H5N1

US hospitals struggle with staffing shortages and Omicron outbreaks

Via The Guardian: US hospitals struggle with staffing shortages and Omicron outbreaks. Excerpt:

On her fourth day of Covid symptoms, Ruth woke up in the worst pain of her life. It felt like her joints were filled with broken glass; she couldn’t walk, couldn’t move. “It was worse than childbirth,” she said.  

When friends texted to check on her, she couldn’t hold the phone or move her fingers to write back. Her doctor called in medication, and it took Ruth 40 minutes to shuffle to the pharmacy half a block away.  

Ruth – who did not want her full name used – is certain that if she weren’t vaccinated and boosted, she would be in the intensive care unit or worse right now. But while she’s recovering from this “mild” case, she’s unable to work even as cases surge in her region.  

Ruth is an emergency nurse in Washington DC. Her case of breakthrough Covid shows what may happen when the more contagious variant hits health workers all over the country – and the pressures Omicron will put on a US health system already groaning under the weight of the pandemic. In this wave, it’s not a shortage of beds but a shortage of qualified workers to care for people in those beds that is raising alarm bells.  

“What do you do when you have a tidal wave coming at you in a little paddle boat?” Ruth asked. “There’s going to be a huge uptick. Our entire waiting room is going to be all Covid-positive.”  

In Washington DC the infection curve looks like a straight line up. On Saturday, the city nearly tripled its previous record-high number of cases. At least two of Ruth’s colleagues were already out sick with Covid.  

In a matter of weeks, Omicron has become the dominant variant in the United States. It accounts for 73% of sequenced cases, six times higher than last week. As the holidays approach, officials and experts warn of an unmanageable crush of patients and potentially catastrophic staffing shortages.  

“This is a big concern,” said Marcus Plescia, the chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. “This is a highly contagious variant, and we really think it could cause significant issues with the workforce.”  

Omicron is spreading like wildfire and slamming into hospitals, and “​​there’s no question that this is going to be on us, really in the next week or so”, Plescia said.  

Others agreed. “There’s no question” that Omicron outbreaks among healthcare workers are “significantly diminishing the workforce”, said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “It has profound implications for our ability to not just take care of people with Covid but [also] the other diseases that are out there.”  

The American Nurses Association is urging US officials to declare the nursing shortage a national crisis, and the American College of Emergency Physicians has expressed concerns the shortage will affect patient care.

Ontario LTC homes call for mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for all health-care workers

Via The Globe and Mail, a report by The Canadian Press: Ontario LTC homes call for mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for all health-care workers.

Ontario long-term care homes are asking the province to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for their staff as well as health-care workers in all settings. 

The Ontario Long-Term Care Association says making vaccines mandatory provincewide would both protect residents and ensure facilities don’t lose their staff to other health-care facilities. 

The province requires staff in long-term care homes to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status, and those who are unvaccinated for non-medical reasons have to undergo education about the importance of immunization. 

But Premier Doug Ford has refused to mandate vaccines in any setting. 

He has spoken in support of a Toronto hospital network’s policy that unvaccinated staff – and those won’t disclose their vaccination status – have to take a COVID-19 test before coming to work. 

The long-term care association’s call to make vaccines mandatory for health workers echoes recommendations from the Ontario Medical Association and the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.

Delta is worse. This time around, Alabama is facing a two-front war

Via The Washington Post, a powerful and disturbing op-ed by Dr. Michael Saag of the University of Alabama at Birmingham: Delta is worse. This time around, Alabama is facing a two-front war. Excerpt:

As we entered into the July Fourth weekend, many Americans celebrated as if the epidemic had ended: traveling in record numbers and engaging in large gatherings with no masks and no social distancing. All the while, many of those celebrating were unvaccinated and immunologically vulnerable. With the delta variant going from zero cases in March to 60 percent of cases by mid-July, we were approaching a near-perfect storm. 

Now we are in it. Cases are exploding. Here in Alabama, the state with the lowest vaccination rate (less than 35 percent), rates of infection have risen from less than three cases per 100,000 people four weeks ago to more than 54 cases per 100,000 this week. 

Suzanne Judd at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health generated models that show, by Labor Day, cases will skyrocket to two to three times the peak we experienced in January. At our 1,157-bed hospital in Birmingham, Alabama’s largest, we have risen from three cases in-house in mid-June to more than 67 cases on Wednesday. Statewide, the rise exceeds 500 percent since July 4. 

These trends are terrifying and, as a virologist who had covid-19 last spring, I can say they induce a kind of pre-traumatic stress in our health-care workers. We know what’s coming. We’ve experienced this trauma before. We don’t want to do this again, but the die is already cast. My fellow health-care workers are being thrown back into the fire, like servicemen and women going back for a third tour of duty in a war zone. 

