Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
China is taking dramatic measures to halt the spread of a new coronavirus that has already infected more than 42,000 people and killed more than 1,000 there. The country built two new hospitals in just over a week. With 2,600 beds between them, they represent an impressive feat of engineering meant to take some burden off the health care network in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak. Meanwhile, the United States, with only a handful of confirmed cases of the disease, has strained to respond, raising concerns about how prepared the country’s health care system is, should the number infections begin to swell.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting only 13 confirmed cases of the virus, formally known as COVID-19. Even so, for frontline health care workers, this is a challenging time. They’re having to manage the surge of people checking into doctor’s offices, including people with signs of infection who have also travelled to coronavirus hotspots as well as the worried-well. On top of that, they’re struggling to ensure their facilities have the right medical supplies. Despite the low risk of infection in the United States, there’s been an unfortunate run on protective equipment like masks that health care workers will need to treat patients with the new coronavirus. Moreover, a new study from Wuhan, China, suggests that many hospitalized patients are likely to require lengthy stays in hospital intensive care units, where workers will need even more supplies to treat them. That’s worrisome, as a significant number of patients in the study appeared to be getting infected in the hospital itself.
Not only is demand for personal protective equipment soaring, but the
For hospital officials, preparing for cases of coronavirus infection means not only ensuring they have adequate supplies, but also the right processes put in place for the rapid identification and isolation of potential patients—which can be challenging during a patient surge.
Given the stresses facing hospitals and the frontline health care workers in them, a new study delivered unfortunate news last week. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that discussed the clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized coronavirus patients in Wuhan included two deeply worrisome findings. First, 26 percent of those 138 patients required admission into an intensive care unit, a highly resource intensive level of treatment, both in terms of personnel and supplies. These are the patients most likely to require mechanical ventilation, invasive medical devices, and more. Patients who require intensive care have longer overall stays in the hospital. The study also found about 41 percent of cases were due to people getting infected as a result of being exposed in the hospital. This red-flag indicates that there have been breakdowns in infection prevention measures, whether those have to do with personal protective equipment or proper isolation procedures.
Maryn McKenna✔@marynmckWell, this is good timing. https://twitter.com/C_R_Watson/status/1226955570839609344 …
Crystal Watson@C_R_Watson
The HHS Budget in Brief released today proposes funding cuts to CDC’s Public Health Preparedness and Response program (-$25 million) and ASPR’s Hospital Preparedness Program (-$18 million) as we stare down the barrel of this #2019-nCoV epidemic... https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2021-budget-in-brief.pdf …
See Maryn McKenna’s other Tweets
Jeremy Konyndyk@JeremyKonyndykHad a very concerning chat with a hospital exec recently about preparedness for nCoV.
US hospitals nowhere near ready for conditions like we’re seeing in China. Neither are those in the developing world.
If anything, this NYT report may be too rosy.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/health/hospitals-coronavirus.html …Inundated With Flu Patients, U.S. Hospitals Brace for Coronavirus
Resources are already stretched during flu season. With so much medical equipment and drugs made in China, public health experts are anxiously watching the global supply chain.
nytimes.com
133 people are talking about this
As previous coronavirus scares—including an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, in South Korea, which began with a traveler returning from Saudi Arabia—have shown, hospitals can easily amplify a disease during outbreaks. And it’s clear that US hospitals and the US public health system as a whole are at a challenging crossroads. Will the United States see widespread transmission of the new coronavirus or just a few isolated cases? Either way, this coronavirus outbreak has already clearly shown that the United States needs to truly strengthen its critical biopreparedness infrastructure. The country is instead dismantling a tiered hospital system for dealing with serious infectious diseases like Ebola that are designated as special pathogens. While the coronavirus is not considered a special pathogen, overall the federal government’s message is clear: There’s little being done to encourage hospital leadership to invest in preparedness efforts.
Furthermore, President Trump actually proposed slashing funding for the Department of Health and Human Services in his most recent budget. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Preparedness and Response program would lose $25 million and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response’s Hospital Preparedness Program would lose $18 million. The Hospital Preparedness Program, for instance, provides funding for regional treatment centers for Ebola and other special pathogens, grants and funding for hospitals to enhance readiness, and tools for hospitals to prepare for patient surges.
To date, preparedness for infectious disease events just haven’t seemed to be a priority in the Trump administration. Maybe the coronavirus crisis will change that.
