Ventilator Shortage if Avian Flu Hits

Stevo

Stevo

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only read the CDC's take on it Jamie

and their repeated public warnings of a pandemic

as well as the current administrations response to this here

my Q would be, can WHO & the CDC identify (the subtype) and thus manufacture enough vaccine in time for a pandemic?
“The current method of generating human influenza vaccines is perfectly acceptable for our normal influenza seasons,” Pekosz said. “But if we talk about a pandemic influenza virus, in a best-case scenario we have a year’s notice, in a worst-case scenario we have a couple weeks’ notice.”

In that worst-case scenario, he added, “the current way of making influenza vaccine will not work when applied to a pandemic influenza.”
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and can ems get a dose first?

~S~

btw~we've gotta be registered to view the NYT article, perhaps you could copy/paste the relevant passages
 
Jon

Jon

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I don't fully buy in to the numbers:
Right now, there are 105,000 ventilators, and even during a regular flu season, about 100,000 are in use. In a worst-case human pandemic, according to the national preparedness plan issued by President Bush in November, the country would need as many as 742,500.
Click to expand...
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I think there are more "free" vents than that.... Has anyone ever heard of their hospital "running out" of vents???

Also, there are disposible vents out there that need nothing but compressed air to run. I think they are less than $40 a peice.
 
OP
OP
podmedic@mac.com

podmedic@mac.com

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Actually, I have heard of a hospital running out of vents. I work in an ED in a small rural hospital. We actually had to contact an ALS/Critical care transport unit that runs in our area when our last vent went down to a mechanical failure. I had to help the Resp. Therapist bag the guy until the crew of that unit brought us a portable vent to use until the other could be repaired or replaced.

I sorry the link didn't work. Here's an excerpt:

"No one knows whether an avian flu virus that is racing around the world might mutate into a strain that could cause a human pandemic, or whether such a pandemic would cause widespread illness in the United States. But if it did, public health experts and officials agree on one thing: the nation's hospitals would not have enough ventilators, the machines that pump oxygen into sick patients' lungs."

"Right now, there are 105,000 ventilators, and even during a regular flu season, about 100,000 are in use. In a worst-case human pandemic, according to the national preparedness plan issued by President Bush in November, the country would need as many as 742,500."

Try this link
 
Jon

Jon

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Many larger hospitals have vents out the wazoo...

Also, you can always use an anestheia machine. They are vents, too.

Many hospitals have transport vents, or there are "spare" transport vents in various holding areas or CT/MRI/X-ray.

Although, I can see a smaller hospital having a bad day and being short a vent. I've seen us run out of vents in the ER and have to get another from biomed.

My -P school has 2 old vents, that haven't been properly serviced in years.... they could probably be pressed into service if needed. Also, We are the large hosptial in the city that is furthest from "center city" - we have a stockpile of spare equipment, including vents... in a mothballed hospital now used for administation.

Jon
 
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