This week alone, one infectious-disease colleague and four ER physicians, all fully vaccinated, have become ill with the variant. This is very different from what we experienced before. Delta is different. 

With the current spike of cases, 99 percent of deaths are occurring in unvaccinated people. Almost all of these are preventable. That is particularly troublesome to health-care workers who struggle valiantly to save the lives of those who now present to the hospital, the vast majority of whom chose not to be vaccinated. 

Making it worse is the hate we experience from a small, but very real, group of people who seek to undermine our efforts through the steady release of misinformation in social media and elsewhere. I received an inquiry this week from a person who claimed to be a CNN reporter, initially asking me for information about delta and then demanding “proof” that delta is here. Despite my best effort to explain, I was berated with accusations that I was making this up. (He later posted most of the exchange on Facebook.) 

I am not alone in suffering these types of attacks. It is this sort of behavior that has led to poor vaccine uptake among many people and resulted in this new spike of cases. 

Despite the static and misinformation, we will get it done. It will be helpful, however, if this time around we pull together as a country, ignore those who spew hate and sow mistrust of those trying to serve the public. The virus is a formidable enemy and terrifying enough. We can’t afford to be fighting a two-front war.

Doctors, nurses and other health groups call for mandatory vaccinations for all health workers

Via The Washington Post: Doctors, nurses and other health groups call for mandatory vaccinations for all health workers. Excerpt:

Medical groups representing millions of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health workers on Monday called for mandatory vaccinations of all U.S. health personnel against the coronavirus, framing the move as a moral imperative as new infections mount sharply. 

“We call for all health care and long-term care employers to require their employees to be vaccinated against covid-19,” the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association and 55 other groups wrote in a joint statement shared with The Washington Post. “The health and safety of U.S. workers, families, communities, and the nation depends on it.” 

The statement — issued by many groups calling for a mandate for the first time — represents an increasingly tough stance by the medical and public health establishment amid the sluggish pace of national vaccinations. It comes as new cases rip through the nation, driven by the hyper-transmissible delta variant. Confirmed coronavirus infections have nearly quadrupled during July, from about 13,000 cases per day at the start of the month to more than 50,000 now, according to The Post’s tracking. Hospital leaders in states such as Alabama, Florida and Missouri have implored holdouts to get vaccinated, citing data that the shots prevent hospitalizations and even death. 

But many workers in the health field remain unvaccinated, despite having priority access to coronavirus vaccines, which first became available in December. More than 38 percent of nursing home staff were not fully vaccinated as of July 11, despite caring for patients at elevated risk from the coronavirus, according to data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and analyzed by LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit nursing homes and other providers of elder care. 

An analysis by WebMD and Medscape Medical News estimated that about 25 percent of hospital workers who had contact with patients had not been vaccinated by the end of May.

Indonesia reports record number of doctor deaths from COVID-19 in July

Via Reuters: Indonesia reports record number of doctor deaths from COVID-19 in July. Excerpt:

JAKARTA, July 18 (Reuters) - Deaths of doctors from COVID-19 in Indonesia rose sharply in the first half of July, according to the profession's association, as the Delta variant of the coronavirus fuelled a surge in infections across the country. 

A total of 114 doctors died during July 1-17, the highest number reported for any period of similar length and more than 20% of the 545 total doctor deaths from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, officials from Indonesia's doctors association (IDI) said during a virtual news conference. 

Mahesa Paranadipa, a senior IDI official, said the association was concerned that the medical system may not be able to cope, according to a recording of the event. 

"We are worried about the potential of a functional collapse," Paranadipa. "This is the reported data, not yet data that may not have been reported to us."

Doctors deaths have increased in Indonesia, the world's fourth most-populous nation, despite a 95% vaccination rate among health workers. This has prompted the government to use a batch of Moderna vaccines as booster shots to China's Sinovac for healthcare workers. 

Fuelled by the spread of the more virulent Delta variant, Indonesia has reported more new coronavirus cases than any country in the world in recent days, data from the latest seven-day average from a Reuters tracker showed. It was second only to Brazil in terms of the number of deaths. 

Health experts are calling the country the new epicentre of the pandemic. Indonesia reported 44,721 cases and 1,093 new deaths from the virus on Sunday.

Hundreds of vaccinated medical workers in Indonesia hospitalized

Via Medscape.com: Hundreds of Vaccinated Medical Workers in Indonesia Hospitalized. This could have serious implications for populations vaccinated with Sinovac.

