For General Healthcare Settings in West Africa
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) January 16, 2015 / 64(01);20-27
For use with travelers who might have been exposed to patients with Ebola and are sick with symptoms consistent with Ebola infection and require further evaluation
Document available in English, Spanish and French.
In order to maintain daily operations and patient care services, health care facilities need to develop an Emergency Water Supply Plan (EWSP) to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a total or partial interruption of the facilities’ normal water supply. Water supply interruption can be caused... by several types of events such as natural disaster, a failure of the community water system, construction damage or even an act of terrorism.
The planning guide provides a four step process for the development of an EWSP:
1. Assemble the appropriate EWSP Team and the necessary background documents for your facility;
2. Understand your water usage by performing a water use audit;
3. Analyze your emergency water supply alternatives; and
4. Develop and exercise your EWSP
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This guide is intended to assist
state, local, and tribal public health
professionals in the initiation of
response activities during the
first 24 hours of an emergency
or disaster. It should be used in
conjunction with existin...g emergency
operations plans, procedures,
guidelines, resources, assets, and
incident management systems. It
is not a substitute for public health
emergency preparedness and
planning activities. The response to
any emergency or disaster must be
a coordinated community effort.
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March 2020
The number of African Union Member States reporting COVID-
19 cases is increasing and there is a likelihood of community transmission. The WHO recently modified the COVID-19 suspect case definition to include severe acute respiratory infection and advises testing of all severe acute res...piratory illness (SARI) cases.1 However, many Member States have not yet started implementing these changes, they are still focussing surveillance efforts on individuals with travel history to an area with local COVID-19 transmission. This means patients with similar symptoms, but no apparent contact, may not
be investigated.
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Les Centres africains de contrôle et de prévention des maladies (Africa CDC) ont pris connaissance des communiqués de presse concernant les résultats préliminaires d'un vaste essai clinique randomisé mené au Royaume-Uni, qui incluait la dexaméthasone, un corticostéroïde, parmi les médicam...ents utilisés pour le traitement des patients atteints de COVID-19. Les chercheurs ont rapporté que l'administration de dexaméthasone par voie orale ou injectable a permis de réduire d'environ un tiers la mortalité chez les patients COVID-19i qui nécessitaient une ventilation mécanique et d'environ un cinquième chez les patients nécessitant de l'oxygène. Depuis la publication de ces rapports médiatiques, les autorités sanitaires du Royaume-Uni et d'Afrique du Sud ont adopté la dexaméthasone pour le traitement des patients atteints de formes graves de COVID-19
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The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases detected and reported in each country is influenced by
many factors including limited access and/or utilization of healthcare and COVID-19 testing, limited
surveillance, lack of knowledge amongst the population about when to seek testing, an asymptomatic pres...entation, and other unknown issues. This is true in all countries of the world, and not Africa specific, however there are factors unique to Africa which may also affect the way the virus behaves there. COVID-19 prevalence data are critical for planning effective mitigation strategies and understandingthe true impact of the disease and relevant intervention measures in Africa, which might be quite different from regions with a different population age distribution or risk factor profile.
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Use these resources to engage communities, increase cultural competence, and promote type 2 diabetes prevention and diabetes management.