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Healthcare staff not prepared for flu pandemic
April 18, 2006Nearly half of health workers surveyed would not go to work during an influenza pandemic. The results of a survey of health workers in Maryland, USA, published today in the open access journal BMC Public Health reveal that the staff's perceived importance of their role in the response to a pandemic is the most important factor influencing willingness to come to work during a pandemic. This is lowest among technical or support staff. These results highlight the need for increased training and support for all health workers, but most importantly non-clinical healthcare staff, emphasising the importance of their role and their presence at work during an influenza pandemic.
Ran Balicer from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be'er Sheva, Israel and colleagues from the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness, Baltimore, USA sent questionnaires to all the staff in three health centres in Maryland. In total, 308 staff responded.
Balicer et al.'s results show that over 40% of respondents stated they would be unlikely to go to work during an influenza pandemic and that 66 % of respondents felt that they would put themselves at risk if they came to work during a pandemic. Willingness to report to work was most significantly associated with the perceived importance of one's role in the response. Less than a third of respondents felt that they would have an important role in the response to an influenza pandemic, but among this group, made mostly of clinicians, 86.8% would be willing to come to work.
Most (83%) of the respondents felt that they would benefit from additional training to prepare them to the eventuality of a pandemic.
BioMed Central
Most (83%) of the respondents felt that they would benefit from additional training to prepare them to the eventuality of a pandemic.
BioMed Central
Flu Pandemic Current Events and Flu Pandemic News RSSSneezing in times of a flu pandemic
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Lessons from flu seasons past
Pregnant women who catch the flu are at serious risk for flu-related complications, including death, and that risk far outweighs the risk of possible side effects from injectable vaccines containing killed virus, according to an extensive review of published research and data from previous flu seasons.
Older Patients with Dementia at Increased Risk for Flu Mortality
An epidemiological study on pneumonia and influenza (P&I) in adults age 65 and over reports that patients with dementia are diagnosed with flu less frequently, have shorter hospital stays, and have a fifty percent higher rate of death than those without dementia.
Triple-Combo Drug Shows Promise Against Antiviral-Resistant Swine Flu, UAB Researcher Says
An experimental drug cocktail that includes three prescriptions now widely available offers the best hope in developing a single agent to treat drug-resistant H1N1 swine flu, says a virology researcher in the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases.
Medical ethics experts identify, address key issues in H1N1 pandemic
The anticipated onset of a second wave of the H1N1 influenza pandemic could present a host of thorny medical ethics issues best considered well in advance, according to the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, which today released nine papers for public discussion.
Texas A&M researcher shows possible link between 1918 El Niño and flu pandemic
Research conducted at Texas A&M University casts doubts on the notion that El Niño has been getting stronger because of global warming and raises interesting questions about the relationship between El Niño and a severe flu pandemic 91 years ago.
'Dung of the devil' plant roots point to new swine flu drugs
Scientists in China have discovered that roots of a plant used a century ago during the great Spanish influenza pandemic contains substances with powerful effects in laboratory experiments in killing the H1N1 swine flu virus that now threatens the world.
NIAID scientists study past flu pandemics for clues to future course of 2009 H1N1 virus
A commonly held belief that severe influenza pandemics are preceded by a milder wave of illness arose because some accounts of the devastating flu pandemic of 1918-19 suggested that it may have followed such a pattern.
Avian influenza strain primes brain for Parkinson's disease
At least one strain of the H5N1 avian influenza virus leaves survivors at significantly increased risk for Parkinson's disease and possibly other neurological problems later in life.
Flu mortality formula is potentially misleading, say scientists
A standard calculation used in forecasting potential numbers of deaths during the swine flu pandemic risks misleading healthcare planners by being open to both over- and under-estimation of the true figures.
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