More than 350 doctors and medical workers in Indonesia who received a Chinese-made COVID vaccine have tested positive for the virus, Reuters reported. 

Most are asymptomatic but dozens have been hospitalized with a high fever and other symptoms, Badai Ismoyo, head of the health office in the district of Kudus in central Java, told Reuters. 

Health care workers in Indonesia were among the first to be vaccinated. Almost all of them were given the vaccine developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac, the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) told Reuters. 

The number of infected medical workers raises questions about how well that vaccine works against the Delta variant, which is thought to be causing the recent surge in cases in Indonesia. 

"The data shows they have the Delta variant (in Kudus) so it is no surprise that the breakthrough infection is higher than before, because, as we know, the majority of healthcare workers in Indonesia got Sinovac, and we still don't know yet how effective it is in the real world against the Delta variant," Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist at Australia's Griffith University, told Reuters. 

The World Health Organization said the Sinovac vaccine prevented symptomatic disease in 51% of recipients and prevented severe COVID-19 and hospital stays, Reuters said. 

Last month, the WHO gave emergency authorization for the Sinovac vaccine, meaning it could be used in COVAX, the global vaccination program for low-income nations, Reuters said. 

The pandemic has hit Indonesia hard. The WHO says the nation of about 270 million people recorded more than 1.9 million infections and 53,000 deaths. Reuters said around 950 doctors and nurses have died in the pandemic. 

Reuters, citing health ministry data, reported that Indonesia recorded 12,624 new COVID infections on Thursday, the most since Jan. 30.

COVID-19 creates conditions for emergence of 'superfungus' in Brazil

Via medicalexpress.com, a FAPESP report: COVID-19 creates conditions for emergence of 'superfungus' in Brazil. Excerpt:

Fully occupied intensive care units (ICUs). Physically and mentally exhausted health workers. Chaotically overcrowded hospitals. These and similar problems posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil have created ideal conditions for the emergence of Candida auris, a microorganism some are calling a "superfungus" because of the speed with which it has developed drug resistance. 

The first two cases were confirmed in December 2020 at a hospital in Salvador (state of Bahia, Northeast Brazil), and are described in the Journal of Fungi by a group of researchers led by Arnaldo Colombo, head of the Special Mycology Laboratory at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). The study was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation—FAPESP. 

"Nine other C. auris patients have since been diagnosed at the same hospital, some colonized [with the fungus in their organism but not doing harm] and others infected," Colombo told. "No other cases have been reported in Brazil, but there are grounds for concern. We're monitoring the evolutionary characteristics of C. auris isolates from patients at the hospital in Salvador, and we've already found samples with reduced sensitivity to fluconazole and echinocandins. The latter belong to the main class of drugs used to treat invasive candidiasis." 

Except for C. auris, fungi of the genus Candida are part of the human gut microbiota and cause problems only when there are imbalances in the organism, Colombo explained. These include infections such as vaginal yeast infection and thrush (oral candidiasis), often caused by C. albicans. 

In some cases, however, the fungus enters the bloodstream and causes a systemic infection known as candidemia, the most common form of invasive candidiasis, similar to bacterial sepsis. Invasion of the bloodstream and the immune system's exacerbated response to the pathogen can cause damage to several organs and even lead to death. According to scientific evidence, mortality among candidemia patients infected by C. auris can reach 60%. 

"The species quickly becomes resistant to multiple drugs and isn't very sensitive to the disinfectants used by hospitals and clinics," Colombo said. "As a result, it's able to persist in hospitals, where it colonizes health workers and ends up infecting patients with severe COVID-19 and other long-stay critical patients."

‘It’s a little late’: US orders healthcare worker protections after thousands die

Via The Guardian: ‘It’s a little late’: US orders healthcare worker protections after thousands die. Excerpt:

US labor department officials on Thursday announced a temporary emergency standard to protect healthcare workers, saying they face “grave danger” in the workplace from the coronavirus pandemic. 

The new standard would require employers to remove workers who have Covid-19 from the workplace, notify workers of Covid exposure at work and strengthen requirements for employers to report worker deaths or hospitalizations to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha). 

“These are the workers who continue to go into work day in and day out to take care of us, to save our lives,” said Jim Frederick, acting assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. “And we must make sure we do everything in our power to return the favor to protect them.” 

The new rules are set to take effect immediately after publication in the Federal Register and are expected to affect about 10.3 million healthcare workers nationwide. 

The government’s statement of reasons for the new rules cites the work of KHN and the Guardian in tallying more than 3,600 healthcare worker Covid deaths through 8 April. Journalists documented far more deaths than the limited count by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which through May tallied 1,611 deaths on case-reporting forms that were often incomplete. 

