Covid-19 and healthcare's guerrilla warfare

‘Since the Peninsular War in the early 1800s we have recognised guerrillas – the Viet Cong, the Tamil Tigers, and recently, the Taliban – frustrate and humiliate larger forces by discretely invading territories, co-opting locals and being seemingly resistant to traditional warfare offensives. Equally, our public health institutes, gleaming hospital buildings, expensive diagnostic machines, a legion of administrators and medical personnel have been humbled (and humiliated) by this virus. Our fragmented healthcare industry is now united by a microscopic organism, as competing systems share laboratory testing and treatment protocols while hospital leadership cross battle lines to share guarded patient census and drug availability information.’

This is a most personal and touching account by a doctor on the frontline in the US. Dr Avinesh S Bhar, now in Georgia, grew up in Kuala Lumpur.

Read here (SLIIP, April 9, 2020)

White House airlifts medical supplies from China amid Covid-19 crisis: 22 planeloads scheduled

‘A commercial aircraft carrying 80 tons of gloves, masks, gowns and other medical supplies from Shanghai touched down in New York on Sunday, the first of 22 scheduled flights that White House officials say will funnel much-needed goods to the United States by early April as it battles the world’s largest coronavirus outbreak.

‘The plane delivered 130,000 N95 masks, 1.8 million face masks and gowns, 10 million gloves and thousands of thermometers for distribution to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, said Lizzie Litzow, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Ms. Litzow said that flights would be arriving in Chicago on Monday and in Ohio on Tuesday, and that supplies would be sent from there to other states using private-sector distribution networks.

‘While the goods that arrived in New York on Sunday will be welcomed by hospitals and health care workers — some of whom have resorted to rationing protective gear or using homemade supplies — they represent just a tiny portion of what American hospitals need. The Department of Health and Human Services has estimated that the United States will require 3.5 billion masks if the pandemic lasts a year.’

Read here (New York Times, March 30, 2020)

Coronavirus: Don’t politicise medical supply problems, China says

‘China has urged countries not to “politicise” concerns about the quality of medical supplies after some countries in Europe reported defective products sourced from China. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Monday, March 30, that an objective approach was needed to solve the problems.’

Countries affected include Slovakia, the Netherlands, Spain and the Philippines.

Read here (South China Morning Post, March 30, 2020)

Approved: System to decontaminate N95 masks and allow reuse -- as many as 20 times

‘A system to decontaminate N95 masks to allow healthcare workers to safely reuse them -- as many as 20 times -- has been approved by the US FDA. It uses hydrogen peroxide vapour to “destroy bacteria, viruses and other contaminants, including... SARS-CoV-2,” and it can process up to 80,000 masks per day.’

Note: This is interesting. If the principle of decontamination and re-use is acceptable, what other ways can we use to recycle personal protection equipment (PPEs) especially in poor countries?

Read here (Politico, March 29, 2020)