder engagement on developing a PICU communication and decision-making support intervention. We also describe the resultant intervention. Stakeholders included parents of PICU patients, healthcare team members (HTMs), and research experts. Through a year-long iterative process, we involved 96 stakeholders in 25 meetings and 26 focus groups or interviews. Stakeholders adapted an adult navigator model by identifying core intervention elements and then determining how to operationalize those core elements in pediatrics. The stakeholder input led to PICU-specific refinements, such as supporting transitions after PICU discharge and including ancillary tools. The resultant intervention includes navigator involvement with parents and HTMs and navigator-guided use of ancillary tools. Subsequent research will test the feasibility and efficacy of our intervention.

Lukrecja – czy tylko słodka? Badania kliniczne, bezpieczeństwo stosowania, preparaty

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Antoniak ◽  
Marlena Dudek-Makuch ◽  
Wiesława Bylka
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Essential Oil ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Respiratory Tract ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Sweet Taste ◽  
Biological Properties ◽  
Licorice Root ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Gastrointestinal Ulceration

Licorice has been used in medicine for ancient times. Licorice root contains active compounds with different activities: saponins, flavonoids, coumarins and essential oil. It shows diverse biological properties. This article presents current achievements with clinical trials and creates new possibilities to use licorice in therapy. It has been proved effectiveness of licorice preparations in infectious diseases of respiratory tract, aphthous stomatitis, in dermatoses and also in skin care. The conducted researches on licorice preparations, especially DGL, present on the pharmaceutical market, which are recommended in gastrointestinal ulceration, have not proved their anti-ulcerative effect. The results of some clinical trials may, however, raise doubts due to the small groups and sometimes the lack of randomization or standardization of the studied preparation. Due to its sweet taste, it is used as a corrigens.

Role Network Analysis of Team Interactions and Individual Activities: Application to VTE Prophylaxis

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 896-900 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Schoofs Hundt ◽  
Pascale Carayon ◽  
Yushi Yang ◽  
Jason Stamm ◽  
Vaibhav Agrawal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Flow Model ◽  
Visual Representations ◽  
Hospitalized Patients ◽  
Healthcare Team ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Vte Prophylaxis ◽  
Team Interactions ◽  
Clinical Interactions

In this paper, we describe the role network analysis method to capture and visually convey healthcare team members’ clinical interactions as well as individual activities performed in light of VTE prophylaxis management for hospitalized patients. Our visual representations expand on the role network analysis work of Pasmore (1988) and flow model of Beyer and Holtzblatt (1998) and offer a deeper sociotechnical representation of the work of healthcare team members.

scholarly journals One Health, emerging infectious diseases and wildlife: two decades of progress?

2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1725) ◽  
pp. 20160167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew A. Cunningham ◽  
Peter Daszak ◽  
James L. N. Wood
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Wildlife Conservation ◽  
One Health ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Wide Scale ◽  
Multiple Species

Infectious diseases affect people, domestic animals and wildlife alike, with many pathogens being able to infect multiple species. Fifty years ago, following the wide-scale manufacture and use of antibiotics and vaccines, it seemed that the battle against infections was being won for the human population. Since then, however, and in addition to increasing antimicrobial resistance among bacterial pathogens, there has been an increase in the emergence of, mostly viral, zoonotic diseases from wildlife, sometimes causing fatal outbreaks of epidemic proportions. Concurrently, infectious disease has been identified as an increasing threat to wildlife conservation. A synthesis published in 2000 showed common anthropogenic drivers of disease threats to biodiversity and human health, including encroachment and destruction of wildlife habitat and the human-assisted spread of pathogens. Almost two decades later, the situation has not changed and, despite improved knowledge of the underlying causes, little has been done at the policy level to address these threats. For the sake of public health and wellbeing, human-kind needs to work better to conserve nature and preserve the ecosystem services, including disease regulation, that biodiversity provides while also understanding and mitigating activities which lead to disease emergence. We consider that holistic, One Health approaches to the management and mitigation of the risks of emerging infectious diseases have the greatest chance of success. This article is part of the themed issue ‘One Health for a changing world: zoonoses, ecosystems and human well-being’.

scholarly journals Screening and managing of suspected or confirmed novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients: experiences from a tertiary hospital outside Hubei province