Saskia Popescu
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 12, 2020 :
https://thebulletin.org/2020/02/if-the-coronavirus-outbreak-grows-can-a-strained-us-health-care-system-keep-up
The coronavirus outbreak: 3 ways the United States was (and is) unprepared
China is taking dramatic measures to halt the spread of a new coronavirus that has already infected more than 42,000 people and killed more than 1,000 there. The country built two new hospitals in just over a week. With 2,600 beds between them, they represent an impressive feat of engineering meant to take some burden off the health care network in Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak. Meanwhile, the United States, with only a handful of confirmed cases of the disease, has strained to respond, raising concerns about how prepared the country’s health care system is, should the number infections begin to swell.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting only 13 confirmed cases of the virus, formally known as COVID-19. Even so, for frontline health care workers, this is a challenging time. They’re having to manage the surge of people checking into doctor’s offices, including people with signs of infection who have also travelled to coronavirus hotspots as well as the worried-well. On top of that, they’re struggling to ensure their facilities have the right medical supplies. Despite the low risk of infection in the United States, there’s been an unfortunate run on protective equipment like masks that health care workers will need to treat patients with the new coronavirus. Moreover, a new study from Wuhan, China, suggests that many hospitalized patients are likely to require lengthy stays in hospital intensive care units, where workers will need even more supplies to treat them. That’s worrisome, as a significant number of patients in the study appeared to be getting infected in the hospital itself.
Not only is demand for personal protective equipment soaring, but the
For hospital officials, preparing for cases of coronavirus infection means not only ensuring they have adequate supplies, but also the right processes put in place for the rapid identification and isolation of potential patients—which can be challenging during a patient surge.
Given the stresses facing hospitals and the frontline health care workers in them, a new study delivered unfortunate news last week. An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association that discussed the clinical characteristics of 138 hospitalized coronavirus patients in Wuhan included two deeply worrisome findings. First, 26 percent of those 138 patients required admission into an intensive care unit, a highly resource intensive level of treatment, both in terms of personnel and supplies. These are the patients most likely to require mechanical ventilation, invasive medical devices, and more. Patients who require intensive care have longer overall stays in the hospital. The study also found about 41 percent of cases were due to people getting infected as a result of being exposed in the hospital. This red-flag indicates that there have been breakdowns in infection prevention measures, whether those have to do with personal protective equipment or proper isolation procedures.
Maryn McKenna✔@marynmckWell, this is good timing. https://twitter.com/C_R_Watson/status/1226955570839609344 …
Crystal Watson@C_R_Watson
The HHS Budget in Brief released today proposes funding cuts to CDC’s Public Health Preparedness and Response program (-$25 million) and ASPR’s Hospital Preparedness Program (-$18 million) as we stare down the barrel of this #2019-nCoV epidemic... https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2021-budget-in-brief.pdf …
See Maryn McKenna’s other Tweets
Jeremy Konyndyk@JeremyKonyndykHad a very concerning chat with a hospital exec recently about preparedness for nCoV.
US hospitals nowhere near ready for conditions like we’re seeing in China. Neither are those in the developing world.
If anything, this NYT report may be too rosy.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/health/hospitals-coronavirus.html …Inundated With Flu Patients, U.S. Hospitals Brace for Coronavirus
Resources are already stretched during flu season. With so much medical equipment and drugs made in China, public health experts are anxiously watching the global supply chain.
nytimes.com
133 people are talking about this
As previous coronavirus scares—including an outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, in South Korea, which began with a traveler returning from Saudi Arabia—have shown, hospitals can easily amplify a disease during outbreaks. And it’s clear that US hospitals and the US public health system as a whole are at a challenging crossroads. Will the United States see widespread transmission of the new coronavirus or just a few isolated cases? Either way, this coronavirus outbreak has already clearly shown that the United States needs to truly strengthen its critical biopreparedness infrastructure. The country is instead dismantling a tiered hospital system for dealing with serious infectious diseases like Ebola that are designated as special pathogens. While the coronavirus is not considered a special pathogen, overall the federal government’s message is clear: There’s little being done to encourage hospital leadership to invest in preparedness efforts.
Furthermore, President Trump actually proposed slashing funding for the Department of Health and Human Services in his most recent budget. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Preparedness and Response program would lose $25 million and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response’s Hospital Preparedness Program would lose $18 million. The Hospital Preparedness Program, for instance, provides funding for regional treatment centers for Ebola and other special pathogens, grants and funding for hospitals to enhance readiness, and tools for hospitals to prepare for patient surges.
To date, preparedness for infectious disease events just haven’t seemed to be a priority in the Trump administration. Maybe the coronavirus crisis will change that.
Matt Field
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 11, 2020 :
https://thebulletin.org/2020/02/if-the-coronavirus-outbreak-grows-can-a-strained-us-health-care-system-keep-up
Twitter
Facebook