The Lost on the Frontline project documented early calls for better respiratory protection for healthcare workers than loose-fitting face masks, noted serious complaints to Osha from hospital workers that went unaddressed and revealed repeated employer failures to report dozens of worker deaths. It also found that healthcare employers were often remiss in notifying workers about exposure to the coronavirus on the job. 

The new standard would address some of those problems.

50 doctors reported dead in 1 day from Covid-19 across India: Medical body

Via NDTV.com: 50 Doctors Reported Dead In 1 Day From Covid-19 Across India: Medical Body. And even that, as the end of the report suggests, is likely a severe undercount.

New Delhi: Anas Mujahid, 26, a junior Resident Doctor at Delhi's Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital  -- a dedicated Covid specialty -- died within hours of testing positive due to Covid. He is the youngest of 244 doctors who have lost their lives to Covid this year in India's second wave. Last year, 736 doctors had lost their lives during the first wave. A total of nearly 1,000 doctors across India have lost their lives due to Covid so far. 

Mujahid is survived by his parents and four siblings. 

A week has gone by, but his friend and colleague Dr Aamir Sohail is still struggling to come to terms with the loss. 

Mujahid had minor symptoms like sore throat and tested positive in an antigen test at the hospital. In a rare case of sudden progression, he collapsed soon after and died due to intracranial bleeding. He had not been vaccinated. 

"It was shocking. He had no comorbidity. His parents also told us that he has never faced any health issue. We just could not understand how it happened," Dr Aamir Sohail said. 

"He had not been vaccinated. Many colleagues here, including me, have not taken the jab. Our process of getting vaccinated while being on Covid duty, is long. We have to inform superiors and get their signature etc. He was planning to get the jab in the next few days." 

Dr Sohail added that he got infected last month and had moderate symptoms and is now doing fine. But he said it was hard to comprehend how his friend, who seemed perfectly fine hours ago, suddenly faced such severe issues and died. 

According to the Indian Medical Association, 244 doctors have lost their lives due to Covid in the second wave. Of them, 50 deaths were recorded yesterday. The highest number of fatalities have been reported from Bihar (69) followed by Uttar Pradesh (34) and Delhi (27). 

Only 3 per cent of these doctors were fully vaccinated. 

Five months into India's vaccination drive, only 66 per cent of India's healthcare workers have been fully vaccinated. The IMA said it is making all possible efforts to encourage doctors to take the jab. 

Dr Jayesh Lele, the General Secretary of IMA, told NDTV, "It is very unfortunate that we lost 50 doctors yesterday across India and 244 in the second wave since the first week of April". 

The IMA, he said, has found that many doctors have not taken the vaccine and the organisation will do everything it can to ensure that all doctors who are on the frontline take the jab. PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com 

"Secondly we want to highlight that doctors are understaffed and overworked. They sometimes work for 48 hours at a stretch without any rest. This adds to the viral load and they ultimately succumb to the infection. The government needs to take measures to boost the healthcare workforce," he added. 

While the IMA says that a thousand doctors have died due to Covid so far, the actual numbers may be far higher. The IMA only keeps a record of its nearly 3.5 lakh members. India, however, has more than 12 lakh doctors.

Outbreak Brief 4: Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak

Via Africa CDC and published on March 16: Outbreak Brief 4: Ebola virus disease (EVD) Outbreak.

Outbreak Update: Since the last brief (9 March 2021), one new probable case, two new deaths, and four new recoveries of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) and Guinea. Cumulatively, 30 EVD cases, 15 deaths (CFR: 50%), and eight recoveries have been reported from DR Congo (12 cases; 6 deaths; 2 recoveries) and Guinea (18; 9; 6). Seven healthcare workers are amongst the confirmed cases: DR Congo (2) and Guinea (5). 

● DR Congo updates: Since the last brief, one new probable case, one new death, and no new recoveries from EVD have been reported. Cumulatively, 12 cases (11 confirmed and 1 probable) with six deaths (CFR: 50%), and two recoveries have been reported. See Table 1 for the breakdown by health zone. 

● Guinea updates: Since the last brief, no new confirmed cases or deaths have been reported. However, four new recoveries have been reported in Nzérékoré. Cumulatively, 18 cases (14 confirmed, 4 probable), nine deaths (CFR: 50%), and six recoveries have been reported. See Table 1 for the breakdown by region and sub-prefecture. 

● Cross-border updates: Between 15 February to 12 March 2021, 18 EVD-related alerts were reported in Sierra Leone. All alerts were investigated and tested negative for EVD by PCR. As of today no confirmed case has been reported from Sierra Leone.