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Pu ◽  
Yujun Xu ◽  
Gordon S. Doig ◽  
Yan Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Emergency Response ◽  
Healthcare Team ◽  
Personnel Training ◽  
Materials Management ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Specific Protocol ◽  
Medical Materials ◽  
Novel Coronavirus

ABSTRACTObjectivesTo report our experiences screening and managing patients with suspected or confirmed novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease using a hospital-specific protocol.DesignLongitudinal cohort study.SettingA 1,200 bed tertiary care teaching hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.Participants802 adults presenting to hospital with concerns of having COVID-19, 1,246 inpatients and 2,531 hospital visitors.InterventionsScreening and management of patients using a hospital-specific protocol, which included fever triage, monitoring visitors and patients, emergency response, personnel training for healthcare team members, health education for patients and family, medical materials management, disinfection and wastes disposal protocols.ResultsBetween 23 January and 28 February 2020, 73 people were identified as having fever plus respiratory signs with/without a history of exposure and were tested for the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by our hospital lab using RT PCR. Forty-five of these 73 people were subsequently excluded based on one negative RT PCR result plus positive results to quick screening tests for flu or other respiratory viruses. The remaining 28 people received a second RT PCR test 24 h later. Three people were confirmed positive for COVID-19 based on two consecutive positive RT PCR tests whilst 25 people were excluded based on two consecutive negative tests. The three COVID-19 confirmed cases received non-critical care. There were no new infections of medical staff or new infections of other hospital inpatients.ConclusionsA hospital-specific protocol for screening and management is necessary for reliably identifying suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients during an outbreak. All three cases were detected as a result of vigilant monitoring of hospital visitors. Whilst screening out-patients presenting to a fever clinic remains important, monitoring visitors must not be overlooked.Strengths and limitations of this study►We report a hospital-specific protocol used to screen and manage people presenting to our hospital fever clinic, inpatients and visitors during an outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pneumonia in Chengdu, Sichuan province.►Key components of the protocol included: a three-level fever triage process; monitoring visitors and inpatients, formation of an emergency response team for COVID-19, personnel training for healthcare team members, health education for patients and family, medical materials management, and disinfection and wastes disposal protocols.►The ability to test nucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2 using RT PCR in the hospital greatly shortened the time from the detection of patients to diagnosis, and was beneficial to the control of the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2.►Although our process detected few patients, comparison with other processes, when they are published, will allow the identification of the optimal approach for screening and management.►We suggest that if all resources had been focused on screening people through our fever clinic, we would have missed important in-hospital risks of transmitting COVID-19: The detection of a hospital visitor with COVID-19 led to the detection of an inpatient with COVID-19.

scholarly journals Surveillance of acute infectious gastroenteritis (1992–2009) and food-borne disease outbreaks (1996–2009) in Italy, with a focus on the Piedmont and Lombardy regions

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Mughini-Gras ◽  
C Graziani ◽  
F Biorci ◽  
A Pavan ◽  
R Magliola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Notification System ◽  
Lombardy Region ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Regional Systems ◽  
Infectious Gastroenteritis ◽  
Food Borne ◽  
Notification Data ◽  
And Control

We describe trends in the occurrence of acute infectious gastroenteritis (1992 to 2009) and food-borne disease outbreaks (1996 to 2009) in Italy. In 2002, the Piedmont region implemented a surveillance system for early detection and control of food-borne disease outbreaks; in 2004, the Lombardy region implemented a system for surveillance of all notifiable human infectious diseases. Both systems are internet based. We compared the regional figures with the national mean using official notification data provided by the National Infectious Diseases Notification System (SIMI) and the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), in order to provide additional information about the epidemiology of these diseases in Italy. When compared with the national mean, data from the two regional systems showed a significant increase in notification rates of non-typhoid salmonellosis and infectious diarrhoea other than non-typhoid salmonellosis, but for food-borne disease outbreaks, the increase was not statistically significant. Although the two regional systems have different objectives and structures, they showed improved sensitivity regarding notification of cases of acute infectious gastroenteritis and, to a lesser extent, food-borne disease outbreaks, and thus provide a more complete picture of the epidemiology of these diseases in Italy.

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